This week marks the 90th anniversary of the sad and untimely death of Calvin Coolidge, Jr., President Calvin Coolidge’s younger son. The general story is well-known: while playing lawn tennis with his brother on the White House grounds, sixteen-year-old Calvin, Jr. developed a blister atop the third toe of his right foot. Before long, the boy began to feel ill and ran a fever. Signs of a blood infection appeared, but despite doctors’ best efforts, young Calvin, Jr. was dead within a week.

A fundamental aspect of Calvin Coolidge’s philosophy was his refusal to separate economics from morality. He saw them as one and the same. This was especially true during Coolidge’s presidency. In a speech delivered to the Federation of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York he said that he regarded “a good budget as among the noblest monuments of virtue.”