Date: February 10, 1931
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
Recent news from Europe is of an encouraging nature. After being suspended for several years the freedom of the press and other constitutional rights have now been restored in Spain and general parliamentary elections have been ordered. Instead of trial by battle and reform by revolution the peaceful methods of representative government are being adopted.
The well wishers of the German people also have seen their faith justified by the support which Chancellor Bruening is receiving in the Reichstag. It is silencing Germany’s critics and strengthening the hands of her friends. Opposition is less in France to extending German credits and continuing a friendly policy. These developments increase the possibility of a naval agreement between France and Italy.
The people of the world have a reserve moral power which cannot be ignored in estimating the action they will take in emergencies. Before we conclude that the orderly processes of governments are to be entirely broken down, that the business of the world is prostrated beyond recovery, it is necessary to consider this recuperative power of the people themselves. This great constructive force has no known limits. Silently and almost imperceptibly it moves, forever on the side of right.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge Says: Dispatches Written by Former-President Coolidge and Syndicated to Newspapers in 1930-1931 (Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation)
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Robert Manchester who prepared this document for digital publication.