Date: July 4, 1930
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
After a session of about fifteen months the Congress has finally adjourned.
It will be subjected to considerable criticism which will be largely useless. With the direct primaries in most states and the popular election of Senators, the present perversion of legislation is unavoidable. But the Congress has much of accomplishment. It has reduced taxes, revised the tariff, extended the public building program, made liberal appropriations for highways, adopted a rather ambitious river and harbor bill, and passed a farm relief measure which still is in the experimental stage but can be made helpful. Prohibition enforcement has been reorganized and a commission appointed to study the general subject of crime prevention.
Even those who criticize its decisions must admit that the record of the House has been dignified and businesslike. It is regaining its former prestige. The work of the Senate, with all the ability of its members, has been too much impaired by a petty spirit of factionalism and obstruction. The expenditure of money has been too large. Often a combination of Senators destroyed party responsibility without substituting any of the virtue of independence. The resulting loss to good government could only by retrieved in part by the House and the President.
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.