Date: August 5, 1925
Context: John arrived at Camp Devens for the Citizens’ Military Training Camp on August 1. In an August 27 piece in the Boston Daily Globe, John was asked, “just why [he] got interested enough in the military game to give up the best month of his short summer vacation. He gave the secret away when he said, ‘You’d better ask my father.’”
My dear John:-
You are going to decide about now whether you will amount to anything. Whether you will be a creature with all the weaknesses of a woman with none of her graces or whether you will really grow up to be a man. You will make this decision for the most part by determining whether you will work or loaf. You can’t change yourself in a day, you may think making due is good but in a short time it will tell. You will have to decide soon. A year from now will be too late. The world will pass on and leave you and you will see many boys that you do not think are very smart going right by you and leaving you behind to be ignored, pitied and despised. You will have to make this decision yourself. No one can make it for you. But unless you work I do not propose to pay out money to let you idle around in college.
Your father
Calvin Coolidge
Citation: Coolidge Family Papers, Vermont Historical Society
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The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Richard Link, who prepared this document for digital publication