Date: February 5, 1926
Location: Washington, DC
(Original document available here)
I don’t know of anything that is being done by the Washington authorities relative to the officers and crew of the President Roosevelt for rescuing the British freighter Antinoe. They have been honored by the British Government. Whether that would be considered sufficient I am not certain, as it was a service rendered to the British. Perhaps it would be thought sufficient that the British should make proper recognition of it. I have no doubt that the Department of Commerce will consider it to see whether anything ought to be done here.
There isn’t any new development in relation to the Arms Preliminary Conference.
I have no information except that which I have secured from the press relative to the investigation of the price s of coal in the District. I judge it is being adequately cared for and that an investigation will determine whether the prices are fair or not.
Representative Lehlbach came in to see me the other day about the retirement bill and advises me that he is waiting until some report of an investigation which is going on is made before a final tax determination in relation to it. I don’t think anything was said about legislation abolishing the Personnel Classification Board. It is true that I should look with favor on a moderate raise in the amount that is paid to the employees on their retirement.
I don’t know about the resolution in the Congress relative to the investigation of the butter tariff. There were some investigations started at a time when pretty large importations of four to eight million pounds from Denmark were coming in. Those have almost entirely dwindled away until now I think the importations are down to 400,000 pounds from that source which has made necessary the shifting of the place of the investigations to find what was the chief competing market. I think there are now a large number of very small importations that trickle in over the northern border from Canada, and it is very difficult to ascertain costs in those cases of production abroad, and as they come in in small quantities it is difficult to see what effect, if any, they have on the market. When large amounts came in to one market, like New York, it was more easy to see what results were. Now importations come in from New Zealand, so it is necessary to broaden out the inquiry, which is made difficult on account of its extension.
I have here a statement about a bill authorizing a Federal appropriation for $4,186,500 for the Federal participation in the Sesquicentennial. That is larger than I thought any one had proposed. I had some talk with Representative Vare about it and understood that $2,500,000 would be enough to cover everything. I am not quite certain of course whether this is an appropriation. If it is reported from the committee on Industrial Arts and Expositions it isn’t an appropriation. It is an authorization, which is quite different. The authorization might be for any sum. The outside sum would naturally be put in, and afterwards as it developed an appropriation would be made for the carrying out of the authorization. I haven’t known exactly what amount ought to be appropriated. It has been left to the national commission headed by Secretary Hoover, and I know he thought it was necessary to have about $500,000 to make provision for the necessary space that the Departments would use for exhibition purposes. How much it is going to cost for the Army and Navy to participate, I don’t know. In all the conversations I understood arrangements had been made that the Army and Navy were not to make any expenditures, that they were to be borne by the Exposition. $4,000,000 is quite a little more than I had thought was going to be necessary. So far as I have information now, it is more than I care to approve. I may have additional information in the future that will lead me to approve that amount, but of the things that have been presented to me there haven’t yet been given me adequate reasons for expending that amount. Now, they may have enlarged the Exhibition in some way as to make that necessary, but I understood that $2,500,000 was the outside.
There isn’t any new development in the coal situation .
I haven’t any very definite information about the location of a hospital to accommodate Mass,, Maine, N.H. and Vermont veterans. I understood it was to be located within fifteen miles of Boston. I haven’t any choice about it, nor any location that I desire to put forward. The process in those things is for the Hospitalization Board to study the situation and make a recommendation to me. I am very solicitous however that the hospital should be located in a place that will seem to the veterans around Boston to accommodate them. That is the largest center of the veteran population that is in the District and if they are taken care of why the large center will be taken care of, and of course if it is a matter of a long distance to travel it doesn’t make very much difference whether the start is made from Burlington Vt. or Bar Harbor. I t makes very little difference when you get 15 miles or 40 miles from Boston, but those that are right in Boston I want to have very much pleased with the location of the hospital. That is the largest number and the largest element.
I have already spoken about the Sesquicentennial.
I have already spoken about the President Roosevelt.
I have been very much pleased with the progress of legislation in the Congress. The House very quickly passed several bills that were important, chief of which of course is the tax bill. The Senate has taken final action on the Court proposition and is rapidly nearing final action, so far as it is concerned, in this preliminary stage, on the tax bill. What I have been gratified about is the businesslike way in which both of those proposals have been treated and the absence of partisanship. The Senate seems to realize that in foreign affairs there ought to be no partisanship, and in a business matter like taxation there wasn’t much room for partisanship. Both parties in the House, both parties in the Senate, have cooperated very effectively to bring both of these questions to a speedy conclusion. It shows that the businesslike attitude on the part of Congress is exceedingly gratifying to me and it must be gratifying to the country.
Press: Did cloture have anything to do with it, Mr. President?
President: The cloture of course speeded up the action on the World Court.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper Correspondents
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Robert Manchester who prepared this document for digital publication.