Date: January 22, 1929
Location: Washington, D.C.
(Original document available here)
I am advised that there is a proposal on foot to celebrate at Kansas City the 75th anniversary of the Republican Party. I think there are several places that claim to be the birthplace of the party, one in Michigan, I think Jackson, and one in Wisconsin, Ripon. But I believe that while they don’t agree on the place they agree on the year. Of course, they don’t agree on the exact date. Without undertaking to determine – perhaps it couldn’t very well be determined just where the party first came into existence, I would of course look with approval on a suggestion to celebrate the anniversary of the party, especially the 75th anniversary.
I haven’t had any report for some time from the Budget or the Treasury relative to the prospects of a surplus on the 30th of June, next. It is represented to me here that there is a deficit thus far of $375,000,000. I imagine that that comes about by reason of our expenditures for the half year and for the reason that the income that is to be paid in on the 15th of March and the 15th of June has not yet been received. You see, there will be a very large income coming in on the 15th of June and the expenditures of that would only go on to the 15 days, so that it would be quite natural that at this time or at any time as you are approaching the season for a quarterly payment that you would have a deficit which would be wiped out when the quarterly payment comes in. I expect it will be possible, of course, to finish the year without any deficit, and I shall make every effort to leave the Treasury in such condition when I go out of office that that can be accomplished. I shall take into consideration that fact in approving appropriations to be made and bills that call for additional payments of money during the present fiscal year. But it is true that the margin is very small and great care will have to be exercised in order to prevent a deficit at the end of this year, the 30th of next June.
I haven’t reached any final conclusion about the membership of the Radio Commission. I knew that their terms expire the latter part of next month. There is only one member of the Commission, and that is Mr. Caldwell, who has indicated he wishes to retire. I assume that the others would be willing to remain on the Commission, especially because their active duties would cease and, as I understand it, they would only be called into session to determine some specific question.
And it is never possible to make much of a determination in advance of what the action of the Senate will be relative to the time of securing a vote on any question that is pending there. Oftentimes it looks as though there would be a long debate and it is determined within an hour. Sometimes it is apparent that a vote will be reached very soon and something comes up that makes the question drag along for weeks. But the Senate has a way of reaching a vote when it wants to and I have no doubt that that will be the result on the cruiser bill. It looked at one time, you will recall, as though there might be a very extended debate on the peace treaty, but all at once the Senate agreed and were able to take a vote on it. Very likely, the same result will occur in relation to the cruiser bill.
If any one wants to pursue the matter of the origin of the Republican Party, I think they might get some information from the Encyclopedia Americana.
I don’t recall that I made any recommendation about radio legislation, in my Message, to go back to that, and so I am not pressing for legislation of that kind now. I do think, though, that it might be well to extend for another year the administrative functions of the Federal Radio Commission, but that is entirely an offhand opinion. It is not a question concerning which I have any more definite information than most of the members of the Conference.
It is very doubtful if I could go to Vincennes, Indiana, on the 25th of February to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the capture of Fort Sackville by General George Rogers Clarke. I have been interested in that celebration and recommended to the Congress an appropriation for it, which was adopted.
I haven’t come to any final decision about the vacancy on the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, but the vacancy ought to be filled, and I am going to take it up with the Department of Justice to see if a final settlement of it can not be reached.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper Correspondents
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