Date: June 23, 1925
Location: Washington, D.C.
(Original document available here)
I don’t know as I can say very much about my vacation. I expect to spend a considerable part of it trying to amuse the newspapermen (laughter). There is a friend of mine who lives in Lynn that is a large newspaper distributor, Ralph Bauer, who is going to have some kind of an Essex County Newspaper Men’s gathering at his place in Amesbury, that I shall take the liberty of suggesting being increased by inviting all the out of town newspaper correspondents that happen to be attending on the President. I think you would like to go up there. He has a farm and it is a very interesting place, not very far from the residence of Whittier, if you would like to look at his old home where he wrote Snowbound. You better get a copy of Whittier and read Snowbound before you go there. It is a fine piece of work and it is the piece that brought Whittier into prominent notice. You will see there the old home in which he was living the time that the theme of Snowbound took place. Of course I am not going up to Massachusetts with the expectation of getting a vacation. There Isn’t really a vacation for the Presidential office. I shall have to do the same work about that I am doing here, but I am going up to get a change of atmosphere and not be obliged to stay in Washington the entire year, because staying here is rather a draft on your vitality if you stay the whole summer. It is a very good plan to get away and get that change that will come from going to Swampscott where the temperature will be cooler, so on and so forth.
I haven’t given any thought to the appointment of a new Vice Chairman for the Tariff Commission. That ought to be done very soon. I don’t know what the Shipping Board is going to do about my suggestion. I have had a communication, I think from the Chairman, saying he was out of town and several of the Board were out of town, and as soon as they could get back to town they would attend to id. I am quite desirous that they should put that suggestion into execution. So far as I know, I can see no reason why it shouldn’t be done. I don’t mean that as a diminution of the powers and duties of the Shipping Board, but I am making that suggestion because of the great difficulty of negotiating with a Board of 7 members. Of course it isn’t any desire to take away from them the duties that they have under the law of selling ships, but it is a suggestion to them as to the method that they ought to employ.
I haven’t any explicit plans for making studies of possible legislative programs. Of course that is going on all the time, considering what might come up that would cause me to make certain recommendations to the Congress. I don’t know of any developments in regard to the C. M. & St. P. Railroad. If there were developments it would be quite unusual that they should come to the attention of the Executive.
The President spoke to a member of the conference and was replied to as follows:
The President: Are you taking down in shorthand what I say:
Answer: Yes sir.
The President: Now I don’t think that is right. I don’t think that is the proper thing to do. Who do you represent?
Answer: David Lawrence.
The President: Well, I wish you would tell Mr. Lawrence that I don’t think it is the right thing to do. I will see to that myself.
I haven’t made a final decision about going to the Conference at Poland Springs. I want to go up there but I think it is quite doubtful whether I will be able to go.
I haven’t made any decision about the request of Rear Admiral Robison to retire. I have been guided very largely in that by what counsel for the Government, Mr. Roberts and Mr. Pomerene, might say would be the effect on the work they are trying to do.
I don’t know of course just what will be done about reappointing Dist. Attorney Peyton Gordon. It is my expectation that he will be reappointed, but when I am making that statement it is always with the further statement that I do not think I ought to make promises absolutely in advance of what the Presidential office may do.
I expect to make routine appointments at Swampscott the same as they would be made here in Washington.
Here is a little announcement that Miss Laura Harlan will retire from her position as Social Secretary at the White House at the beginning of the next season, and the management of the formal offi social occasions at the White House will be placed in the hands of some man attached to the State Department. It is expected that Miss Mary Randolph will continue as the personal secretary of Mrs. Coolidge at the White House and no changes are anticipated there before autumn.
The President addressing the representative of David Lawrence said:
I don’t object to you taking notes as to what I say, but I don’t quite throw my communications to the conference into anything like finished style or anything that perhaps would naturally be associated with a Presidential utterance. It would interfere with me very much if I understood that it is to be taken down in shorthand here and then used outside for such purposes as any one might want to use them. What I say here is not to be taken down in shorthand other than that which is taken down by my stenographer for my purposes. Otherwise it greatly interferes with my freedom of expression and my trying to disclose to the Conference the things that I have in mind, which quite naturally, if they were to be used verbatim, I would want to give considerable thought to and perhaps throw into a little different form of language.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper CorrespondentsÂ
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Ann Hunyadi who prepared this document for digital publication.