Date: June 29, 1926
Location: Washington, DC
(Original document available here)
No final decision has been made about the three new Assistant Secretaries that it is expected would give special attention to aviation in the War, Navy, and Commerce Departments. Several men have been under consideration and are being considered. It is necessary to make quite a good many inquiries of men that are going to undertake what is in a way a new function of this kind. They need to have had some experience in aviation or the building of planes, in administration or scientific studies of aviation. I don’t suppose we can find men for all three places that have a combination of all of those qualification, but any man that is chosen ought to have had some of the experience that would render him qualified in some of these particulars.
I doubt very much if I can express any opinion about proposed amendments to the Fess bill. I shouldn’t want to make any decision about any amendment unless l had an opportunity to confer with Senator Fess, so that l think I ought to leave the matter of amendments pretty entirely to his judgment.
I don’t think there is any danger of any complications arising that would prevent my going to Philadelphia on Monday. That is a legal holiday. While sometimes the Congress sits on holidays, I understand it is the plan to adjourn over from Saturday until Tuesday, so that there wouldn’t be any difficulty arising in that direction. I can’t conceive of anything that could arise that would prevent my filling my engagement. I think that plans are pretty well worked out to leave here about 7:00 in the morning – though I don’t care to have it published, I tell it to you in case any of you are going, I suppose some of you will go on the train – and reach Philadelphia about 10:00 standard time, 11:00 daylight saving time, then some parade takes place up there, I make some tour of inspection around the grounds in an automobile, then I am to deliver my address. The Mayor is having a small lunch which I hope will enthuse the newspapermen.- I don’t know about that – after which I am going over the Camden Bridge. I think there is an areaway at the end of the bridge where the Mayor and some of the city officials of Camden are going to gather to greet me. On my way over there I expect to stop at Independence Hall and some church, is it –
Mr. Sanders: Christ Church.
President: Yes, Christ Church, that being associated with Independence Day. And after that I shall return.
There wasn’t anything of major importance that developed at the Cabinet meeting this morning. The Postmaster General had some interesting figures showing the development of the air mail. It seems to be increasing in its business and is running very well in efficiency. I think the route between New York and Chicago for the month of May showed flights that came up to over 99%, that is over 99% of the flights that were laid out were carried out. That was a very good record. Over some of the other country it wasn’t so good on account of very heavy fogs that prevail, covering almost the entire country from the east to the west coast. But notwithstanding that, the percentage of flights was very high.
Here is a very interesting suggestion inquiring whether I expect to do any fishing this summer. I am told that there is an opportunity to do fishing in the lake that borders on White Pine Camp and in the river that runs out of it. This perhaps might be a good time on account of this question to set the conference right on a misinterpretation that was made of some remarks that I made in response to an inquiry about fishing down here in the Basin. What I supposed I said was that I thought the Basin might be adaptable to the use of some of the young folks in Washington that might like to fish there, but I din’t think it would be attractive to the grownups who usually wanted to go afield somewhere and engage in that kind of sport. It was reported that I thought that fishing was not a sport appropriate for grown men, which wasn’t at all what I had meant. What I had in mind was that I know some of the members of my Cabinet go to Florida to fish. Some of the members of the Supreme Court have been engaged in a sport of that kind. So I was quite surprised when I read that I thought grown men didn’t care to go fishing. I hope that the report that went out didn’t do any injury to the fishing tackle industry. I am going to depend on the members of the press that fish to go out and locate the best grounds that are within striking distance of White Pine Camp and hope that they will be willing to reveal anything that they find from time to time. I haven’t had an opportunity to do very much fishing of late years. I used to enjoy it very much in my younger days. Perhaps I can take it up again, though it hadn’t occurred to me until the ingenious inquiry was made on which I have just spoken to you.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper Correspondents
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