Date: March 8, 1927
Location: Washington, D.C.
(Original document available here)
While I think it is true that no funds have been specifically provided for the salaries for the additional judges, I am told by the Attorney General that that probably can be adjusted some way. I haven’t been into details with him, so I don’t know just how it would be done.
I haven’t given any consideration to the appointment of a United States District Attorney for the southern district of New York to succeed Mr. Buckner. In fact, I didn’t know he had resigned. I doubt if he has resigned. I have some communications here on my desk that I haven’t been over this morning. I don’t know of any resignation that has come from him, though I saw that he stated in the course of some trial in New York that he had in contemplation the matter of his resignation. That is the only information I have about it.
I do not think Mr. Mellon has selected a Commissioner to head the new Prohibition Bureau. The authority to make the appointment has been lodged in the Secretary of the Treasury. It is not lodged in me. So that he will make it.
I have talked with the Attorney General some about the matter of making further judicial appointments. I think there are 7 judges provided for that have not been appointed. There was one appointed in Pennsylvania. The Attorney General told me there were 7 more which, on account of lack of time, he was not able to make recommendations upon. I don’t know just when those appointments will be made. Unless there is urgency about them, I prefer to make appointments that will be confirmed by the Senate before the judges begin to sit. That isn’t always possible. Where it is possible, I should want to pursue that course. Where there is some urgency about it, why the appointments will be made.
I think it will be possible to work out the control and regulation of the radio broadcasting by the ordinary means provided by law. There are funds appropriated for radio regulation which probably can be applied for that purpose.
We have made some informal inquiries of the British and Japanese authorities relative to what might be accomplished at a 3-power arms limitation conference. That will be carefully canvassed and if it appears that it is possible to hold a conference of that kind with prospect of some practical result, that is what we want to do. Perhaps the press put a little too much emphasis the other day on what I said in relation to it, that it didn’t seem practical. What I intended to indicate was that i t didn’t seem as practical to secure results from a 3-power conference as it would from a 5-power conference, but of course that question will be carefully investigated to see what it is possible to do, and if it appears at all feasible we shall go ahead and try to hold such a conference. The responses so far as they have been made, they are tentative, lead us to think that some action in that direction would be promising.
It isn’t intended to incur any deficiency for the carrying on of the business of the Government, other than those that are authorized by law. There are some provisions of the law that authorize deficiencies in certain departments and for certain purposes. Some of those may have to be taken advantage of, but I think very few. There is a provision, for instance, that the food for the Army may be supplied even though it incurs a deficiency. I think there is a provision that a deficiency may be incurred for supplying fuel to the Navy. I do not think it is going to be necessary to use either of those things. I simply refer to them as examples of general law which provide for the incurring of a deficiency in the case of necessity. General Lord is working with his department to see what rearrangements will have to be made. The matter is being canvassed, of course, with the Comptroller General and with the various Departments. I think that with very little inconvenience we can carry on the necessary business of the Government for the remainder of this year without incurring a deficiency. As I said at the outset, it isn’t proposed to incur any deficiency that is not authorized by law to be incurred.
I haven’t made any decision about where I shall spend the summer. As I have already indicated, I had in mind seeing if I could find a place in the West. That is rather an indefinite statement and it depends upon where you live as to what you regard the West. I have suggestions coming all the way from Michigan to Utah. I do not wish to get too far away, but I want to go far enough into the West where I shall have some elevation in order to get a place that would be comfortably cool.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper Correspondents
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