Date: May 10, 1927
Location: Washington, D.C.
(Original document available here)
I am not sure whether I shall go down to Norfolk to review the fleet. I would like to go and mean to go if I can find the time.
I have directed Mr. Mellon, although perhaps it had already been done, to notify the Coast Guard vessels – we have quite a good many of them out on stations in the North Atlantic, where they go at this time of the year to keep track of icebergs – to do what they can towards searching for the French fliers. The Secretary of the Navy doesn’t think that we could get naval vessels out there in time to stand much chance of rendering any service. But we have the coast guard out there. There are a number of those vessels. They are in that locality and they will be on the look-out.
I haven’t had any word from Colonel Starling since he went away.
I had understood that the Naval Limitations Conference would confer in Geneva about the 20th of June. Whether the parties have finally agreed on that date and place, I am not certain, but I have expected that that he would be the place and that would be the date.
I think there is a petition for executive clemency for Earl Carroll pending in the Department of Justice. It hasn’t come to me.
The French Government has not made any request for aid in search of the aviators. This, by the way, was not a French Government enterprise, but was a private enterprise engaged in by these two men and their supporters, so that I don’t know that it is to be expected that the French Government would make any request of us for aid.
One or two people have spoken to me about closing several — about the proposal to close several land offices – and I have referred them all to the Department of the Interior. Whether the Department is getting any additional information that would lead them to make any different recommendation to me than that which they have already made, I don’t know.
I never heard any suggestion about closing the Panama Canal for repairs. That is one of those reports that would be right 99 times out of 100 if you deny it. I suppose sometimes the Canal may be closed for a few hours on account of some thing or another, but I think that is unusual and ray las t reports were that the Canal was in excellent shape. I am very sure that there is no suggestion emanating from any Government quarters for the closing of it for repairs.
I haven’t any information about the appointment of a Prohibition Commissioner, other than what has already appeared in the press. The duty of making that appointment is reposed in the Secretary of the Treasury. I know that he is conferring with different people to get their opinion about it, has some more conferences on it, and I think he has not come to any decision.
The Country is making very good response to the appeal of the Red Cross to furnish money for the relief of those that are suffering on account of the flood, but the area of the flood keeps increasing so that the Red Cross will certainly need all the money that it can secure. I would like to emphasize the continuing need for relief and my appreciation of the response the Country is making.
Nothing has been done about the appointment of any further judges. The Attorney General’s wife is very critically ill and he has been with her for a week or so. I don’t know just when he will return. I think he is likely to return almost any time.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper Correspondents
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