Date: November 16, 1928
Location: Washington, D.C.
(Original document available here)
I haven’t seen any report of a suggestion that it is said here was made in the House of Lords yesterday proposing an English-American mutual arms limitation. It doesn’t occur to me offhand that that would he feasible. Of course, our country would consider any suggestion that the responsible authorities of the British Government wanted to submit to us.
Nor have I seen the speech of Premier Poncaire made in the Chamber of Deputies concerning reparations and debts, and even if I had seen it I don’t think I would think anything could be gained by public comment relative to it. If there are matters in which the United States is interested, we can take them up and dispose of them much better through the usual diplomatic channels than we can by undertaking to discuss them in the press.
I am working on my Message to the Congress. I have made some progress on it. There isn’t very much legislation, so far as I have been able to discover, that is exceedingly pressing that is new. We have some of the old problems that have been left over from the various messages that I have sent in before and such surveys of the country as I have received from reports of various departments indicate that the country is in very good shape. I want to get the Message done so that it can be early in the hands of the press and that leads me to make a suggestion that is born of my past experience, that the advance copies that are given out are given out exclusively for the use of the press. But each year they turn up in the hands of the people that are in no wise connected with the press like legislative agents in Washington, brokerage offices in different cities, so that I think the news reporters or news agents to whom my message is to be given here for press release ought to warn people to whom they may send it that it is exclusively for newspaper use and not for general distribution before it is presented to the Congress. It is almost a slight on Congress to have a message generally distributed promiscuously around the country before it goes to the Congress itself. For the purpose of assisting the news distribution we make these early deliveries of the message. I hope this year it can be kept confined exclusively to news services and not fall into the hands of others.
I think I spoke at the last conference about spending Thanksgiving season at Swanannoa. Mr. and Mrs. Stearns will accompany us. I think they will be in Washington at that time. Mr. Stearns is returning to Boston for a few days tonight, but he will be back before I leave here for the Thanksgiving holiday.
I have received quite a good many comments from people in this country on the address I made on Armistice Day. It was exceedingly well received and apparently was helpful in clarifying the public mind on the questions that I discussed.
Question : Could you say if you have received the Boulder Dam report yet?
President: No, I haven’t received it yet and my information is that it won’t be completed until about the time Congress convenes. I am expecting to receive some suggestions as to the probable tenor of it which might assist me in formulating my program in my message. But I am certain that the completed draft of the report will not be ready before about the time Congress comes in.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper Correspondents
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