Date: November 24, 1925
Location: Washington D.C.
(Original document available here)
I have two or three inquiries about the Gerald Chapman case. That is pending in the courts, I think of both the United States and the State of Connecticut, so that in accordance with my custom I don’t think I had better comment about it other than to say that of course I shall be disposed to follow any advice that the Department of Justice gave me. Such statements as can be made in relation to it ought to be made by the Department.
I haven’t received the reports of the two minority members of the Muscle Shoals Commission. I rather expect when I do receive them that I shall make public the majority and the minority reports. In fact, I am holding the majority report so that if the minority want to make any report to me it can be made public at the same time. And that would be prior to their transmission to the Congress. I have forgotten the form of the resolution, whether it directed me to transmit to the Congress, but I shall transmit them.
I haven’t under consideration any out of town speaking engagements except my trip to the annual meeting of the Farm Bureau at Chicago. I don’t like to go out of town speaking. I have to some, but when Congress is in session I especially find a good deal of difficulty in getting time to prepare an address and go away and deliver it.
I haven’t any reports from my father other than those which have already been made public. I understand that he has sometimes a momentary spasm that Dr. Coupal thought comes from the arteries or veins of the brain. He didn’t think it was primarily trouble with the heart, because they are only momentary and their recovery is complete and immediate, without seeming to be followed by that exhaustion and shortness of breath that usually follows any heart difficulty that produces the same effect. I am in hopes that he will come down to Washington. I thought from what he said that he had that in mind. He has never been able to conclude that his work is in such condition up there that he is quite ready to come. Of course he has always lived in that locality, all his life, and is very much attached to it and very likely the thought of staying away from it for any great length of time is not one that fills him with content. Of course I want him to come down here if he can, because I think we can make him more comfortable here, but I don’t want him to come unless he would fee l contented.
I have several inquiries about John L. Lewis’ communication to me. I had Mr. Lewis notified that I received his letter and that I would take under consideration the contents of it and make some reply about it as soon as I can arrive at a conclusion.
Mr. President: May I ask in that connection if the matter was discussed at the Cabinet meeting this morning?
President: No.
I think the Tacna-Arica situation is proceeding in a fairly promising way. There have been difficulties of one kind or another, as I understand it, but I think they will all be met and a plebecite be taken.
I haven’t any special plans for Thanksgiving Day. I have three or four live turkeys in reserve, and one or two that have been dressed. This is not an advertisement for further contributions. Whether there are any others in the offing, I am not quite certain. The public is always very generous with their efforts to supply the President’s table at Thanksgiving and Christmas, so that my embarrassment usually is one of riches and knowing what to do to dispose of what is sent in, and not of how to get in more.
I will give out as soon as I can my message and my address at Chicago. My thought is that the message will probably come out first, as that would be more desirable to have a general distribution. The Chicago address would not be printed in full, I anticipate, in very many of the papers, while practically all the papers I think carry the annual message. I will get it to you as soon as I can. I think it will be five or six days before its delivery.
I don’t know that it would be quite correct to say I have accepted the recommendations of the Dalton report. What I would say about it is that they are in harmony with all of the views that have been expressed to me since I have been President in such investigations as I have had made, and I have had several made in relation to the proper method of transacting our shipping business.
I have three or four inquiries here that I shall probably touch on in my message. Here is one about waterways. I suppose any one would know that in all probability I will say something about that, and I do expect to say something about that. I don’t care to make any publication about what is going to be in my message.
I hardly know how to comment in a way that would give you anything of interest about the request made by Senator Norris for a list of the Americans that have been decorated abroad. I don’t know whether the State Department has any such list. It doesn’t occur to me offhand that they would have, though it is possible that they might secure it from French authorities. Those decorations were made substantially all of them as friendly gestures of appreciation during the War and immediately after its conclusion. I could hardly expect that any one who had received one would consider himself as beholden on any future question in any way, but that it was merely a recognition of what was thought to be past appropriate services.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper CorrespondentsÂ
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