Date: November 7, 1924
Location: Washington, D.C.
(Original document available here)
I haven’t any legislative program that I can announce at the present time. Naturally that brings up the old question of whether I ought to deliver my message to the Congress to the newspaper men before I deliver it to the Congress. I think that you usually get the best of that. Of course, at a short session I naturally desire to get the appropriation bills through and take up any business that is urgent and pressing, but I haven’t yet made up my mind just what I shall recommend.
I don’t think I have any report from the Tariff Commission on the duty on barbital. I don’t know just what that is. I was told it is some kind of a chemical.
I can’t make much comment on the statement that is attributed to me by Henry True Wilson. I don’t think I can place that gentleman. That is not the slightest reflection on him. A good many men in position of eminence shake hands with me, but I don’t always get their names exactly and am not always able to identify them by their names afterward. I didn’t know that I had discussed with this man the subject of prohibition enforcement. About the only comment I can make is that he is violating the proprieties if he is undertaking to quote my position relative to prohibition enforcement. My position is carefully stated in my message to the Congress and speeches that I have made. So I do not think I need to reiterate them. Briefly stated, it is in favor of the observance and enforcement of the law.
I don’t know whether it is wise in a short session to undertake to do anything about further tax legislation. My offhand impression is that it wouldn’t be. I may get information from members of the House or Senate that would lead me to change my mind about that.
I haven’t made any decision about the sugar tariff. I haven’t secured all the information I want from the Tariff Commission.
I haven’t any plans for a special session of the Congress after the 4th of March.
I haven’t fully determined about an Assistant Secretary of the Navy or the Alien Property Custodian. Colonel Miller is still the Alien Property Custodian, and while he has indicated he might want to retire on account of being chosen president of some International Veterans Association, up to the present time it hasn’t sufficiently interfered with his work so that he would have to retire.
I haven’t been able to select a successor to Secretary Wallace. I received today some results on questions that the Farm Bureau sent out.
I haven’t fully determined the personnel of the Agricultural Commission. I think I shall do that this week.
I haven’t accepted any invitations that would take me out of the city, other than Chicago, which comes the latter part of November or the first of December, and possibly the football game between the Army and Navy which, I think, is at Baltimore.
I don’t think I can make any statement about the report which is published in New York relative to Colonel Roosevelt having aplace in the federal service. I presume he wouldn’t care to appear just now as a seeker for a place in the public service.
I expect that we shall try and get through any necessary farm relief legislation at the coming session. I don’t know as I would call it farm relief legislation, just at the present time my thought being to take such steps as we can to prevent a recurrence.
Mr. President, do you think the Agricultural Commission will be able to complete its work and report in time for the coming session of the Congress?
Yes, I think so.
I don’t know as there is much of anything I can do about the letter that was sent to me by Commander Drain in response to the letter I sent to him. I wanted to say something about Armistice Day and the time arrived when I quite naturally thought that what I wanted to say ought to be said, and I made the letter to Commander Drain my expression about Armistice Day.
Mr. President, do you care to say anything about the proclamation and also the national holiday?
Well that is what I am saying. I don’t think I have any more to say about Armistice Day. I made my statement about it in my letter to him and that having been done I don’t think I should make any proclamation about it, nothing more except to observe it as had already been provided, by going over and putting a wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier.
I haven’t any plan about a special session of the Congress.
Dr. Coffey, Dean of the University of Minnesota is one of the names that has been suggested to me, I think for Secretary of Agriculture, certainly for service on the Agricultural Conference.
That seems to cover the questions of the day.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper CorrespondentsÂ
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