Date: October 25, 1927
Location: Washington, DC
(Original document available here)
There isn’t any further comment that I care to make regarding the action that is usually taken by the State Dept. relative to foreign loans. I don’t know just what is meant by this question, that some of the State Department is divided in its policy. I suppose the State Dept. is the Secretary of State. There are a great many people employed over there, but they are not charged with the duty and the responsibility of making decisions that are made by the State Department. I think such decisions are made by the Secretary of State. I don’t see how there could be any division of opinion in that case.
I hadn’t seen any report that General MacArthur was under consideration for appointment as Governor General of the Philippines. I do not recall that among all the names that have been suggested to me that his name has been suggested. I thought I saw a report in the morning paper that he was going to be sent by the War Department as the Commanding General of our military forces in the Philippines. Perhaps I didn’t read it right. That is all the report that I have seen relative to General MacArthur, and if the War Dept. has that in mind they have not yet brought it to my attention. That is more or less a routine matter, assigning a commanding general to the Philippines. While I presume it is technically made on the order of the President, it would practically be done by the War Dept. I am not certain that any special order is required by the President.
The only information I have relative to the probable Treasury surplus at the end of this fiscal year is that which I think has been given out by the Treasury Dept., which estimatedthe probable surplus at $250,000,000.
Query: Is that the latest figure?
President: Yes.
Query: Senator Reed of Pa. was under the impression yesterday that it was $385,000,000.
President: I haven’t seen any such estimate as that, that I now recall. I thought the estimate that had been given out was $252,000,000, or something like that. Now, it may be that a confusion has arisen between the estimates for the surplus that will accrue on June 30th, 1928 and that which is now thought to be probable for June 30, 1929. The 1929 one of course would figure very predominantly in any discussion of tax reduction. I haven’t those figures before me, but thought it was $250,000,000.
Mr. Garrett, Mr. John W. Garrett, who has been in the diplomatic service at one time or another, I think Minister at one time to the Argentine, before that was raised to an Embassy, is not under consideration for the post in Cuba. It is my recollection that he has business interests in Cuba that he feels would disqualify him for that position. I had Mr. Garrett under consideration for a long time as a man that I might turn to for some foreign service, but as I recall it in looking over the possibilities of giving him an appointment at different places the Cuban post was eliminated because of his feeling that he had business interests there. There is no final decision made relative to someone to succeed Mr. Dewey as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.
I can only repeat what I have already said about the Interstate Commerce Commission. There is no vacancy there, and I have no direct information that Commissioner Hall is going to retire. There have been rumors, as I stated the other day, ever since I have been President that his health was not very good and that he was considering retiring, but I have no information on which I could make any responsible statement that he is to retire, so that I am not initiating any action looking to the appointment of his successor. I had a number of telegrams and so on relative to people that want to go on that Commission, in case he does retire. He holds a place on the Commission as a Democrat, so that his successor would have to be a Democrat.
I haven’t any information about the new Cuban tariff duty. You might possibly get that at the Dept. of Commerce, or possibly from the Tariff Commission. And I have no new information relative to what is said to be a new Cuban law undertaking to regulate the production of sugar and its export. The sugar business in Cuba is a little different situation, I might remark, than the general business of a foreign and competing country, in that our own people have very large interests in it. I haven’t picked out any Ambassador for Cuba, or any successor to Colonel Dillon on the Radio Commission.
I have been keeping in close contact with Major General Jadwin relative to the progress being made in closing up the crevasses in the Mississippi Valley. He has reported to me that good progress is being made and that the situation will be taken care of. The heighth of the works now is above the highest record of any October or November floods, so that it would seem to be apparent that they will be closed up in due time to prevent any flooding of the areas that were flooded last spring and summer by any recurrence of the flood at this season of the year.
I haven’t any information at all as to the probable choice of the point at which the next Republican National Convention will be held, other than what is already public property.
I am expecting to make an address in Philadelphia next month. I have been invited to come up there by the Union League of Philadelphia some time after the middle of the month.
Query: Do you know the occasion for the celebration?
President: Well, it is a sort of an annual celebration that they have — a founding day of the Union League.
I told the people that came to see me about speaking at the anniversary of the Morgan College in Baltimore that I didn’t believe I could go over there. That is a very fine institution, one of the oldest for the education of colored people having a college course and also doing considerable in the way of vocational training. They have four of five hundred students that have made commendable progress and it stands very high in that avenue of education.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper Correspondents
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