Title: The Good Work of Postal Clerks
Date: September 5, 1923
Location: Washington, D.C.
Context: In his first speech as President, Coolidge addresses a delegation of the United National Association of Post Office Clerks at the White House and commends them on their good work.
Mr. Postmaster General and My Fellow Workers in the Public Service of the United States:
You are the direct representatives in your various communities of the Government of the United States. You get your direction–I hope your inspiration–from the City of Washington. You are the people who carry out these directions, and who give to the public the impression that they receive of the efficiency of our public service. You are a picked body, holding your positions not by favor, not by the good graces of any man or any set of men, but by reason of an examination, by reason of your having demonstrated that you have the capacity, the ability, the intelligence, and, I think I may say, the courage that renders you worthy of the confidence that your Government reposes in you.
I have only one suggestion to make, and that is that you go on in the same spirit you have always manifested. If there is any one department of our Government in which we take a justifiable pride it is in the Post Office Department, and in the efficiency that has marked the Post Office Department of the United States. The efficiency is entrusted especially to you. Go on, serve your country, serve yourselves, and you will have satisfaction in what you have done, and render to your country everything an American citizen should desire–building up the resources of our nation, strengthening its character for yourselves and those who co-operate with you.
Citation: The New York Times, September 6, 1923.