Coolidge

Coolidge - by Amity Shlaes

A thought that kept going through my mind as I read this excellent biography by Amity Shlaes about America’s 30th Commander in Chief was “How could someone so dreadfully boring as Calvin Coolidge ever become President of the United States??”  Now, don’t misunderstand me.  When I use the word “boring”, I don’t mean to use it in any sort of negative connotation.  No, just the opposite.  During my entire lifetime, anyone who runs for any high visible office must be overbearing, flashy, a tad obnoxious, and always be able to come up with quick, witty soundbites that show just how brilliant of a communicator they are.  If not, well, the folks such as Bill O’Reilly and Chris Matthews will quickly carve them up for lunch on prime time, while devout followers gladly imbibe the kool-aid that implies that those who can’t dazzle, obviously must not be very smart.

This book was very refreshing in that it shows us how unnecessary such traits are to be a great leader.  As we read the story of Calvin Coolidge, we discover that this lower class young man never was a great orator, and this caused him some problems during his early years, but we soon discover that Calvin Coolidge was very much like that guy we all know that probably works at our company.  You know, the guy that never speaks up in a company meeting, and instead, sits quietly absorbing all of the dialogue going on around him.  When someone finally asks the guy for his opinion, he then speaks in a low, audible voice - barely above a whisper - and finally shares his thoughts on the matter at hand.  When everyone listens, they realize that this quiet individual is actually a genius.

Such was the man Calvin Coolidge.  We see him slowly work his way up to more highly visible elected positions in authority, yet it never really seems like he cares one way or another whether or not people will vote for him.  When he does get elected, he refuses to prostitute his beliefs or positions.  In the long run, this helps him tremendously, but in hindsight, he comes across (to me anyway) as a bit of an unsentimental tightwad.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve grown up with a nation of entitlements, but nobody under Coolidge’s rule ever got a free ride.  It’s interesting because even though Ronald Reagan would one day claim that Calvin Coolidge was his favorite president, I saw a lot of similarities between Coolidge’s upbringing, and the upbringing of Richard Nixon.  Nixon, who grew up in poverty, seemed to have the attitude of “when I was a kid, there were never any government handouts, so why should we start now?”.  So depending on your political views, such an individual can come across as either a hero or a pit bull.  In Coolidge’s time, it tended to be the former.

Such events tend to dominate the majority of this book.  We read about when Coolidge was Governor of Massachusetts and the Boston police go on strike for better conditions and wages.  Coolidge refuses to budge - even though the precinct houses are falling apart and are infested with rats.  That doesn’t matter to Coolidge.  Public workers who are dependent on for the safety of the citizens do not go on strike.  Period.  Later, when he’s President, he has the same unbending attitude when the Mississippi Valley suffers disastrous consequences with a horrible flood.  According to Coolidge - not the federal government’s problem.  What’s ironic is that his birthplace of Vermont suffers a similar blow of a similar flood about one year later.  Will Coolidge be more sympathetic now that the disaster has hit closer to home?  Nope.  Again, that’s the states’ problem, not Washington’s.

His entire tenure as President seems to be all about budget and saving pennies.  His main concern is bringing the country back on track after the extravagant spending incurred only a few years prior during World War I.  I lost track in this book how many “meetings” he had with Budget Director Herbert Lord, or with Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon.  Coolidge seemed to enjoy meetings about how to save money like some men enjoy baseball or hunting.  When the Wright brothers start to open the eyes of the world with the possibility of long distance aviation, Coolidge is very interested, but not because of the awe of such a novelty as flying, but rather as a way that the country can save money in the future by adapting such technologies.

Coolidge’s Presidency takes place during what is now known as “The Roaring 20’s”, but you really don’t read much about all of that in this book.  We don’t hear about Speakeasys, flappers, or anyone dancing the Charleston.  Instead we just see Coolidge methodically plodding along with his finance gurus trying to ensure that the country maintains prosperity.  When he leaves office in early 1929, the author tells us that Coolidge “knows” that an economic downfall is only right around the corner, and tries to make suggestions to prevent an economic disaster from happening.  Well, with hindsight being twenty-twenty, we all know that, if Coolidge ever really did give such advice, it went unheeded.

And this is where there is a lot of controversy around the legacy of Calvin Coolidge.  Although this author presents him in a very favorable light, there are some that believe many of his financial decisions and actions during the 1920’s actually aided in the cause of the Great Depression.  This book really doesn't dive too much into that.  In fact, you wouldn’t really know such an economic travail happened in the country’s history that lasted more than a decade.  This is another criticism of the man, and of the book.  Well, even though Coolidge is looked at mostly favorable, I never thought the author made him out to be an untouchable demagogue.  In fact, such retrospectives (as well as the opposite - high levels of mudslinging) don’t appeal to me.  I felt like I learned an awful lot about the man.  I confess, that although I knew the name and knew he was President, I knew very little otherwise.  I’m happy to have learned a lot more by reading this thorough, entertaining biography.