Office has great opportunities for doing wrong, but equal chance for doing right.
Calvin Coolidge
The Public Record
Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A member of the Republican Party, he was known for his quiet demeanor and strong support for business and limited government. Coolidge's presidency is often associated with the economic prosperity of the Roaring Twenties, and he famously advocated for a hands-off approach to the economy, believing that government should interfere as little as possible in the lives of citizens and businesses.
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Good government cannot be bought, it has to be given.
In the first place everybody must take a more active part in public affairs.
There could be no assemblages for worship, no services even for the departed, piety would be swallowed up in viciousness.
Without order the moral progress of the people would be lost.
Without it all schools close, libraries are empty, education stops.
Unless the people vote to sustain order that value is gone entirely.
There can be no material prosperity without order.
That one fundamental issue is the support of the Government in its determination to maintain order.
Having beaten the foe from without are we to fall a victim to the foe from within?
Having saved Europe are we ready to surrender America?
Will men realize their blessing and exhibit the resolution to support and defend the foundation on which they rest?
The war aroused a new patriotism, and revealed the strength of our moral power.
There has come to be a new realization of the brotherhood of man, a new significance to religion.
There is a moral standard that runs through all the avenues of our life that has lifted it into a new position and gives to men a keener sense of honor in all things.
We have attained a standard of living among our people the like of which never before existed on earth.
Industrially, commercially, financially, America has been a success.
We must eternally smite the rock of public conscience if the waters of patriotism are to pour forth.
But nothing is settled that evil and selfish men can find advantage for themselves in overthrowing.
We may as well abandon hope and, yielding to the demands of selfishness, each take what he can.
Unless the blessings of prosperity, the rewards of industry, justice and liberty, the satisfaction of duty well done, can come under a rule of the people, they cannot come at all.
Unless American institutions can provide for that welfare the cause of humanity is hopeless.
Both have failed to minister to the highest welfare of the people.
There are only two other choices, anarchy or despotism--Russia, present and past.
It justifies and sanctifies the authority of our laws and the obligation to support our Government.
Politicians like Calvin Coolidge
