THE PRESIDENCY: The White House Week: Nov. 12, 1923

The White House Week

¶ Charles D. Hilles, Republican National Committeeman from New York, conferred with Mr. Coolidge in Washington. Mr. Hilles, once the Secretary of President Taft, is a power in Republican politics throughout the East. His welcome at the White House much resembles that accorded John T. Adams, Chairman of the National Committee. I ¶Taking the trowel with which George Washington had laid the cornerstone of the National Capitol, Mr. Coolidge spread the first mortar laying the cornerstone of a great monument to the first President. The memorial is being executed by the Free Masons of America, not far from Mount Vernon. Chief Justice Taft then wielded the trowel, followed by high Masonic dignitaries. The cornerstone was pronounced ” true, trusty and well laid.” (Mr. Coolidge is not a Mason; Mr. Taft is.)

¶ Mrs. Coolidge attended a morning reception given by Mrs. Henry C. Wallace, wife of the Secretary of Agriculture, under the glass roof of the Department’s propagating house. The occasion was the opening of the Department’s annual chrysanthemum show. One of the blossoms was labeled ” Grace Coolidge.”

¶ A new thornless, yellow rose, that as it opens deepens to a ” rich orange color,” was exhibited for the first time at a flower show in Tarrytown, N. Y. With official consent it bears the name ” Mrs. Calvin Coolidge.”

¶ The President expressed by letter his hope that Forget-Me-Not Day, Saturday, Nov. 10, on which artificial forget-me-nots are sold for the benefit of disabled veterans, would be a great success.

¶ The official program of White House entertainments for the season was issued. It included no departures from routine. There will be a Cabinet dinner, a dinner and reception for the Diplomatic Corps, a dinner and reception for the Supreme Court, an Army and Navy reception, a Speaker’s dinner, a Congressional reception. All other entertaining at the Executive Mansion will be informal.

¶ Mr. Coolidge accepted another Presidency. He became Honorary President of the Merchant Marine Library Association. The last occupant of the post was Warren G. Harding. Mr. Coolidge wrote to Mrs. Henry Howard, President of the Association: ” I have been greatly interested in what you tell me of the work which the association is doing to provide libraries for our American merchant marine, and I can well understand that the libraries serve not only to furnish instructive and interesting reading, but that they also have to maintain the morale of the men in the service.”