National Affairs: Style

Those who journey to Parnassus go at their particular gaits. Some hobble, like Carlyle. Some stagger, like Henry James. Some swing along gracefully, like Addison. Some minuet, like Stevenson. Some swagger, like Marlowe. A great, great many simply walk. By courtesy we name all manners of proceeding ” style ” ” literary style.” The road to the White House is not identical with the pathway up Parnassus. Yet those who walk must have a stride, those who speak must have a style, and Mr. Coolidge has just presented the public with a new specimen of the Presidential literary gait—in 1,120 words he addressed the National Convention of the American Red Cross. By measurement, Calvin Coolidge covered 1,120 words in 62 sentences —an average stride of 18 words a period. This is a short, a simple, almost a mincing gait. It has no nourishes. Full 33 of these 62 propositions are what English teachers recognize as ” simple declarative sentences.”

This style is something very near a record, for Presidents. With random excerpts from Presidential speeches, one can make up statistics:

Average No. Words Per Sentence

Coolidge . 18.0 Lincoln 26.6 Harding 28.9 Wilson 31.8 Taft 39.9 Roosevelt 41.0 Washington 51.5

For Puritan simplicity Calvin Coolidge leads all the rest. A few sentences from Mr. Coolidge’s peroration:

” This organization had its beginnings in the day of Abraham Lincoln. It is representative of the dominant influences of his time. It partakes of his spirit. It shows the way to a larger freedom. Our country could secure no higher place in history than to have it correctly said that the Red Cross is truly American.”

Seven-league sentences are absent from the Presidential rhetoric.