The Presidency: The Pines Re-echo

Three men sat on the porch of the Coolidges’ cottage at White Pine Camp on that last afternoon before the President left for Washington. Mr. Coolidge settled down comfortably in an old green wicker rocker, pushed his felt hat back on his head, talked. A secretary sat on a kitchen chair, scribbled busily. Bruce Barton, famed advertising man and magazine writer (TIME, Sept. 27) sat on the floor, listened, asked questions. The pine breath of the woods and the distant shadows of the Adirondacks seemed to purr in contented harmony.

The President, often dubbed “Silent Cal” by those who do not know him, is at times talkative when he is with a friend who he knows will not put a political twist on everything he says. Bruce Barton, who agrees with Mr. Coolidge on religion and many another fundamental, was exactly the person to reveal the President to his people. He was permitted to publish, five days later, through the Associated Press, a report of the interview in which the President said:

Parents. “I had the right sort of parents. My father had qualities that were greater than any I possess. He was a man of untiring industry and great tenacity of purpose. His long experience in local office gave him a very broad and, I found, a very accurate knowledge of law. … He would be classed as decidedly a man of character.

“I have no doubt he is representative of a great mass of Americans who are known only to their local neighbors; nevertheless, they are really great. It would be difficult to say that he had a happy life. He never seemed to be seeking happiness. He was a firm believer in hard work.

“When I was twelve years old my own mother was taken away. She was a sweet and gentle influence. I always recall her having my sister and me brought to her bedside to receive her blessing in her very last hours. She had been an invalid for as long as I could remember. I can see now that she was a woman of taste and discretion. . . . She loved poetry.”

Early Life. “It was seven years before my father married again. Meantime, I stayed a great deal with my grandmother Coolidge, who was a strong, resolute woman of deep religious convictions and a true daughter of the Puritans. My stepmother was all that a mother could be who was not your very own. She was a talented woman, fond of books and of a scholarly disposition. I thus had the great good fortune to come under the influence of three good women, a most important element in guiding the career of any man.”

Early Ambition. “As I now recall it, I had always rather hoped that I might keep store “when I grew up.”

Admonition. “The remarks of my father rather indicated that he thought if I did not change my ways I would come on the town. He kept up admonitions of that character until I had entered public life. I think his forecast impressed me as being very important.”

Sports. Mr. Barton: “I once saw in the papers a picture of you selecting a saddle horse in Washington, but I have never seen any picture of you riding him.”

Mr. Coolidge: “It takes too long to change your clothes.”

Mr. Barton: “Did you ride when you were a boy?”

Mr. Coolidge: “Yes. All farm boys ride. I rode constantly. I liked it.”

Mr. Barton: “Did you play tennis, baseball and swim in the old swimming hole?”

Mr. Coolidge: “I played tennis and baseball. Around where I lived there was no old swimming hole. I have played golf only a little. I think it is a fine method of relaxation for men in business life, but like everything else which is an outside enterprise it can undoubtedly be carried to excess.

“My favorite exercise is walking. I can step out into the street at any minute and I think a good brisk walk is unexcelled as a form of relaxation and restoration. It starts the circulation into the usuallyevenly distributed channels and relieves any part of the system that has been overtaxed by exertion.”

Marriage. “If a girl wishes to fit herself for a political career, I think the best thing she can do is to get married and bring up a family. I can conceive of no experience better adapted to give either a woman or a man that knowledge which is most likely to be of value in the discharge of public office than that which comes from the family life. . . .

“A man who has the companionship of a lovely and gracious woman enjoys the supreme blessing that life can give. And no citizen of the United States knows the truth of that statement better than I.”

Reading. “I have always liked to read poetry. … In my boyhood I found the poems of Scott very interesting and read .them so much that I could recite long passages from them. Later I knew a great deal of the poetry of Eugene Field, James Whitcomb Riley and Rudyard Kipling. My grandmother Coolidge gave me a complete set of Shakespeare, which I read much, and I studied some of his works while in college.

“Milton always had a fascination for me, and for many years I read some of Paradise Lost each night before I went to sleep. There is a literary finish to the poems of Lowell which I have very much admired. But I should say that Whittier and Burns have given me more real pleasure than any other great masters of verse because they have written about the life which I lived when I was a boy.

“The Cotter’s Saturday Night, though dealing with a foreign land, had a home flavor in its best passages and a deep religious fervor that reminded me of the teachings of my grandmother Coolidge, while Snowbound is a complete description of what is best in rural New England life. . . .

“I have very little time for current fiction. I much prefer biography and history. Of the books of the Bible, I have found the writings of St. Paul the most interesting to me.”

The Theatre. “Formerly I went to the theatre some. I have had little opportunity to do so since the time I became Lieutenant Governor. In my Massachusetts days I was constantly attending banquets and making speeches in the evening, so that if I had a night off I preferred to stay at home. While I enjoy the theatre now, I find that it tires me so that I feel the effects of it the next day. . . . Perhaps it is because I have to sit in a box, which to my mind is not nearly so comfortable as occupying a seat on the floor.”

Music. “It is hard to say whether one kind of music interests me more than another. Perhaps what might be designated as martial and patriotic music has the greatest fascination for me.”

Sleep. “I have never had any trouble about going to sleep. But unsolved problems wake me up early in the morning. The more pressing they are, the earlier they wake me. There is a great deal of consolation to be derived from knowing that you have done your best and that worrying about your problems will not help in their solution.”

Hobbies. “If I find a strap is broken, I like to get out the tools that are used by shoemakers and harness makers, make a waxed end, and repair it. I like to do a little blacksmithing around what is left of our old shop [at Plymouth, Vt.], try my hand again with the carpenter’s tools, goout and repair the fence where it is breaking down, and mend the latch on the kitchen door. Most people in this country do these things themselves and do not hire them done.”

Health. “The White House physician comes to see me at breakfast time and at dinner time. His attention is mostly confined to looking at me, inquiring if I am all right and finding out that I am.

“My vacation has done me a lot of good. I am in first class physical condition. And, while the work of the Executive increases every year, it is not beyond the capacity of one man to discharge. There is no way that it can be much “relieved. The people accept no substitute for the President. In my own experience I have found it most helpful to find out what the Constitution and law require the Executive to do and confine myself to doing that.

“Presidents are broken down by outside enterprises. Traveling about the country, making speeches, undertaking to furnish inspiration and leadership for all the good causes in the land are some of them. … I try to remember that there is only one ex-President living.”

Handshaking. “Any part of the body which is given unusual exercises adapts itself to the conditions. I shake hands with so many people every day that my hand has become toughened and it does not get tired nor subject me to any discomfort.”

Religion. “I have always attended church regularly when I could, but, there being no organized church in our town when I was a boy, I had not joined a church.

“After I became President, the First Congregational Church of Washington, without consulting me, voted to make me a member. I was pleased that they took such action and, of course, accepted the election to membership which they offered me. . . .

“It would be difficult for me to conceive of any one being able to administer the duties of a great office like the Presidency without a belief in the guidance of a Divine Providence.”

Entering Politics. “The only preparation that is worth anything is a course of study which will make one an expert in the department in which it is proposed to serve.

“I doubt if it is possible for a young man to choose politics as a career. He may go into the diplomatic service as it is now constituted in this country, or into the civil service somewhere as the result of passing an examination, but for the young man to expect to gain a livelihood by holding political office would seem to me to be very undesirable. I should say that he ought to have some business on which he could depend for a living, and as he has an aptitude for it take such part in politics as he finds he can do without losing his means of livelihood. Otherwise he loses his independence.”

Ideal. “A college education ought to fit a man or woman to be content in any occupation, because it enlarges the capacity for the enjoyment of the intellectual and spiritual side of life. It seems to me that a man with a college education and an artisan’s income would be almost in an ideal position.”

Civilization. “The standards of society have been constantly rising and the standards of commercial and industrial life are undoubtedly higher than they have ever before been. . . . The present complexity of civilization could not be maintained except by people of strong moral fibre.”

Luck. “As for luck, I do not think that it is much of a factor in the success of men. I should say that it much more depends upon being prepared to take advantage of luck when it comes along.

“I have never been able to think that fate was guiding my destiny. I have rather felt that I was obliged to look after it myself. have found, however, that when I was doing the right thing a great many unforeseen elements would come in and turn to my advantage.”

Happiness. “Mrs. Coolidge and I say to each other sometimes that we wish we could go home. From this I have come to the conclusion that in whatever position we may find ourselves other people are not any better off than we are. We only think they are. Contentment is a very difficult lesson for Americans to learn. I do not say we ought to be satisfied, but I have come to the conclusion that most of us are about as well off as we can be. A change would not make us feel any better. More money would not satisfy us.”

Future. “I have never given any thought as to what I might do after I leave public life. I have a farm in Vermont on which I feel confident I could support myself and my family. My old law office is in Northampton. I am, therefore, not worried about the future.”