THE PRESIDENCY: Mr. Coolidge’s Week: Dec. 29, 1924

¶ The President appointed Joseph W. McIntosh of Illinois to succeed Harry M. Dawes (brother of Charles G.), resigned as Comptroller of the Currency.

¶ John Coolidge, father of the President, decided not to go to the White House for the holidays.

¶ In the White House grounds, Mr. Coolidge spoke to delegates to the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety called by Secretary Hoover. Said the President: “If the death and disaster that now fall upon innocent people through the year and over our country as a whole were concentrated into one calamity, we would shudder at the tremendous catastrophe. The loss is no less disastrous because diffused in time and space.”

¶The President transmitted to Congress a recommendation approved by the Budget Bureau for an emergency appropriation of $50,000,000 to pay tax refunds between now and Mar. 1.

¶On Aug. 3, 1923, Calvin Coolidge took oath as President of the U. S. The event took place in the thriving metropolis of Plymouth, Vt. The first child born in Plymouth after the oath was named Calvin Coolidge Rogers. Master Rogers was born last week.

¶Will H. Hays, cinema tsar and onetime Postmaster General, dropped in at the White House. The President invited Secretaries Weeks and Wilbur to come over for a consultation. Subject: Aircraft purchases for the Army and Navy. Mr. Hays, when a member of the Cabinet, had worked over the Air Mail Service in its infancy.

¶The first state dinner of the season was given to the Cabinet. Mr Coolidge saved the Government some money by having it prepared by the White House chef instead of by the usual caterer. There were 46 guests, including all the members of the Cabinet and their wives except Mr and Mrs. James J. Davis, who are in South America (TIME, Nov. 17). Senators Warren, Borah, Wadsworth, Butler, Curtis; Representatives Snell, Sanders (Ind.), Madden, Longworth; Colonel George Harvey, Director of the Budget Lord, John Hays Hammond, C. Bascom Slemp were included. Most of those who had wives brought them. Some of the unattended ladies were Representative Mae E. Nolan, Mrs. Eugene Hale (mother of Senator Hale of Maine and widow of Senator Eugene Hale), Mrs. Frederick Dent Grant (daughter-in-law of the famed General), Mrs. Edward B. McLean (wife of the Washington publisher). Fiddler Albert Spalding and Tenor Ralph Errolle gave a musicale afterwards.

¶ Three memorials to the late Calvin Coolidge Jr. are to be erected at Mercersburg Academy, his preparatory school: 1) A cross in the new chapel, given by Mrs. Coolidge; 2) a “sunshine corner,” consisting of a series of bird baths, a sundial, benches, flowers, shrubs, etc., suggested by Mrs. Coolidge for the campus; presented by the school; 3) a portrait of Calvin Jr. to be painted by an artist as yet unnamed.

¶ Representative Hays B. White of Kansas explained to the President the purpose of the Norris-White resolution (a proposed amendment to the Constitution) which would bring a President into office and a Congress into session within two months of their elections. (At present, a President takes office four months after an election; and a Congress does not meet until 13 months later unless called in special session.)

¶ A delegation from the National Ski Association, including Senator Norbeck (S. D.), Representative Knutson, Kvale and Wefald (Minn.) and Minister Bryn of Norway, called at the White House and presented Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge each with a pair of skis. Out behind the White House office, they tied them on and were photographed.

¶ The weekend on the Mayflower found Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge entertaining Secretary of Agriculture Gore, Eugene Meyer Jr. of the War Finance Corporation and four editors and their wives: William Allen White of the Emporia Gazette, G. Logan Payne of the Washington Times, George Harvey of the Washington Post and David Lawrence of the Consolidated Press. The amusements, besides the cruise on the Potomac, consisted of a cinema show, concerts by the Navy Band, conversation.

¶ Mr. Coolidge telegraphed to Mrs. Julius Kahn (see Page 7) : “Your husband’s death has caused mourning wherever his splendid services to his country were known. It was his fortune to possess the talent and the opportunity to do an incomparable work in connection with our country’s participation in the World War.”

¶ The President wrote a letter and had four copies made of it. The copies were addressed respectively to the Secretaries of War, Navy, Interior, Commerce (Weeks, Wilbur, Work, Hoover—see Page 5).