Mr. Coolidge's Week

P:A volume, three inches thick, bound in black seal and inscribed "In Memoriam Calvin Coolidge Jr.," was completed last week by the deaf and dumb employes of Walter Hyams & Co. of Manhattan. It was ordered by President Coolidge soon after his younger son's death more than a year ago. The volume is filled with clippings about his son chronologically arranged and mounted so as to insure permanency.

P:In Omaha the President appeared before the American Legion Convention. There were tremendous cheers. The band played Hail to the Chief, and Mrs. Coolidge was given a bouquet of roses by the Massachusetts delegation. Texas gave the President a ten-gallon hat, and he wore it for a few moments amid guffaws.

P:Excerpts from the President's speech to the Legion:

"It is a high privilege to sit as a member of this convention. . . No one can ever question your title as patriots. No one can ever doubt the place of affection and honor which you hold forevermore in the heart of the nation. . . You saved civilization from a gigantic reverse. Nobody says now that Americans cannot fight. . .

"We had our domestic problems which resulted from the War. The chief of these was the care and relief of the afflicted veterans and their dependents. This was a tremendous task, on which about $3,000,000,000 has already been expended. . .

"What is now being done is related to you in detail by Gen. Hines, of the Veterans' bureau, a public official of demonstrated merit, so that I shall not dwell upon it. During the past year, under the distinguished and efficient leadership of Commander Drain, the Legion itself has undertaken to provide an endowment fund of $5,000,000 to minister to the charitable requirements of their comrades. . .

"The next most pressing problem was the better ordering of the finances of the Nation. The government expenditures have been almost cut in two, taxes have been twice reduced and the incoming Congress will provide further reductions. . .

"Our country has a larger army and a more powerful navy, costing annually almost twice as much as it ever before had in time of peace. I am a thorough believer in a policy of adequate military preparation. We are constantly working to perfect our defenses in every branch, land forces, air forces, surface and submarine forces. That work will continue. . .

"The real question is whether spending more money to make a better military force would really make a better country. I would be the last to disparage the military art. It is an honorable and patriotic calling of the highest rank. But I can see no merit in any unnecessary expenditure of money to hire men to build fleets and carry muskets when international relations and agreements permit the turning of such resources into the making of good roads, the building of better homes, the promotion of education, and all the other arts of peace which minister to the advancement of human welfare. . .

"One of the most natural of reactions during the War was intolerance. . . The War brought a great test of our experiment in amalgamating these varied factors into a real Nation, with the ideals and aspirations of a united People. . . Immigrants and sons of immigrants from the Central European countries fought side by side with those who descended from the countries which were our Allies; with the sons of equatorial Africa; and with the red men of our own aboriginal population, all of them equally proud of the name Americans.

"We must not, in times of peace, permit ourselves to lose any part from this structure of patriotic unity. I make no plea for leniency toward those who are criminal or vicious, are open enemies of society and are not prepared to accept the true standards of our citizenship. By tolerance I do not mean indifference to evil. I mean respect for different kinds of good. Whether one traces his Americanism back two or three centuries to the Mayflower, or three years to the steerage, is not half so important as whether his Americanism of today is real and genuine. No matter by what various crafts we came here, we are all now in the same boat. . .

"There have been and will be lapses and discouragement, surface storms and disturbances. The shallows will murmur, but the deep is still. We shall be made aware of the boisterous and turbulent forces of evil about us seeking the things which are temporal. But we shall also be made aware of the still small voice arising from the fireside of every devoted home in the land seeking the things which are eternal. To such a country, to such a cause, the American Legion has dedicated itself. Upon this rock you stand for the service of humanity. Against it no power can prevail."

P:On his way back from Omaha, the President was up and had breakfasted by 6:30, when his train drew into St. Louis. Mrs. Coolidge and he were met by Luther E. Smith, an Amherst classmate, Mayor Miller and Representative Dyer (sponsor of the Anti-Lynching Bill) and driven through St. Louis parks, stopping at the zoo, where the President got down to look at the bears. An hour later the Presidential train was on its way eastward once more.

P:Senator Albert Baird Cummins called at the White House, saw Mr. Coolidge and emerged saying there would have to be legislation forcing railroad consolidations if these did not soon come about voluntarily.

P:Mr. Coolidge attended his second baseball game this year--the third game of the World Series between the Washington and Pittsburgh nines. He sat through a chilly afternoon with Mrs. Coolidge by his side, applauded when applause was meet, stood up at the seventh inning.

P:Attorney General Sargent called at the White House by request to discuss the President's legal authority in the Shipping Board struggle (see SHIPPING) with Mr. Coolidge and Admiral Leigh C. Palmer. The President let it be known that he felt that the Shipping Board had disregarded the proprieties in naming Elmer E. Crowley head of the Emergency Fleet Corporation without consulting him.

P:Since the President by virtue of his office is also the head of the American Red Cross, Mr. Coolidge sent a message to be read at the opening of that organization's fifth annual convention at St. Louis. He expressed his regret that the pressure of affairs kept him from attending in person.