The Coolidge Week

P:It was a busy-buzzing week at the White House, cramjam full of people and small incidents yet free from the strain of any really pressing situations. President Coolidge seemed exceptionally affable--save for a moment here & there (see "FESS INCIDENT")--and unwontedly loquacious--except at times such as when onetime (1919-21) Governor Henry J. Allen of Kansas talked at length about the necessity of President Coolidge's renomination. The President's sole reply to his caller's long speech was: "How's crops?"

P:The President unveiled in the Botanical Gardens a statue of Major General George Gordon Meade, "gallant soldier and Christian gentleman," hero of Gettysburg. (Pennsylvania gave the statue.)

P:The President was so pleased with reports from his Cabinet on U. S. business conditions that, rather than let Secretaries Hoover, Mellon and Jardine issue their findings perfunctorily, the President lumped what they had told him and expatiated on Prosperity (see p. 33).

P:The "Summerall Incident" closed, President Coolidge admitted that he had recalled Major General Charles Pelot Summerall from the West to have him explain his reported remarks about the "disgrace" of Army housing (TIME, Oct. 24); announced that General Summerall's disavowal of the remarks was accepted. The President talked Army budget matters with General Summerall.

P:Along came "Dakota" Clyde Jones, the cowboy who gave President Coolidge riding lessons on Horse Mistletoe last summer.* Mr. Jones invited President Coolidge to a rodeo in Manhattan. The President got out his enormous Wild West hat, put it on, went out on the lawn with Mr. Jones to be photographed, said: "That will be enough rodeo for me this time."

P:White House callers were no more numerous, but far more notably assorted, than usual. There came:

Charles Augustus Lindbergh, concluding his nationwide tour in the Spirit of St. Louis. He stayed for luncheon.

General Wilhelm Heye, Chief of the German Army, to be presented.

Baron Guglielmo Marconi of Italy and Mrs. Marconi, to be presented.

Baron Franckenstein of Austria, to be presented.

Mrs. Lita Grey Chaplin, divorced wife of one of President Woodrow Wilson's favorite comedians, to be presented. President Coolidge told her he hoped she was enjoying Washington. Her mother, Mrs. Lillian Grey, was with her. They were introduced by William Spry, English-born Mormon, onetime (1909-13, 13-17) Governor of Utah, now (since 1921) Commissioner of the General Land Office. When picture agencies distributed photographs of this party of callers, one caption read: "William Spry is forced to live up to his name."

Senator Hiram Bingham of Connecticut, to recommend that Governor Wallace Rider Farrington of Hawaii be appointed Governor-General of the Philippines.

Mayor Miguel Romauldez of Manila, to pay respects.

One-time Senator James W. Wadsworth, Sophie Irene Loeb and Mrs. Oliver Harriman, to ask presidential approval of the plan of the Child Welfare Committee of America to better the lot of 18,000 abandoned and mostly illegitimate children of U. S. fathers and Filipino mothers, together with uncountable thousands of all-native orphans. President Coolidge said he thought the Philippine Legislature could pass a bill similar to the "Mother's aid" bill passed by the Massachusetts Senate when he was a Massachusetts Senator.

P:The week was rounded off with a leisurely, over-Saturday-and-Sunday-night Potomac river cruise on the yacht Mayflower. Distinguished super cargo included Senators Curtis of Kansas, Oddie of Nevada, Ashurst of Arizona and tall, clever Smoot of Utah; also Assistant Secretary of War Hanford MacNider and Mrs. MacNider, Commissioner R. K. Smith of the Shipping Board, and Mrs. Smith.

--One day, President Coolidge spurred Horse Mistletoe suddenly. Horse Mistletoe ran away, for about a quarter-mile, before "Dakota" Clyde Jones caught up and President Coolidge could rein in. This was the last time President Coolidge rode Horse Mistletoe in the Black Hills.