The Coolidge Week

P:An old man, longing for his lost youth, sold his soul to the Devil. The Devil rejuvenated the old man and helped him seduce a young girl. Deserted and with child, the girl took refuge in a cathedral, where demons drove her mad. She killed her child and went to prison. There the young-old man visited her again. Taking refuge in prayer, she saved her own soul from the Devil. Angels came and rejoiced. Her seducer, young no more, had to go to Hell to pay the Devil's bargain. . . . President and Mrs. Coolidge, and the better part of distinguished Washington, last week enjoyed an enactment of this old tale--the tale of Dr. Faustus, legendary German philosopher, modified from Poet Goethe's tragedy for Composer Gounod's opera and re-modified into English, for the opening night of the American Opera Co. at Poli's Theatre (see Music, p. 22, for a further account). President Coolidge had been pleased to greet all the singers at the White House earlier in the day. He stayed through their whole performance and complimented Director Vladimir Rosing on how smoothly everything went. The box in which the President sat was that of Mrs. Joseph Leiter, outstanding capital hostess.* After the opera, President and Mrs. Coolidge went home, while Mrs. Leiter welcomed the American Opera Company at a party vivified by her bounteous stores of champagne.

P: Later in the week, the White House had a musicale all its own-- 17th and 18th Century chamber music played from original manuscript on 16 Stradivari, Montagnana, Guadanini and Amati instruments from the Ronald Wanamaker collection, under the direction of Dr. Thaddeus Rich. When he heard that Colonel Charles Augustus Lindbergh was nearing Mexico City (see p. 28), President Coolidge took-pen-in-hand and signed an act of Congress conferring the Congressional Medal on Col. Lindbergh. A little while later, while the President was sitting to Mrs. Elizabeth Stevenson Wright of Cleveland for his portrait, the daughter of another President called at the White House--Miss Aleccia Elias Calles of Mexico City, with two friends.* Young Miss Calles, dark and dashing, was bubbling with "the wonderful news" and wanted to see President Coolidge at once. Unfortunately, diplomatic ritual prevented. There was no one present to introduce her properly. Secretary Everett Sanders was sorry, but had Major Domo John Hoover show the ladies through the White House.

P: It was a busy executive week for President Coolidge. He appointed Colonel Henry Lewis Stimson, who had so notably served the administration as a pacifier in Nicaragua, to be governor-general of the Philippines (see THE CABINET). He forced the resignation of William S. Hill of South Dakota from the U. S. Shipping Board by appointing Albert H. Denton, Kansas banker, as successor. The President was vexed with Mr. Hill because the latter had indiscreetly accepted a loan from a member of a private shipping concern. Then there was the new $725,000,000 Navy program. See ARMY & NAVY) to be finally approved. And the administration tax program was being knocked out of joint by the House of Representatives (see THE CONGRESS). President Coolidge let the word go up Pennsylvania avenue that he was displeased and might veto the revenue act of 1928 if tax-cutting went too far. The Congress sent the President its $200,936,000 deficiency bill to sign-- first major bill this session.

P: There came another attack on administration policy from the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. Lately rebuked for its insistence on a large tax cut (TIME, Dec. 5), the Chamber announced-- at least its national president, Banker Lewis Eugene Pierson of Manhattan, announced-- that more than three-fourths of all U. S. Chamber men* believed the Federal Government should bear the entire cost of Mississippi flood control. In his message to Congress, President Coolidge had mentioned 80% of flood control costs as a more-than-generous portion for the Federal Government to bear.

P: News gatherers tried to find out what President Coolidge might do when his term is up. In a carefree mood, he let it be known that he had no immediate intention to "locate at the other end of Pennsylvania avenue" (i.e. in Congress). Perhaps, he said, there would be a vacancy in the municipal government of Northampton, Mass. It was as a Northampton city councilman that President Coolidge entered politics 28 years ago.

P: Some one noticed that a bedspread, knitted nearly a year ago by Mrs. Coolidge and intended to be left in the White House, bore a prophecy. On one side was knitted "Lincoln 1861-1865." On the other side; "Calvin Coolidge--1923-1929." Long before President Coolidge announced his "choice," Mrs. Coolidge said, to a friend who exclaimed at her bedspread, "I know what I'm doing."

P: The President pressed a button. Tons of briny mud heaved loose in a new 25-foot channel into the Miami, Fla., harbor.

P: White House callers of the week included: Frank Orren Lowden, onetime (1917-21) Governor of Illinois, reputed a candidate for the G. O. P. nomination for President, to pay respects.

Ben F. Wright, Auditor ("watchdog") of the Philippine Islands, to discuss. A delegation of the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Market Association, to invite an address on the centenary of the Furniture Market next month.

Karl August Bickel, alert president of the United Press, to tell about a world tour he lately made.

President Manuel Quezon of the Philippine Senate, Philippine Senator Sergio Osmena and Resident Philippine Commissioner Pedro Guevara, with congratulations on the appointment of Governor-General Stimson. Governor Ralph O. Brewster of Maine to present Civil War Veterans (see THE STATES).

* Big, handsome, strong of voice and character, Mrs. Leiter may be said to dominate Washington society. Born Juliette Williams of Washington, she married Capitalist Joseph Leiter of Chicago in 1908. Her mother, a Mrs. John R. Williams, whom she is said to resemble, still conducts a prosperous Washington realty business, specializing in bachelor apartments with nautical names such as "Anchorage," "Galleon," "Moorings," "Armada." * Mrs. Pearcy F. Eames of Manhattan and Mrs. E. S. Rochester of Washington. * For a description of how the U. S. Chamber's referendum on tax-cutting was taken in at least one city, see LETTERS, p. 2. Chamber-President Pierson announced last week that a flood control referendum was taken among all the 1,500 local Chambers of Commerce by sending them the recommendations of a committee of engineers and business men who surveyed the Mississippi flood area this autumn. Accompanying the recommendations was a list of arguments against them. The recommendations favored Federal assumption of all flood control expense. So did the final vote.