"In Times Like These"

"In Times Like These"

In Detroit last week, Ralph E. Badger, one of the six executive vice presidents of Union Guardian Trust Co., clarioned: "Calvin Coolidge is the Moses to lead Americans from the present political turmoil that influences the present economic structure." During the past two years, hundreds of people like Banker Badger and scores of small Republican organizations have agitated to "draft Coolidge" back into the Presidency. For once & all, in a carefully copyrighted pronunciamento -- "Party Loyalty and The Presidency"--for this week's Saturday Evening Post, badgered Mr. Coolidge said his say. His say: He does not want public office any more; he is willing to back and feels every believer in the G. O. P. should back, any Republican chief executive of the nation. Citizen Coolidge came to support President Hoover, but not to praise him. Excerpts : "When I announced my determination not to run for President in 1928, my decision had been made a long time. . . . Why should it be supposed that what I was then seeking to escape I am now seeking to acquire?

"Every man with political experience will be told by some people that he is the only one that can save the party or save the country. ... No President ever gives universal satisfaction. . . . Those who are suggesting . . .that a former President should use his prestige to secure a nomination against a President of his own party probably have not stopped to consider fully what would be implied by such a course. ... It would be a distinct disservice to promote a factional conflict against a President in office. ... In times like these the duty to support the Executive comes very close to the duty to support the law. . . . "There is every indication that the coming winter will be one of much hardship for a great many people. . . . The President, the governors and the mayors will have to exercise their full powers to save the people from the pressure of all kinds of organized minorities.*. . . More and more [the people] have come to look to the Executive office for leadership. . . . It has long been the practice to give a President in office a second nomination. It is a practice that has been beneficial to the country. ... In an emergency like the present the responsible elements of our party should offer a solid front in their support of the President. That is the course I propose to pursue." Citizen Coolidge's announcement was not solicited by the Satevepost. He contributed it, upon what terms Editor George Horace Lorimer did not feel free to reveal.

* Perhaps President Hoover saw the article before it was published. Last week he spoke identically about "organized minorities" (see p. 11).

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