Calvin Coolidge as Vice-president
Vice President Calvin Coolidge: “We found it a most enjoyable opportunity for getting acquainted and could scarcely comprehend how anyone who had the privilege of sitting at a table surrounded by representatives of the cabinet, the Congress, the diplomatic corps, and the army and navy would not find it interesting.” He also traveled about giving speeches. He even broaches the idea of true industrial democracy with employees buying stock in their own companies. He often speaks on the desire for wealth and the need for civilization. “We justify the greater and greater accumulation of capital because we believe that therefrom flows the support of all science, art, learning, and the charities which minister to the humanities of life, all carrying their beneficent effect to the people as a whole.” Professor Sobel notes, “He took his role as understudy seriously, and his experience as vice president provided Coolidge with a depth of understanding that would have been missing had he received the 1920 presidential nomination and been elected. In this, as in many other areas, Coolidge was fortunate.”