Banks
“Every banker knows that to depend on the business and patronage of the rich would be vain, that if any success attends his efforts it must be by serving and doing the business of the people.”
Source: “The Banks And The People,” on June 29, 1921. As found in The Price of Freedom.
Baseball
“We pitch with the pitchers, we go to bat with the batters and we make a home run with the hard hitters. The training, the energy, the intelligence which these men lavish upon their craft ought to be an inspiration in every walk of life. They are a great band, these armored knights of the bat and ball. They are held up to a high standard of honor on the field, which they have seldom betrayed.
“While baseball remains our national game, our national tastes will be on a higher level and our ideals on a firmer foundation.”
Source: Washington, D.C., October 11, 1924.
“Baseball is our national game. It is peculiarly a local product with the widest popular appeal of any sport. This is because every play can be seen and the game is so easily comprehended that all its fine points can be appreciated. Moreover, while the expense of maintaining a professional team is very great, attendance is so large that admissions remain at popular prices.
“It is natural to enjoy a contest. But the interest is not only from the matching of the skill of the opposing teams. Although the spectators do not touch the ball they nevertheless play a prominent part. Even a championship match with only one beholder would not be baseball. The outdoor air and the relaxation from care are partly the attraction. We go to the game in the hope that with three men on base the batter for our team will drive the ball over the fence so that we can revel in the intoxication of crowd delirium. That is the common touch of nature reaching from the street urchin to the President which lures us all to the ball field.
“While the national sport flourishes we can be sure the race is not growing old.”
Source: Calvin Coolidge Says, October 3, 1930.
Bigotry
“Bigotry is only another name for slavery. It reduces to serfdom not only those against whom it is directed, but also those who seek to apply it. An enlarged freedom can only be secured by the application of the golden rule. No other utterance ever presented such a practical rule of life.”
Source: “Third Annual Message to Congress,” on December 8, 1925. As found in Messages and Papers of the Presidents, p. 9537.
Bolshevism
“Profitable employment is the death blow to Bolshevism . . .”
Source: “Republican State Convention” on October 4, 1919. As found in Have Faith in Massachusetts.
“Not all those who are working to better the condition of the people are Bolsheviki or enemies of society.”
Source: “Republican State Convention” on October 4, 1919. As found in Have Faith in Massachusetts.
“The world has been greatly shaken in the past decade. [the forces of creation and redemption] have been tested as they never before were tested. The wonder is not that Russia, under a comparatively new organization which had never reached down to the heart of the people, collapsed; the wonder is that the world as a whole has stood firm . . .”
Source: “The Instruments of Progress” on June 7, 1922. As Found in The Price of Freedom.
Boy Scouts
“…. reverence for nature.… reverence for law…. reverence for God. Without the sustaining influence of faith in a divine power we could have little faith in ourselves…. Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. Faith is the great motive power, and no man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is part of an unending plan.”
Source: “Address To A Group Of Boy Scouts,” on July 25, 1924.
Budget, Balanced
“The people ought to take no selfish attitude of pressing for removing moderate and fair taxes which might produce a deficit. We must keep our budget balanced for each year. That is the corner stone of our national credit, the trifling price we pay to command the lowest rate of interest of any great power in the world. Any surplus can be applied to debt reduction, and debt reduction is tax reduction.”
Source: Messages and Papers of the Presidents, p. 9723.
Business
“After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing, and prospering in the world. I am strongly of the opinion that the great majority of people will always find these are moving impulses in our life. . . . In all experience, the accumulation of wealth means the multiplication of schools, the encouragement of science, the increase of knowledge, the dissemination of intelligence, the broadening of outlook, the expansion of liberties, the widening of culture. Of course the accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence. But we are compelled to recognize it as a means to well-nigh every desirable achievement. So long as wealth is made the means and not the end, we need not greatly fear it. And there never was a time when wealth was so generally regarded as a means, or so little regarded as an end, as today.
“It is only those who do not understand our people who believe that our national life is entirely absorbed by material motives. We make no concealment of the fact that we want wealth, but there are many other things that we want very much more. We want peace and honor, and that charity which is so strong an element of all civilization. The chief ideal of the American people is idealism. I cannot repeat too often that America is a nation of idealists. . . . . No newspaper can be a success which fails to appeal to that element of our national life.”
Source: “The Press Under a Free Government: Address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors,” on January 17, 1925. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
“We are beginning to see that the economic development of our country was not only necessary for advancing the welfare of the people, but that we must maintain an expanding power of production if that welfare is to be increased. Business makes a most valuable contribution to human progress.”
Source: “Education: the Cornerstone of Self-Government,” on July 4, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
“It would be contrary to sound policy for business or any organization to engage in an effort to dominate political or governmental action by meddling in what does not concern them. That would warrant a revival of criticism against invisible government. But when industry will be affected by governmental action it might be heard sympathetically and without implication of seeking domination contrary to public interest. We cannot have employment and prosperity except on the basis of justice to business.”
Source: Calvin Coolidge Says, December 30, 1930.
“The government has never shown much aptitude for real business. The Congress will not permit it to be conducted by a competent executive, but constantly intervenes. The most free, progressive and satisfactory method ever devised for the equitable distribution of property is to permit the people to care for themselves by conducting their own business. They have more wisdom than any government.”
Source: Calvin Coolidge Says, January 5, 1931.
Business, Minding One’s
“Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been the minding of my own business.”
Source: “Press Conference,” on March 1, 1929.
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