Date: April 1, 1931
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
The reported decision from Washington not to call an extra session of the Congress to relieve the farmer and redress unemployment will impress the country as sound. When the last Congress assembled, in the early spring of 1929, the farmer was in a fair condition and unemployment was not a pressing question. The longer the Congress was in session the worse the condition of the farmer became and the larger grew the list of the unemployed. While it is not possible to say that conditions were not improved by legislation, it is apparent they were not cured. A large prospective Treasury deficit has not proven a sovereign remedy.
Business will also gain some courage from the report that by curbing expenses a further increase of taxes may be avoided. But what is especially cheering is the suggestion that politics is not to agitate the country. Now that the Democrats have taken and published a straw vote, there seems no reason for present disturbance, in either party.
No extra Congress, no extra taxes and no extra politics make the wisest proposals for relief that have yet been announced.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge Says: Dispatches Written by Former-President Coolidge and Syndicated to Newspapers in 1930-1931 (Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation)
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Greg Harkenrider who prepared this document for digital publication.