Date: April 9, 1931
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
We cannot make any proper estimate of the present or the future without taking into consideration the natural and unconquerable impulse of human nature to improve, produce, and progress. Left to itself it will find a way.
A reliable publication recently stated that last year over six hundred new tools were perfected to make the labor of man more effective and more expeditious. The record of new corporations organized in the State of New York for the March quarter was over sixty-five hundred. That was thirty-one more than the corresponding period in the previous year. A survey of industrial conditions about the metropolitan area of New York City discloses that four years ago there were thirty-four thousand manufacturing plants with an average of twenty-nine employees.
These accomplishments are not the result of huge aggregations of capital and great engineering skill—they represent the inherent creative energy and ingenuity of the people. This is apparent in every work-shop and on every farm in the land. That is the spirit of life. Nowhere has it been so predominant as the United States. It is a guarantee for the future.
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 Katelyn Cai who prepared this document for digital publication.