Date: May 18, 1931
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
If Continental Europe can work out some plan for economic unity it will be of much profit to the world. The difficulties are great. The main approach to economic unity has been through political unity. That was what made the United States. The political co-operation exercised through the League of Nations has been helpful but it has been far from abolishing age-old race and national antagonisms.
The rivalries that exist among different sections of our own country would certainly result in independent antagonistic action if they were not restrained by a strong central government. Perhaps European states can conquer a more impetuous tendency. If it is done, there will be a large enough population with a common interest to furnish better support for mass production. The present inability of the Continental countries to market such production is their peculiar weakness. A tariff fails to help them in the way it helps us. A strong and prosperous Europe, so peaceful in response to mutual interests that it can raise the living standards of its people, should be welcome everywhere. Our interests in Europe are so great that, as long as our own standards are protected, the better off she is the better off we shall be.
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 Robert Manchester who prepared this document for digital publication.