"We are often told that we are a rich country, and we are. We are often reminded that we are in the best financial condition of any of the great powers, and we are. But we must remember that we also have a broader scale of existence and a higher standard of living. We have a freer Government and a more flexible organization of society. Where more is given, more is required. A tropical state of savagery almost maintains itself. American civilization is the product of a constant and mighty effort. One of the greatest perils to an extensive republic is the disregard of individual rights.
In our own country such rights do not appear to be in immediate danger from direct attack, but they are always in jeopardy through indirect action."
– President Calvin Coolidge – At a meeting of the Business Organization of the Government at Memorial Continental Hall, June 30, 1924.
“There is no reason for Americans to lack confidence in themselves or
their institutions. Let him who doubts them look about him. Let him
consider the power of his country, its agriculture, its industry, its
commerce, its development of the arts and sciences, its great cities,
its enormous wealth, its organized society, and let him remember that
all this is the accomplishment of but three centuries. Surely we must
conclude that here is a people with a character which is not to be
shaken.” The Price of Freedom p. 181
“They criticize me for harping on the obvious; perhaps some day I'll
write on the importance of the obvious. If all the folks in the United
States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most
of our big problems would take care of themselves.”
“The people of our country are sovereign. If they do not vote they
abdicate that sovereignty, and they may be entirely sure that if they
relinquish it other forces will seize
it, and if they fail to govern themselves some other power will rise up
to govern them. The choice is always before them—whether they will be
slaves or whether they will be free. The only way to be free is to
exercise actively and energetically the privileges, and discharge
faithfully the duties which make freedom. It is not to be secured by
passive resistance. It is the result of energy and action.”
—Calvin Coolidge, excerpt from a radio address on “The Duties of Citizenship” given from the White House, November 3, 1924.
Governor Calvin Coolidge introduces the Laffer Curve: "There is a limit
to the taxing power of a State beyond which increased rates produce
decreased revenue. If that be exceeded intangible securities and other
personal property become driven out of its jurisdiction, industry cannot
meet its less burdened competitors, and no capital will be found for
enlarging old or starting new enterprises. Such
a condition means first stagnation, then decay and dissolution. There
is before us a danger that our resources may be taxed out of existence
and our prosperity destroyed."
Speeches as Governor of Mass. (1919-1920) Address to the General Court beginning the 2nd year as Governor of Massachusetts January 8, 1920
The past always limits and directs the future. Recent years have been
marked by much change and great progress. It has been a time requiring
great effort. To discharge paramount duties great obligations have been
incurred. During the past year the Constitution of the Commonwealth has
been revised. The entire executive administration has been reorganized. A
forty eight hour week has been established. The problems of
reconstruction have been solved. Disloyal speech and action has been
prohibited. Profiteering has been curbed. Transportation has been
relieved. A great forward step has been taken in education. No one year
has ever witnessed like accomplishments. Considered as a whole it has
been stupendous. The commitments of the Commonwealth must be met, the
various departments supported and strengthened, the public security
maintained, the organism of government must continue to grow, but new
enterprises should be under taken only in case of the most urgent public
necessity. In general, it is a time to conserve, to retrench rather
than to reform, a time to stabilize the administration of the present
laws rather than to see new legislation. Not law, but perseverance; and
patience.
It is not to be understood that additional
legislation will never be required. The future will require it. But it
is the present that must be considered. This Commonwealth is less in
need of new laws than ever before. The greatest benefit you can confer
is the speedy making of necessary appropriations, adjustment of some
details, and adjournment. This is not criticism. The completeness of the
laws reflects the ability and accomplishments of the General Court. You
can display no greater wisdom than by resisting proposals for needless
legislation.
There is a limit to the taxing power of a State
beyond which increased rates produce decreased revenue. If that be
exceeded intangible securities and other personal property become driven
out of its jurisdiction, industry cannot meet its less burdened
competitors, and no capital will be found for enlarging old or starting
new enterprises. Such a condition means first stagnation, then decay and
dissolution. There is before us a danger that our resources may be
taxed out of existence and our prosperity destroyed.
Another
and most important consideration, a fact that cannot be controverted, is
that taxes have to be paid by the public They cannot be imposed on any
class. There is no power that can prevent a distribution of the burden.
The landlord may be the one who sends a check to the public treasury,
but his tenants nevertheless make the payment. A great manufacturer may
contribute a large share to his income, but still the money comes from
the consumer. Taxes must and do fall on the people in whatever form or
name they are laid. There is no other source rich enough or powerful
enough to meet the public requirements. It is useless to delude
ourselves, and fraudulent to attempt to delude others, with the claim
that the public revenues are or can be derived from any source save the
people them selves. Property cannot long be taxed. It can be
confiscated. Ultimately it is always the user of property that is taxed.
In Massachusetts the users of the property are the people. The taxes
are paid by the people.
It is impossible to escape the
conclusion that high taxes make high prices. So long as the cost of
government is high the cost of living will be high. This is usually a
source of misunderstanding and always a source of discontent. The duty
that government now owes to the people is to reduce their burdens by
paying off the obligations that came from the war rather than imposing
additional burdens for the support of new projects. The Commonwealth
needs a double portion of the civilizing influence of conservation and
economy. Having met our war obligation to pay, let us meet our peace
obligation to save.
The unsound social and economic theories
which deluge the earth from time to time are not the progeny of stalwart
men and women. Sound bodies do not breed unsound doctrines. Along with a
vigorous training for physical development should go a teaching to
think healthful thoughts. For after all it must be remembered that “as a
man thinketh in his heart so is he”.
For some years
Massachusetts has been committed to the policy of aiding children by
assisting the mother to care for them. This has proved to be a wise and
beneficial policy. Institutional and family care have much to commend
them, but no mother should be parted from her children on account of
poverty alone. This policy may well be extended in its scope to the
giving aid, nursing and medical care to needy expectant mothers.
Motherhood should be honored, childhood protected. I earnestly recommend
the extension of this relief through the same or like agencies as now
administer mothers’ aid. In our desire to assist those who come from
other shores we must not neglect the native born. Coming into the royal
estate of every American he should have a royal welcome. It was the wise
men who bore gifts. A wise Commonwealth will not be neglectful of the
days of nativity.
Our population is in the main industrial, but
the products of our soil reach a very substantial figure, probably well
over one hundred millions of dollars. There is no better opportunity
for raising citizens than on the farm. Every encouragement should be
extended to the farmers. In particular, his keeping of domestic animals
should be stimulated. Our efforts should be directed to the prosperity
of the men now on the farms. We have some untilled soil. But if the
present farmer is made successful and prosperous, if the rewards of his
labors are made secure, there will be no lack of others to enter the
field and use all available land. It is fundamental that the way to
assist an enterprise is to assist the people engaged in the enterprise.
Make he farmer succeed and the success of farming is established.
Facilities for this purpose are already provided. Let a continuing
appropriation insure their continued functioning.
It is
preeminently the province of government to protect the weak. The average
citizen does not lead the life of independence that was his in former
days under a less complex order of society. When a family tilled the
soil and produced its own support it was independent. When it produces
but one article, and that in a plant owned by others, it is dependent.
It may be infinitely better off under the latter plan, but it is evident
it needs a protection which before was not required. Let Massachusetts
continue to regard with the gravest solicitude the well being of her
people. By prescribed law, by authorized publicity, by informed public
opinion let her continue to strive to provide that all conditions under
which her citizens live are worthy of the high estate of man. Healthful
housing, wholesome food, sanitary working conditions, reasonable hours, a
fair wage for a fair day’s work, opportunity full and free, justice
speedy and impartial and at a cost within the reach of all, are among
the objects not only to be sought but made absolutely certain and
secure. Government is not, must not be, a cold impersonal machine, but a
human and more human agency, appealing to the reason, satisfying the
heart, full of mercy, assisting the good, resisting the wrong,
delivering the weak from any impositions of the strong. Massachusetts is
committed to this and will strive consistently for its complete
realization. This is not paternalism. It is not a servitude imposed from
without, but the freedom of a righteous self direction from within.
A great money prosperity abounds. In accordance with what had for years
been so loudly proclaimed many supposed that in such prosperity they
would find complete satisfaction. In this they have been, of course,
sorely disappointed. They now think if they could get more they would
find the satisfaction that has thus far eluded them. This lies at the
basis of the present discontent. Prosperity must be sought, but it does
not cure discontent.
Some say our economic and wage systems are
all wrong. They would apply some other principle. They are not wrong.
They may have been used wrongfully. It is the conception of them and
their purpose that is wrong. We are suffering from a shortage of all
kinds of materials. The only remedy is to put more effort, not less,
into production. If we want more coal and wheat and sugar we shall get
it by giving more cloth and shoes and machinery. Changes in prices will
give no ultimate relief. Shortage is met only by saving and production.
Men have learned very well how to get; they need to be encouraged to
save.
Saving and production govern distribution. Greater
distribution comes from greater capital. If we can produce and save,
economic law distributes. No power can prevent it. Capital must accrue
to the use of the people or it perishes. The shop, the railroad, the
bank are all for the use of the people. Even the millionaire finds he
must, for his own satisfaction, turn over his art gallery to the public.
We cannot help the people by denouncing these fundamental principles
for their delight, but by teaching them for their advantage. It is time
to discard fictions and bring forward realities.
We need to
change our standards; not of property but of thought. We need to stop
trying to be better than some one else, and start doing something for
some one else. If we put all the emphasis on our material prosperity,
that prosperity will perish, and with it will perish our civilization.
The best that is in man is not bought with a price. To offer money only
is to appeal to his weakness not his strength. Man is more than of the
earth. He will not find his satisfaction in things that are of the earth
earthy. Employer and employed must find their satisfaction not in a
money return, but in a service rendered; not in the quantity of goods,
but the quality of character. Industry must be humanized not destroyed.
It must be the instrument not of selfishness but of service. Change not
the law but the attitude of the mind. Let our citizens look not to false
prophets but to the Pilgrims; let them fix their eyes on Plymouth Rock
as well as Beacon Hill. The supreme choice must be not the things that
are seen but the things that are unseen.
Our government belongs
to the people. Our property belongs to the people. It is distributed.
They own it. The taxes are paid by the people. They bear the burdens.
The benefits of government must accrue to the people; not to one class
but to all classes; to all the people. The functions, the power, the
sovereignty of the government must be kept where they have been placed
by the Constitution and laws of the people. Not private will, but that
public will, which speaks with a divine sanction, must prevail.
There are strident voices urging resistance to law in the name of
freedom. They are not seeking freedom even for them selves. They have
it. They are seeking to enslave others. Their works are evil. They know
it. They must be resisted. The evil they represent must be overcome by
the good others represent. These ideas which are wrong, for the most
part imported, must be supplanted by ideas which are right. This can be
done. The meaning of America is a power which cannot be over come.
Massachusetts must lead in teaching it. Prosecution of the criminal and
education of the ignorant are the remedies.
It is fundamental
that freedom is not to be secured by disobedience to law. Even the
freedom of the slave depended on the supremacy of the Constitution.
There is no mystery about this. “They who sin are the servants of sin”.
They who break the laws are the slaves of their own crime. It is not for
the advantage of others that the citizen is abjured to obey the laws,
but for his own advantage. What he claims a right to do to others, that
must he admit others have a right to do to him. His obedience is his own
protection. He is not submitting himself to the dictates of others, but
responding to the requirements of his own nature. Laws are not
manufactured, they are not imposed; they are rules of action existing
from everlasting to everlasting. He who resists them resists himself; he
commits suicide. The nature of man requires sovereignty. Government
must govern. To obey is life. To disobey is death. Organized government
is the expression of the life of the Commonwealth. Into your hands is
entrusted the grave responsibility of its protection and perpetuation.
Proclamation 1819—Thanksgiving, 1927 October 26, 1927
Under
the guidance and watchful care of a Divine and beneficent Providence
this country has been carried safely through another year. Almighty God
has continued to bestow upon us the light of His countenance, and we
have prospered. Not alone have we enjoyed material success, but we have
advanced in wisdom and in spiritual understanding. The products of our
fields and our factories and of our manifold activities have been
maintained on a high level. We have gained in knowledge of the higher
values of life. There has been advancement in our physical well-being.
We have increased our desire for the things that minister to the mind
and to the soul. We have raised the mental and moral standards of life. We
have had the blessings of peace and of honorable and friendly relations
with our sister nations throughout the world. Disasters visiting
certain of our States have touched the heart of a sympathetic nation,
which has responded generously out of its abundance. In continuing to
remember those in affliction we should rejoice in our ability to give
them relief. Now
that these twelve months are drawing to a close, it is fitting that, as
a nation, and as individuals, in accordance with time-honored and
sacred custom, we should consider the manifold blessings granted to us.
While in gratitude we rejoice, we should humbly pray that we may be
worthy of a continuation of Divine favor. Wherefore, I, Calvin Coolidge, President
of the United States, do hereby set apart and designate Thursday, the
twenty-fourth day of November, next, as a day of thanksgiving and
prayer, and recommend and urge that on that day our people lay aside
their usual tasks, and by the family fireside and in their accustomed
places of public worship give thanks to Him who holds us all in the
hollow of His hand.
"To support the Constitution, to observe the laws, is to be true to our own higher nature. That is the path, and the only path towards liberty. To resist them and violate them is to become enemies to ourselves and instruments of our own destruction. That is the path towards servitude."
"A police force administered on the assumption that the violation of some laws may be ignored has started toward demoralization. The community which approves such administration is making dangerous concessions...The conclusion is inescapable that laxity of administration reacts upon public opinion, causing cynicism and loss of confidence in both law and its enforcement and, therefore in its observance."
"Our system of government made up of three separate and independent departments, our divided sovereignty composed of Nation and State, the matchless wisdom that is enshrined in our Constitution, all these need constant effort and tireless vigilance for their protection and support. In a republic the first rule for the guidance of the citizen is obedience to law. Under a despotism the law may be imposed upon the subject. He has no voice in its making, no influence in its administration, it does not represent him.
Under a free government the citizen makes his own laws, chooses his own administrators, which do represent him. Those who want their rights respected under the Constitution and the law ought to set the example themselves of observing the Constitution and the law. While there may be those of high intelligence who violate the law at times, barbarians and the defective always violate it. Those who disregard the rules of society are not exhibiting a superior intelligence, are not promoting freedom and independence, are not following the path of civilization, but are displaying the traits of ignorance, of servitude, of savagery, and treading the way that leads back to the jungle
