Coolidge: "Society is in much more danger from encumbering the National Government beyond its wisdom to comprehend, or its ability to administer.."

"In our country the people are sovereign and independent, and must accept the resulting responsibilities. It is their duty to support themselves and support the Government. That is the business of the Nation, whatever the charity of the Nation may require. The functions which the Congress are to discharge are not those of local government but of National Government. The greatest solicitude should be exercised to prevent any encroachment upon the rights of the States or their various political subdivisions. Local self-government is one of our most precious possessions. It is the greatest contributing factor to the stability strength liberty, and progress of the Nation. It ought not to be infringed by assault or undermined by purchase. It ought not to abdicate its power through weakness or resign its authority through favor. It does not at all follow that because abuses exist it is the concern of the Federal Government to attempt the reform.

Society is in much more danger from encumbering the National Government beyond its wisdom to comprehend, or its ability to administer, than from leaving the local communities to bear their own burdens and remedy their own evils. Our local habit and custom is so strong, our variety of race and creed is so great the Federal authority is so tenuous, that the area within which it can function successfully is very limited. The wiser policy is to leave the localities, so far as we can, possessed of their own sources of revenue and charged with their own obligations." - From Third Annual Message of December 8, 1925

Calvin Coolidge: Immigration and the Policy of Wage Protection- From "The High Place of Labor" in Coolidge's Book "Foundations of the Republic."

"It is learning the problems of enterprise and management by actual experience. This again is the working out of the American ideal in industry. It is the beginning of a more complete economic equality among all the people. I believe it to be the beginning of an era of better understanding, more sympathy, and more fellowship, among those who serve the common welfare through investment and management, and those who serve as wage earners. We have yet a long way to go, but progress has begun and the way lies open to a more complete understanding that will mark the end of industrial strife.
It is my policy to continue these conditions in so far as it is possible and to continue this march of progress. There are two important domestic factors in this situation. One is restrictive immigration. This has been adopted by this administration chiefly for the purpose of maintaining American standards. It undoubtedly has a very great economic effect. We want the people who live in America, no matter what their origin, to be able to continue in the enjoyment of their present unprecedented advantages. This opportunity would certainly be destroyed by the tremendous influx of foreign peoples, if immigration were not restricted. Unemployment would become a menace, and there would follow an almost certain reduction of wages,
with all the attendant distress and despair which is now offered in so many parts of Europe. Our first duty is to our own people. The second important factor is that of a tariff for protection. I have already given you some examples of the wages paid in Europe. Such a scale means goods can be produced much cheaper there than they here. If our policy of protection is to be abandoned, the goods which are now made by the wage earners of  America will be made by the wage earners of Europe. Our own people will be out of employment. Our entire business system will be thrown into confusion with the want and misery which always accompany the hard times of attempted economic readjustment. Under free trade the only way we could meet European competition would be by approaching the European standard of wages. I want to see the American standard of living maintained. We shall not be misled by any appeal for cheap goods, if  we remember that this was completely answered by President McKinley when he stated that cheap goods make cheap men. By restrictive immigration, by adequate protection, I want to prevent America from producing cheap men."

Coolidge on Education

"As we look back upon all this development, while we
know that it was absolutely dependent upon a reign of law,
nevertheless some of us can not help thinking how little of
it has been dependent on acts of legislation. Given their
institutions, the people themselves have in the past, as they
must in the future, to a very large degree worked out their
own salvation without the interposition of the Government.
It is always possible to regulate and supervise by legislation what has already been created, but while legislation can stimulate and encourage, the real creative ability which builds up and develops the country, and in general makes human existence more tolerable and life more complete, has to be supplied by the genius of the people themselves. The Government can supply no substitute for enterprise. As a result of the activity of all these forces, our country has developed enormous resources. It has likewise to be admitted that its requirements are very large, but the fact remains that it has come into a position where it has the accumulations of wealth and means of production more adequately to provide for the welfare of its people, and more securely to establish their physical, mental, and moral well being. You are making your contribution to this great
work in the field of education. It is here especially that
the growth and progress of our country can be most easily
understood." 

"...  It is impossible to conceive that there should
be any increase in agricultural products, in the production
of manufactures, or any other increase in our material
wealth, through ignorance. The reaction to using the re-
sources of the country to develop the brains of the country
through education has always been greatly to stimulate
and increase the power of the people to produce."

"It is necessary also that education should be the hand-
maid of citizenship. Our institutions are constantly and
very properly the subject of critical inquiry. Unless their
nature is comprehended, and their origin is understood,
unless their value be properly assessed, the citizen falls
ready prey to those selfish agitators who would exploit his
prejudices to promote their own advantage. On this day,
of all days, it ought to be made clear that America has had
its revolution and placed the power of Government square-
ly, securely, and entirely in the hands of the people. For
all changes which they may desire, for all grievances which
they may suffer, the ballot box furnishes a complete method
and remedy. Into their hands has been committed com-
plete jurisdiction and control over all the functions of Gov-
ernment. For the most part our institutions are attacked
in the name of social and economic reform. Unless there
be some teaching of sound economics in the schools, the
voter and taxpayer are in danger of accepting vague theories
which lead only to social discontent and public disaster.
The body politic has little chance of choosing patriotic of-
ficials who can administer its financial affairs with wisdom
and safety, unless there is a general diffusion of knowledge
and information on elementary economic subjects sufficient
to create and adequately to support public opinion. Everyone ought to realize that the sole source of national wealth is thrift and industry, and that the sole supply of the public treasury is the toil of the people. "

"...Another element must be secured in the training of cit-
izenship, or all else will be in vain. All of our learning and
science, our culture and our arts, will be of little avail, un-
less they are supported by high character, unless there be
honor, truth, and justice. Unless our material resources are
supported by moral and spiritual resources, there is no
foundation for progress. A trained intelligence can do
much, but there is no substitute for morality, character, and
religious convictions. Unless these abide, American citizen-
ship will be found unequal to its task."

"When it is remembered that ignorance is the most fruitful source of poverty, vice, and crime, it is easy to realize the necessity for removing what is a menace, not only to our social well-being, but to the very existence of the Republic. A failure to meet this obliga-
tion registers a serious and inexcusable defect in our Gov-
ernment. Such a condition not only works to a national
disadvantage, but directly contradicts all our assertions re-
garding human rights. One of the chief rights of an Ameri-
can citizen is the right to an education. The opportunity
to secure it must not only be provided, but if necessary
made compulsory."

Coolidge: "..if the people were going to maintain themselves and administer their own political and social affairs, it was necessary as a purely practical matter that they should have a sufficiently trained and enlightened intelligence to accomplish that end."

"It needed but little contemplation to determine that the greatest obstacle to freedom was ignorance. If there was to be self-government, if there was to be popular sovereignty, if there was
to be an almost unlimited privilege to vote and hold office, if the people were going to maintain themselves and administer their own political and social affairs, it was necessary as a purely practical matter that they should have a sufficiently trained and enlightened intelligence to accomplish that end. Popular government could only be predicated on popular education."

Calvin Coolidge: "I will not permit increases in expenditures that threaten to prevent further tax reduction or that contemplate such an unthinkable thing as increase in taxes."

"So far as it is within my power I will not permit increases in expenditures that threaten to prevent further tax reduction or that contemplate such an unthinkable thing as increase in taxes. If with increasing business our revenues increase, such increase should not be absorbed in new ways of spending. They should be applied to the lowering of taxes. In that
direction lies the public welfare."

Calvin Coolidge: "The duty and the opportunity to-day of the Government's administrators is to...to carry on approved and necessary activities with the smallest possible expenditure."

"In the past twenty years the Government's activities have developed and multiplied in a most extraordinary way. Certainly the initiation of new activities should be discouraged unless essential to the well-being of the Nation. We, the administrators of the Government's great business interests, should have at this time only one thought and policy—to perform efficiently the functions
devolving upon us under the law. And we should accomplish this with the smallest possible demand upon the Treasury. We have made real progress in this direction. Our responsibility to the taxpayers demands further progress."

Calvin Coolidge: Economy in the Interest of All

"One of the first signs of the breaking
down of free government is a disregard by the taxing power
of the right of the people to their own property. It makes
little difference whether such a condition is brought about
through the will of a dictator, through the power of a
military force, or through the pressure of an organized
minority. The result is the same. Unless the people can
enjoy that reasonable security in the possession of their
property, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, against
unreasonable taxation, freedom is at an end. The common
man is restrained and hampered in his ability to secure food
and clothing and shelter. His wages are decreased, his hours
of labor are lengthened. Against the recurring tendency in
this direction there must be interposed the constant effort of
an informed electorate and of patriotic public servants.
The importance of a constant reiteration of these principles
can not be overestimated. They can not be denied. They
must not be ignored. There is a most urgent necessity for those who are charged with the responsibility of government administration to realize that the people of our country can not maintain their own high standards, they can not compete against the lower standards of the rest of the world, unless we are free from excessive taxes. With us, economy is imperative. It is a full test of our national character. Bound up in it is the true cause, not of the property interests, not of any privilege, but of all the people. It is preeminently the
source of popular rights. It is always the people who toil
that pay. It seems to me, therefore, worthy of our highest
endeavor. It is this which gives the real importance to
this meeting.
I would not be misunderstood. I am not advocating par-
simony, I want to be liberal. Public service is entitled to
a suitable reward. But there is a distinct limit to the
amount of public service we can profitably employ. We re-
quire national defense, but it must be limited. We need
public improvements, but they must be gradual. We have
to make some capital investments, but they must be cer-
tain to give fair returns. Every dollar expended must be
made in the light of all our national resources, and all our
national needs."