John Calvin Coolidge - Address to the General Court beginning the 2nd year as Governor of Massachusetts

Address to the General Court beginning
the 2nd year as Governor of Massachusetts

January 8, 1920

“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.”