Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed. written by Calvin Coolidge
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Calvin Coolidge >> Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed.
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10 HAVE FAITH
IN
MASSACHUSETTS
[Illustration: Portrait of Calvin Coolidge _Copyright, Notman_]
HAVE FAITH
IN
MASSACHUSETTS
_A Collection of Speeches and Messages_
BY
CALVIN COOLIDGE
_Governor of Massachusetts_
SECOND EDITION ENLARGED
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
_The Riverside Press Cambridge_
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
There are certain fundamental principles of sound community life which
cannot be stated too emphatically or too often. Few public men of to-day
have shown a finer combination of right feeling and clear thinking about
these principles, with a gift for the pithy expression of them, than has
Governor Calvin Coolidge. It was an accurate phrase that President
Meiklejohn used when, in conferring the degree of Doctor of Laws on him
at Amherst College last June, he complimented him on teaching the lesson
of "adequate brevity."
His speeches and messages abound in evidences of this gift, but in the
main the speeches are not easily accessible. It has seemed to some of
Governor Coolidge's admirers, as it has to the publishers of this little
volume, that a real public service might be rendered by making a
careful selection from the best of the speeches and issuing them in an
attractive and convenient form. With his permission this has been done,
and it is hoped that many readers will welcome the book in this time of
special need of inspiring and steadying influences.
It is a time when all men should realize that, in the words of Governor
Coolidge himself, "Laws must rest on the eternal foundations of
righteousness"; that "Industry, thrift, character are not conferred by
act or resolve. Government cannot relieve from toil." It is a time when
we must "have faith in Massachusetts. We need a broader, firmer, deeper
faith in the people,--a faith that men desire to do right, that the
Commonwealth is founded upon a righteousness which will endure."
THE EDITORS
_Boston, September_, 1919
NOTE TO SECOND EDITION
In the issue of a second edition of this collection of Governor
Coolidge's speeches and messages, the opportunity has been taken to add
a proclamation and three recently delivered addresses, which bring the
volume practically up to the date of publication.
_Boston, October, 1919_
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
_By His Excellency_
CALVIN COOLIDGE
GOVERNOR
A PROCLAMATION
Massachusetts has many glories. The last one she would wish to surrender
is the glory of the men who have served her in war. While such devotion
lives the Commonwealth is secure. Whatever dangers may threaten from
within or without she can view them calmly. Turning to her veterans she
can say "These are our defenders. They are invincible. In them is our
safety."
War is the rule of force. Peace is the reign of law. When Massachusetts
was settled the Pilgrims first dedicated themselves to a reign of law.
When they set foot on Plymouth Rock they brought the Mayflower Compact,
in which, calling on the Creator to witness, they agreed with each other
to make just laws and render due submission and obedience. The date of
that American document was written November 11, 1620.
After more than five years of the bitterest war in human experience, the
last great stronghold of force, surrendering to the demands of America
and her allies, agreed to cast aside the sword and live under the law.
The date of that world document was written November 11, 1918.
Now, therefore, in grateful commemoration of the unsurpassed deeds of
heroism performed by the service men of Massachusetts, of the sacrifice
of her people, sometimes greater than life itself, of the service
rendered by every war charity and organization, to honor those who bore
arms, to recognize those who supported the government, in accordance
with the law of the current year
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1919
is set apart as a holiday for general observance and celebration of the
home coming of Massachusetts soldiers, sailors and marines. In that
welcome may we dedicate ourselves to a continued support of the cause
for which they freely offered life, that there may be wiped away
everywhere the burden of, injustice and every attempt to rule by force,
and that there may be ushered in a reign of law, that will ease the weak
of their great burdens, and leave the strong, unhampered by the
opposition of evil men, the opportunity to exert their whole energy for
the welfare of their fellow men. Let war and all force end, and peace
and all law reign.
GIVEN at the Executive Chamber, in Boston, this twenty-eighth day of
October, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen,
and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred
and forty-fourth.
[Illustration: Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts]
By His Excellency the Governor.
[Illustration: signatures of Calvin Coolidge and Albert P. Langley]
_Secretary of the Commonwealth._
God Save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
CONTENTS
I. To the State Senate on Being Elected its President,
January 7, 1914
II. Amherst College Alumni Association, Boston, February 4, 1916
III. Brockton Chamber of Commerce, April 11, 1916
IV. At the Home of Daniel Webster, Marshfield, July 4, 1916
V. Riverside, August 28, 1916
VI. At the Home of Augustus P. Gardner, Hamilton, September, 1916
VII. Lafayette Banquet, Fall River, September 4, 1913
VIII. Norfolk Republican Club, Boston, October 9, 1916
IX. Public Meeting on the High Cost of Living, Faneuil Hall,
December 9, 1916
X. One Hundredth Anniversary Dinner of the Provident Institution
for Savings, December 13, 1916
XI. Associated Industries Dinner, Boston, December 15, 1916
XII. On the Nature of Politics
XIII. Tremont Temple, November 3, 1917
XIV. Dedication of Town-House, Weston, November 27, 1917
XV. Amherst Alumni Dinner, Springfield, March 15, 1918
XVI. Message for the Boston _Post_, April 22, 1918
XVII. Roxbury Historical Society, Bunker Hill Day, June 17, 1918
XVIII. Fairhaven, July 4, 1918
XIX. Somerville Republican City Committee, August 7, 1918
XX. Written for the Sunday _Advertiser_ and _American_,
September 1, 1918
XXI. Essex County Club, Lynnfield, September 14, 1918
XXII. Tremont Temple, November 2, 1918
XXIII. Faneuil Hall, November 4, 1918
XXIV. From Inaugural Address as Governor, January 2, 1919
XXV. Statement on the Death of Theodore Roosevelt
XXVI. Lincoln Day Proclamation, January 30, 1919
XXVII. Introducing Henry Cabot Lodge and A. Lawrence Lowell at the
Debate on the League of Nations, Symphony Hall, March 19, 1919
XXVIII. Veto of Salary Increase
XXIX. Flag Day Proclamation, May 26, 1919
XXX. Amherst College Commencement, June 18, 1919
XXXI. Harvard University Commencement, June 19, 1919
XXXII. Plymouth, Labor Day, September 1, 1919
XXXIII. Westfield, September 3, 1919
XXXIV. A Proclamation, September 11, 1919
XXXV. An Order to the Police Commissioner of Boston,
September 11, 1919
XXXVI. A Telegram to Samuel Gompers, September 14, 1919
XXXVII. A Proclamation, September 24, 1919
XXXVIII. Holy Cross College, June 25, 1919
XXXIX. Republican State Convention, Tremont Temple, October 4, 1919
XL. Williams College, October 17, 1919
XLI. Concerning Teachers' Salaries, October 29, 1919
XLII. Statement to the Press, Election Day, November 4, 1919
XLIII. Speech at Tremont Temple, Saturday, November 1, 1919, 8 P.M.
HAVE FAITH
IN
MASSACHUSETTS
I
TO THE STATE SENATE ON BEING ELECTED ITS PRESIDENT
JANUARY 7, 1914
Honorable Senators:--I thank you--with gratitude for the high honor
given, with appreciation for the solemn obligations assumed--I thank
you.
This Commonwealth is one. We are all members of one body. The welfare of
the weakest and the welfare of the most powerful are inseparably bound
together. Industry cannot flourish if labor languish. Transportation
cannot prosper if manufactures decline. The general welfare cannot be
provided for in any one act, but it is well to remember that the benefit
of one is the benefit of all, and the neglect of one is the neglect of
all. The suspension of one man's dividends is the suspension of another
man's pay envelope.
Men do not make laws. They do but discover them. Laws must be justified
by something more than the will of the majority. They must rest on the
eternal foundation of righteousness. That state is most fortunate in its
form of government which has the aptest instruments for the discovery of
laws. The latest, most modern, and nearest perfect system that
statesmanship has devised is representative government. Its weakness is
the weakness of us imperfect human beings who administer it. Its
strength is that even such administration secures to the people more
blessings than any other system ever produced. No nation has discarded
it and retained liberty. Representative government must be preserved.
Courts are established, not to determine the popularity of a cause, but
to adjudicate and enforce rights. No litigant should be required to
submit his case to the hazard and expense of a political campaign. No
judge should be required to seek or receive political rewards. The
courts of Massachusetts are known and honored wherever men love justice.
Let their glory suffer no diminution at our hands. The electorate and
judiciary cannot combine. A hearing means a hearing. When the trial of
causes goes outside the court-room, Anglo-Saxon constitutional
government ends.
The people cannot look to legislation generally for success. Industry,
thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve. Government
cannot relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards
of service. It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize
distinguished merit. The normal must care for themselves.
Self-government means self-support.
Man is born into the universe with a personality that is his own. He
has a right that is founded upon the constitution of the universe to
have property that is his own. Ultimately, property rights and personal
rights are the same thing. The one cannot be preserved if the other be
violated. Each man is entitled to his rights and the rewards of his
service be they never so large or never so small.
History reveals no civilized people among whom there were not a highly
educated class, and large aggregations of wealth, represented usually by
the clergy and the nobility. Inspiration has always come from above.
Diffusion of learning has come down from the university to the common
school--the kindergarten is last. No one would now expect to aid the
common school by abolishing higher education.
It may be that the diffusion of wealth works in an analogous way. As the
little red schoolhouse is builded in the college, it may be that the
fostering and protection of large aggregations of wealth are the only
foundation on which to build the prosperity of the whole people. Large
profits mean large pay rolls. But profits must be the result of service
performed. In no land are there so many and such large aggregations of
wealth as here; in no land do they perform larger service; in no land
will the work of a day bring so large a reward in material and spiritual
welfare.
Have faith in Massachusetts. In some unimportant detail some other
States may surpass her, but in the general results, there is no place on
earth where the people secure, in a larger measure, the blessings of
organized government, and nowhere can those functions more properly be
termed self-government.
Do the day's work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever
objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve
the people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a
stand-patter, but don't be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a
demagogue, but don't be a demagogue. Don't hesitate to be as
revolutionary as science. Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the
multiplication table. Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down
the strong. Don't hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to
catch up with legislation.
We need a broader, firmer, deeper faith in the people--a faith that men
desire to do right, that the Commonwealth is founded upon a
righteousness which will endure, a reconstructed faith that the final
approval of the people is given not to demagogues, slavishly pandering
to their selfishness, merchandising with the clamor of the hour, but to
statesmen, ministering to their welfare, representing their deep,
silent, abiding convictions.
Statutes must appeal to more than material welfare. Wages won't satisfy,
be they never so large. Nor houses; nor lands; nor coupons, though they
fall thick as the leaves of autumn. Man has a spiritual nature. Touch
it, and it must respond as the magnet responds to the pole. To that, not
to selfishness, let the laws of the Commonwealth appeal. Recognize the
immortal worth and dignity of man. Let the laws of Massachusetts
proclaim to her humblest citizen, performing the most menial task, the
recognition of his manhood, the recognition that all men are peers, the
humblest with the most exalted, the recognition that all work is
glorified. Such is the path to equality before the law. Such is the
foundation of liberty under the law. Such is the sublime revelation of
man's relation to man--Democracy.
II
AMHERST COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, BOSTON
FEBRUARY 4, 1916
We live in an age which questions everything. The past generation was
one of religious criticism. This is one of commercial criticism.
We have seen the development of great industries. It has been
represented that some of these have not been free from blame. In this
development some men have seemed to prosper beyond the measure of their
service, while others have appeared to be bound to toil beyond their
strength for less than a decent livelihood.
As a result of criticising these conditions there has grown up a too
well-developed public opinion along two lines; one, that the men engaged
in great affairs are selfish and greedy and not to be trusted, that
business activity is not moral and the whole system is to be condemned;
and the other, that employment, that work, is a curse to man, and that
working hours ought to be as short as possible or in some way abolished.
After criticism, our religious faith emerged clearer and stronger and
freed from doubt. So will our business relations emerge, purified but
justified.
The evidence of evolution and the facts of history tell us of the
progress and development of man through various steps and ages, known by
various names. We learn of the stone age, the bronze, and the iron age.
We can see the different steps in the growth of the forms of government;
how anarchy was put down by the strong arm of the despot, of the growth
of aristocracy, of limited monarchies and of parliaments, and finally
democracy.
But in all these changes man took but one step at a time. Where we can
trace history, no race ever stepped directly from the stone age to the
iron age and no nation ever passed directly from depotism to democracy.
Each advance has been made only when a previous stage was approaching
perfection, even to conditions which are now sometimes lost arts.
We have reached the age of invention, of commerce, of great industrial
enterprise. It is often referred to as selfish and materialistic.
Our economic system has been attacked from above and from below. But the
short answer lies in the teachings of history. The hope of a Watt or an
Edison lay in the men who chipped flint to perfection. The seed of
democracy lay in a perfected despotism. The hope of to-morrow lies in
the development of the instruments of to-day. The prospect of advance
lies in maintaining those conditions which have stimulated invention and
industry and commerce. The only road to a more progressive age lies in
perfecting the instrumentalities of this age. The only hope for peace
lies in the perfection of the arts of war.
"We build the ladder by which we rise ...
* * * * *
And we mount to the summit round by round."
All growth depends upon activity. Life is manifest only by action. There
is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and
effort means work. Work is not a curse, it is the prerogative of
intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of
civilization. Savages do not work. The growth of a sentiment that
despises work is an appeal from civilization to barbarism.
I would not be understood as making a sweeping criticism of current
legislation along these lines. I, too, rejoice that an awakened
conscience has outlawed commercial standards that were false or low and
that an awakened humanity has decreed that the working and living
condition of our citizens must be worthy of true manhood and true
womanhood.
I agree that the measure of success is not merchandise but character.
But I do criticise those sentiments, held in all too respectable
quarters, that our economic system is fundamentally wrong, that commerce
is only selfishness, and that our citizens, holding the hope of all that
America means, are living in industrial slavery. I appeal to Amherst men
to reiterate and sustain the Amherst doctrine, that the man who builds a
factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there,
and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.
III
BROCKTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
APRIL 11, 1916
Man's nature drives him ever onward. He is forever seeking development.
At one time it may be by the chase, at another by warfare, and again by
the quiet arts of peace and commerce, but something within is ever
calling him on to "replenish the earth and subdue it."
It may be of little importance to determine at any time just where we
are, but it is of the utmost importance to determine whither we are
going. Set the course aright and time must bring mankind to the ultimate
goal.
We are living in a commercial age. It is often designated as selfish and
materialistic. We are told that everything has been commercialized. They
say it has not been enough that this spirit should dominate the marts
of trade, it has spread to every avenue of human endeavor, to our arts,
our sciences and professions, our politics, our educational institutions
and even into the pulpit; and because of this there are those who have
gone so far in their criticism of commercialism as to advocate the
destruction of all enterprise and the abolition of all property.
Destructive criticism is always easy because, despite some campaign
oratory, some of us are not yet perfect. But constructive criticism is
not so easy. The faults of commercialism, like many other faults, lie in
the use we make of it. Before we decide upon a wholesale condemnation of
the most noteworthy spirit of modern times it would be well to examine
carefully what that spirit has done to advance the welfare of mankind.
Wherever we can read human history, the answer is always the same. Where
commerce has flourished there civilization has increased. It has not
sufficed that men should tend their flocks, and maintain themselves in
comfort on their industry alone, however great. It is only when the
exchange of products begins that development follows. This was the case
in ancient Babylon, whose records of trade and banking we are just
beginning to read. Their merchandise went by canal and caravan to the
ends of the earth. It was not the war galleys, but the merchant vessel
of Phoenicia, of Tyre, and Carthage that brought them civilization and
power. To-day it is not the battle fleet, but the mercantile marine
which in the end will determine the destiny of nations. The advance of
our own land has been due to our trade, and the comfort and happiness of
our people are dependent on our general business conditions. It is only
a figure of poetry that "wealth accumulates and men decay." Where wealth
has accumulated, there the arts and sciences have flourished, there
education has been diffused, and of contemplation liberty has been born.
The progress of man has been measured by his commercial prosperity. I
believe that these considerations are sufficient to justify our business
enterprise and activity, but there are still deeper reasons. I have
intended to indicate not only that commerce is an instrument of great
power, but that commercial development is necessary to all human
progress. What, then, of the prevalent criticism? Men have mistaken the
means for the end. It is not enough for the individual or the nation to
acquire riches. Money will not purchase character or good government. We
are under the injunction to "replenish the earth and subdue it," not so
much because of the help a new earth will be to us, as because by that
process man is to find himself and thereby realize his highest destiny.
Men must work for more than wages, factories must turn out more than
merchandise, or there is naught but black despair ahead.
If material rewards be the only measure of success, there is no hope of
a peaceful solution of our social questions, for they will never be
large enough to satisfy. But such is not the case. Men struggle for
material success because that is the path, the process, to the
development of character. We ought to demand economic justice, but most
of all because it is justice. We must forever realize that material
rewards are limited and in a sense they are only incidental, but the
development of character is unlimited and is the only essential. The
measure of success is not the quantity of merchandise, but the quality
of manhood which is produced.
These, then, are the justifying conceptions of the spirit of our age;
that commerce is the foundation of human progress and prosperity and the
great artisan of human character. Let us dismiss the general indictment
that has all too long hung over business enterprise. While we continue
to condemn, unsparingly, selfishness and greed and all trafficking in
the natural rights of man, let us not forget to respect thrift and
industry and enterprise. Let us look to the service rather than to the
reward. Then shall we see in our industrial army, from the most exalted
captain to the humblest soldier in the ranks, a purpose worthy to
minister to the highest needs of man and to fulfil the hope of a fairer
day.
IV
AT THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD
JULY 4, 1916
History is revelation. It is the manifestation in human affairs of a
"power not ourselves that makes for righteousness." Savages have no
history. It is the mark of civilization. This New England of ours
slumbered from the dawn of creation until the beginning of the
seventeenth century, not unpeopled, but with no record of human events
worthy of a name. Different races came, and lived, and vanished, but the
story of their existence has little more of interest for us than the
story the naturalist tells of the animal kingdom, or the geologist
relates of the formation of the crust of the earth. It takes men of
larger vision and higher inspiration, with a power to impart a larger
vision and a higher inspiration to the people, to make history. It is
not a negative, but a positive achievement. It is unconcerned with
idolatry or despotism or treason or rebellion or betrayal, but bows in
reverence before Moses or Hampden or Washington or Lincoln or the Light
that shone on Calvary.
July 4, 1776, was a day of history in its high and true significance.
Not because the underlying principles set out in the Declaration of
Independence were new; they are older than the Christian religion, or
Greek philosophy, nor was it because history is made by proclamation or
declaration; history is made only by action. But it was an historic day
because the representatives of three millions of people there vocalized
Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill, which gave notice to the world
that they were acting, and proposed to act, and to found an independent
nation, on the theory that "all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The wonder and
glory of the American people is not the ringing declaration of that day,
but the action, then already begun, and in the process of being carried
out in spite of every obstacle that war could interpose, making the
theory of freedom and equality a reality. We revere that day because it
marks the beginnings of independence, the beginnings of a constitution
that was finally to give universal freedom and equality to all American
citizens, the beginnings of a government that was to recognize beyond
all others the power and worth and dignity of man. There began the first
of governments to acknowledge that it was founded on the sovereignty of
the people. There the world first beheld the revelation of modern
democracy.
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