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EP. 02 - The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge by Calvin Coolidge
In this episode of 'Alex Reads Old Stuff,' host Alex May delves into the life and reflections of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States, through his autobiography. The read...
EP. 02 - The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge by Calvin Coolidge
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Hi, this is Alex May, and you're listening to episode two of Alex Reads Old Stuff, a podcast for sleep. I've heard that my voice makes people drowsy, which I think is a compliment. That gave me an idea. I'll read books in the public domain so I don't get sued and help you fall asleep. Each night I start on a random page so you can focus on relaxing instead of something that might distract you. Tonight we're reading the Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge by the man himself, our 30th US President, Calvin Coolidge. So a fun fact about Silent Cal, as he was known he became president when Warren G. Harding died suddenly in 1923. He finished his first abbreviated term as a popular president, and after winning the election in 1924, he declined to run for a second full term. He stated that if I take another term, I will be in the White House till 1933. Ten years in Washington is longer than any other man has had it too long. Wise words from Silent Cal. Tonight we're going to start on page 33. In the latter part of my course, my scholarship had improved so that I was graduated cum laude. After my course was done, I went home to do a summer's work on the farm, which was to be my last. I had decided to enter the law and expected to attend a law school, but one of my classmates wrote me late in the summer that there was an opportunity to go into the office of Hammond and Field at Northampton, so I applied to them and was accepted. After I'd been there a few days, a most courteous letter came from the Honorable William P. Dillingham, requesting me to call on him at Montpelier and indicating he would take me into his office. He recalled the circumstance when I found him in the Senate after I became vice president, but I had already reverted to Massachusetts, where my family had lived for 150 years before their advent into Vermont. Had this letter reached me sooner, probably it would have changed the whole course of my life. Northampton was the county seat in a quiet but substantial town with pleasant surroundings and fine old traditions reaching back beyond Jonathan Edwards. It was just recovering from the depression of 1893, preparing to eliminate its grade crossings, and starting some new industries that would add the business itself secured from Smith College, which was a growing institution with many hundreds of students. The senior member of the law firm was John C. Hammond, who was considered the leader of the Hampshire Bar. He was a lawyer of great learning and wide business experience, with a remarkable ability in the preparation of pleadings and an Insight that soon brought him to the crucial point of a case. He was massive and strong, rather than elegant, and placed great stress on accuracy. He presented a cause in court with ability and skill. The junior member was Henry P. Field, an able lawyer and a man of engaging personality and polish, who I found was an alderman that appeared to me at the time to be close to the Almighty in importance. I shall always remember with a great deal of gratitude the kindness of these two men to me, that I was now engaged in the serious enterprise of life. I so fully realized that I went to the barber shop and divested myself of the college fashion of long hair. Office hours were from 8 to about 6 o', clock, during which I spent my time in reading Kent's commentaries and in helping prepare writs, deeds, wills and other documents. My evenings I gave to some of the masters of English composition. I read the speeches of Lord Erskine of Webster and Choate. The essays of Macaulay interested me much, and the writings of Carlyle and John Fiske I found very stimulating. Some of the orations of Cicero I translated, being especially attached to the defense of his friend, the poet Archias, because in it he dwelt on the value and consolation of good literature. I read much in Milton and Shakespeare, and found delight in the shorter poems of Kipling, Field and Riley. My first Christmas was made more merry by getting notice that the sons of the American Revolution had awarded me the prize of a gold medal worth about $150 for writing the best essay on the Prince principles fought for in the American Revolution in a competition open to the seniors of all the colleges of the nation. The notice came one day and it was announced to the next morning papers, where Judge Field saw it before I had the chance to tell him. So when he came to the office, he asked me about it. I had not had time to send the news home. And then I had a little vanity in wishing my father to learn of it first from the press, which he did. He had questioned some whether I was really making anything of my education in pretense. I now think not because he doubted it, but because he wished to impress me with the desirability of demonstrating it. But my main effort in those days was to learn the law. The Superior Court had three civil and two criminal terms each year in Northampton. Whenever it was sitting, I spent all my time in the court courtroom. In this way I became familiar with the practical side of trial work. I soon came to see that the counsel who knew the law were the ones who held the attention of the judge. Took the jury with them and won their cases. They were prepared. The office where I was had a very large general practice. Which covered every field. And took them into all the courts of the commonwealth. But little into the federal courts. I assisted in the preparation of cases. And went to court with the members of the firm. To watch all their trial work. And help keep a record of testimony for use in the arguments. It was all a work of absorbing interest to me. The books in the office soon appeared too ponderous for my study. So I bought a supply of students, textbooks and law cases on the principal subjects Necessary for my preparation for the bar. These enabled me to gain a more rapid acquaintance with the main legal principles. Because I did not have to read through so much unimportant detail. As was contained in the usual treatise prepared for a lawyer's library. Which was usually a collection of all the authorities. While what I wanted was the main elements of the law. I was soon conversant with contracts, torts, evidence and real property. With some knowledge of Massachusetts pleading. And had a considerable acquaintance with the practical side of statute law. I do not feel that anyone ever really masters the law. But it is not difficult to master the approaches to the law. So that, given a certain state of facts. It is possible to know how to marshal practically all the legal decisions which apply to them. I think counsel or mistaken in the facts of their case. About as often as they are mistaken in the law. All my waking hours were so fully employed That I found little time for play. My college was but eight miles distant. Yet I did not have any desire to go back to the intercollegiate games. Though I was accustomed to attend the alumni dinner at commencement. There was a canoe club which I joined on the Connecticut. About a mile over the meadow from the town Where I often went on Sunday afternoons. I was full of the joy of doing something in the world. Another reason why I discarded all outside enterprises. And kept strictly to my work and my books. Was because I was keeping my monthly expenditures within $30. Which was furnished me by my father. He would gladly have provided more had I needed it. But I thought that was enough. And was determined to live within it, which I did not. Much was left for any unnecessary pleasantries of life. Soon after I entered the office, Mr. Hammond was elected district attorney. And Mr. Field became mayor of the city. So that I saw something of the working of the city government in the administration of the criminal law. The first summer I was in Northampton. The famous free silver campaign of 1896. When Mr. Bryan was nominated, he had the support of most of the local democrats of the city, but he lost much of it. Before November, one of them sent a long communication to a county paper endorsing him. This I answered in one of the city papers. When I was home that summer, I took part in a small neighborhood debate in which I supported the gold standard. The study I put on this subject well repaid me. Of course, Northampton went handsomely for McKinley, with the exception of a week or two at home in the summer of 1896. I kept on in this way with my work from September 1895 to June, 1897. I then felt sufficiently versed in the law to warrant my taking the examination for admitted admission to the bar. It was conducted by a county committee of which Mr. Hammond was a member. But as I was his student, he left the other two, Judge William G. Bassett and Judge William P. Strickland, to act on my petition. I was pronounced qualified by them, and just before July 4, 1897, I was duly admitted to practice before the court of Massachusetts. My preparation had taken about 20 months. Only after I was finally in possession of my certificate did I notice, notify my father. He had expected that my studies would take another year, and I wanted to surprise him if I succeeded and not disappoint him if I failed. I did not fail. I was just 25 years old and very happy. It was a little over 11 years from the time I left home for the extra academy in the late winter of 1886 until I was admitted to the bar in the early summer of 1897. They had been years full of experience for me, in which I had advanced from a child to a man. Wherever I went, I found good people, men and women and young folks of my own age, who had won my respect and affection. From the hearthstone of my father's fireside to the courtroom at North Hampton. They had all been kind and helpful to me. Their memory will always be one of my most cherished possessions. My formal period of education was passed, though my studies are still pursued. I was devoted to the law. Its reasonableness appealed to my mind as the best method of securing justice between man and man. I fully expected to become the kind of country lawyer I assume all about me, spending my life in the profession with perhaps a final place on the bench. But it was decreed to be otherwise. Some power that I little suspected in my student days took me in charge and carried me on from the obscure neighborhood at Plymouth Notch to the occupancy of the White House. Chapter 3 the Law and Politics it is one thing to Know how to get admitted to the bar. But quite another thing to know how to practice law. Those who attend a law school know how to pass the examinations, While those who study in an office Know how to apply their knowledge to actual practice. It seems to me that the best course is to go to a school and then go into an office where the practice is general. In that way, the best preparation is secured For a thorough comprehension of the great basic principles and for their application to existing facts. Still, one who has had a good college training can do very well by starting in an office. But in any case, he should not go into the law because it appears to be merely a means of making a living, but because he has a real and sincere love for the profession, which will enable him to make the sacrifices it requires. When I decided to enter the law, it was only natural, therefore, that I should consider it the highest of the professions. If I had not held that opinion, it would have been a measure of intellectual dishonesty for me to take it for life work. Others may be hampered by circumstance in making their choices, but I was free, and I went where I felt the duties would be congenial and the opportunities for service large. Those who follow other vocations ought to feel the same about them, and I hope they do. My opinion had been formed by the high estimation in which the bench and bar were held by the people in my boyhood home of Vermont. It was confirmed by my more intimate intercourse with the members of the profession with whom I soon came in contact in Massachusetts after I went there to study law in the autumn of 1895. When I was admitted to practice two years later, the law still occupied the high position of a profession. It had not then assumed any of its later aspects of a trade. The ethics of the Northampton bar were high. It was made up of men who had and were entitled to have the confidence and respect of their neighbors who knew them best. They put the interests of their clients above their own and the public interests above them both. They were courteous and tolerant toward each other and respectful to to the court. This attitude was fostered by the appreciation of the uprightness and learning of the judges. Because of the short time I had spent in preparation, I remained in the office of Hammond and Field. About seven months after I was admitted to the bar. I was looking about for a place to locate, but found none that seemed better than Northampton. A new block called the Masonic Building was under construction on Lower Main Street. When it was ready for occupancy, I opened an office there. February 1, 1898, I had two rooms where I was to continue to practice law for 21 years until I became governor of Massachusetts in 1919. For my office furniture and a good working library, I paid about $800 from some money I had saved and inherited from my grandfather, more like. My rent was $200 per year. I began to be self sustaining, except as to the cost of my table board, which was paid by my father until September. But thereafter all my expenses I paid from the fees I received. I was alone. While I had many acquaintances that I might call friends, I had no influential supporters who were desirous to see me advanced and were sending business to me. I was dependent on the general public. What I had came from them. My earnings for the first year were a little over $500. My interest in public affairs had already caused me to become a member of the Republican City committee, and in December 1898 I was elected one of the three members of the Common Council from Ward 2. The office was without salary and not important, but the contacts were helpful. When the local military company returned that summer from the Cuban campaign, I did my best to get an armory built for them. I was not successful at that time, but my proposal was adopted a little later. This was the beginning of an interest in military preparation, which I have never relinquished. During 1899 I began to get more business. The Nonatak Savings bank was started early that year and I became its council. Its growth was slow but steady. In later years I was its president, purely honorary place, without salary, but no small honor. There was legal work about the country which came to my office so that my fees rose to $1,400. For the second year. I did not seek re election to the City Council, as I knew the City Solicitor was to retire and I. I wanted that place. The salary was $600, which was not unimportant to me. But my whole thought was on my profession. I wanted to be City Solicitor because I believed it would make me a better lawyer. I was elected and held the office until March 1902. It gave me a start in the law, which I was ever after able to hold. The office was not burdensome and went along with my private practice. It took me into court some in a jury trial. I lost two trifling cases in an action of damages against the city for taking a small strip of land to widen a highway. I felt I should have won these cases on the claim that the land in question already belonged to the highway. But I prevailed in an unimportant case of the Supreme Court against my old preceptor, Mr. Hammond. It is unnecessary to say that usually my cases with him were decided in his favor. The training in this office gave me a good grasp of municipal law. That later brought some important cases to me. In addition to the mortgage and title work of the savings bank, I managed some real estate. And had considerable practice in the settlement of estates. Through a collection business. I also had some insolvency practice. I recall an estate in Amherst and one in Belchertown. Both much involved in litigation, which I settled. In each case, Stephen S. Taft of Springfield was the opposing counsel. Perhaps there is no such thing as a best lawyer. Any more than there is a best believe or a best picture. But to me, Mr. Taft was the best lawyer I ever saw. If he was trying a case before a jury, he was always the 13th juryman. And if the trial was before the court, he was always advising the judge. But he did not win these cases. He became one of my best friends. And we were on the same side in several cases in later years. One time he said to me, young man, when you can settle a case within reason, you settle it. You will not make so large a fee out of some one case in that way. But at the end of the year, you will have more money. And your clients will be much better satisfied. This was sound advice, and I heeded it. People began to feel that they could consult me with some safety. And without the danger of being involved needlessly in long and costly litigation in court. Very few of my clients ever had to pay a bill of costs. I suppose they were more reasonable than other clients, for they usually settled their differences out of court. This course did not give me much experience in the trial of cases, So I never became very proficient in that art. But it brought me a very satisfactory practice and a fair income. I worked hard during this early period. The matters on which I was engaged were numerous. But did not involve large amounts of money, and the fees were small. For three years, I did not take the time to visit my old home in Vermont. But when I did go, I was city solicitor. My father began to see his hopes realized. And felt that his efforts to give me an education Were beginning to be rewarded. What I always thought was the greatest compliment ever paid to my professional ability came in 1903. In the late spring of that year, William H. Clapp, who had been for many years the clerk of the courts for Hampshire county, died. His ability, learning and painstaking industry. Made him rank very high as a lawyer. The position he held was of the first importance, for it involved keeping all the civil and criminal records of the Superior Court and the Supreme Judicial Court for the county. The justices of the Supreme Judicial Court appointed me to fill the vacancy. I always felt this was a judgment by the highest court in the commonwealth on my professional qualifications. Had I been willing to accept the place permanently, I should have been elected to it in the following November. The salary was then $2,300, and the position was one of great dignity. But I preferred to remain at the bar, which might be more precarious, but also had more possibilities. Later events now known enable anyone to pass judgment on my decision. Had I decided otherwise, I could have had much more peace of mind. In the last 25 years as the clerk of the courts, I learned much relating to Massachusetts practice, so that ever after I knew what to do with all the documents in a trial which would have been of much value to me if I had not been called on to give so much time to political affairs. These took up a large amount of my attention in 1904, after I went back to my office, so that my income diminished. During that year, I had been chosen chairman of the Republican City Committee. It was a time of perpetual motion in Massachusetts politics. The state elections came yearly in November, and the city elections followed in December. This was a presidential year. While I elected the representatives to the General Court by a comfortable margin at the state election, I was not so successful in the city campaign. Our mayor had served three terms, which had always been the extreme limit in Northampton. But he was nominated for a fourth time. He was defeated by about 80 votes. We made the mistake of talking too much about the deficiencies of our opponents and not enough about the merits of our own candidates. I have never again fallen into that error. Feeling one year was all I could give to the chairmanship. I did not accept a re election but still remained on the committee. My earnings had been such that I was able to make some small savings. My prospects appeared to be good. I had many friends and few enemies. There was a little more time for me to give to the amenities of life. I took my meals at Raher's Inn, where there was much agreeable company consisting of professional and businessmen of the town and some of the professors of Smith College. I had my rooms on Round Hill with a steward of the Clark School for the Deaf. While these relations were most agreeable and entertaining, I suppose I began to want a home of my own. After she had finished her course at the University of Vermont, Ms. Grace Goodhue went to the Clark School to take the training to enable her to teach the deaf. When she had been there a year or so, I met her and often took her to places of entertainment. In 1904, Northampton celebrated its 250th anniversary. One evening was devoted to a reception for the governor and his council given by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Ms. Goodhue accompanied me to the city hall where the reception was held, and after strolling around for a time, we sat down in two comfortable vacant chairs. Soon a charming lady approached us and said that those chairs were reserved for the governor and Mrs. Bates, that we should have to relinquish them, which we did. Fourteen years later, when we had received sufficient of the election returns to show that I had been chosen governor of Massachusetts, I turned to her and said, the Daughters of the American Revolution cannot put us out of the Governor's chair now. From our being together, we seemed naturally to come to care for each other. We became engaged in the early summer of 1905 and were married at her home in Burlington, Vermont, on October 4th of that year. I've seen so much fiction written on the subject that I may be pardoned for relating the plain facts. We thought we were made for each other for almost a quarter of a century. She is born with my infirmities, and I have rejoiced in her graces. After our return from a trip to Montreal, we stayed a short time at the Norwood Hotel, but soon started housekeeping. We rented a very comfortable house that needed but one maid to help Mrs. Coolidge do her work. Of course, my expenses increased, and I had to plan very carefully for a time to live within my income. I know very well what it means to awake in the night and realize that the rent is coming due, Wondering where the money is coming from with which to pay it. The only way I know of escape from that constant tragedy is to keep running expenses low enough so that something may be saved to meet the day when earnings may be small. When the city election was approaching in December, I was asked to be a candidate for school committee. It was a purely honorary office which had no attraction to me, but I consented and was nominated. To my surprise, another Republican took out nomination papers, which split the party and elected a Democrat. The open compliment was that I had no children in the schools, but the real reason was that I was a politician. That reputation I had acquired by long service on the party committee helping elect our candidates. The man they elected gave a useful service for several years and left me free to turn to avenues which were to be much more useful to me in ways for public service. I was also better off attending to my law practice and my new home. The days passed quietly with us until the next autumn. When we moved into the house in Massasoit Street. That was to be our home. For so long. I attended to the furnishing of it myself. And when it was ready, Mrs. Coolidge and I walked over to it in about two weeks. Our first boy came on the evening of September 7th. The fragrance of the clematis, which covered the bay window. Filled the room like a benediction. Where the mother lay with her baby. We called him John, in honor of my father. It was all very wonderful for us. We liked the house where our children came to us. And the neighbors who were so kind. When we could have had a more pretentious home. We still clung to it. So long as I lived there, I could be independent and serve the public. Without ever thinking that I could not maintain my position if I lost my office. I always made my living practicing law up to the time I became governor. Without being dependent on any official salary. This left me free to make my own decisions. In accordance with what I thought was the public good. We lived where we did that I might better serve the people. My main thought in those days was to improve myself in my profession. I was still studying law and literature. Because I thought the experience would contribute to this end. I became a candidate for the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In a campaign in which I secured a large number of Democratic votes. Many of which never thereafter deserted me. I was elected by a margin of about 260. The speaker assigned me to the committees on constitutional amendments and mercantile affairs. During the session, I helped draft and the committee reported a bill to prevent large concerns from selling at a lower price in one locality than they did in others for the purpose of injuring their competitor. This seemed to me an unfair trade practice that should be abolished. We secured the passage of that bill in the House. But the Senate rewrote it in such a way that that it finally failed. I also supported a resolution favoring the direct election of United States Senators. And another providing for women's suffrage. These measures did not have the approbation of the conservative element of my party. But I had all the insurance of youth and ignorance in supporting them. And later I saw them all become the law. The next year I was re elected. But in running against a man who had a strong hold on some of the Republican wards, My vote was cut down. Serving on the Judiciary Committee, which I wanted because I Felt it would assist me in my profession. I became much interested in modifying the law. So that an injunction could not be issued in a labor dispute to prevent one person seeking by argument to induce another to leave his employer. This bill failed. While I think it had merit, in later years I came to see that what was of real importance to the wage earners Was not how they might conduct a quarrel with their employers, but how the business of the country might be so organized as to ensure steady employment at a fair rate of pay. If that were done, there would be no occasion for a quarrel. And if were not done, a quarrel would do no one any good. The work in the General court was fascinating, Both from its nature and from the companionship with able and interesting men. But it took five days each week for nearly six months. So that I thought I had secured about all the benefit I could by serving two terms. And declined again to be candidate. Another boy had been given into our keeping April 13th, who was named Calvin. So I had all the more reason for staying at home. My law office took all my attention. I never had a retainer from anyone, so my income always seemed precarious. But a practice which was general in its nature kept coming to me. In June, 1909, I went to Phoenix, Arizona, to hold a corporation meeting. It was the first I had seen of the West. The great possibilities of the region were apparent. And the enthusiasm of the people was inspiring. It told me that our country was sure to be a success. For two years, Northampton had elected a Democrat to be mayor. He was a very substantial businessman who has since been my landlord for a long period. He was to retire, and the Republicans were anxious to elect his successor at a party conference. It was determined to ask me to run, and I accepted the opportunity, Thinking the honor would be one that would please my father, advance me in my profession, and enable me to be of some public service. It was a local office, not requiring enough time to interfere seriously with my own work without in any way being conscious of what I was doing. I then became committed to a course that was to make me the president of the senate of Massachusetts and of the senate of the United States, the second officer of the commonwealth and the country and the chief executive of a city, a state, and a nation. I did not plan for it, but it came. I tried to treat people as they treated me, which was much better than my deserts, in accordance with the precept of the master poet. But my studies. By my studies in my course of life, I meant to be ready to take advantage of Opportunities. I was ready. From the time the justices named me the clerk of the courts. Until my party nominated me for president. Ever I was in Amherst College. I had remembered how Garman told his class in philosophy. That if they would go along with events. And have the courage and industry to hold to the mainstream. Without being washed ashore by the immaterial cross currents. They would someday be men of power. He meant that we should try to guide ourselves by general principles. And not get lost in particulars. That may sound like mysticism. But it is only the mysticism that envelops every great truth. One of the greatest mysteries in the world. Is the success of success. That lies in conscientious work. My first campaign for mayor was very intense. My opponent was a popular merchant. A personal friend of mine. Who later years was to be mayor. So that at the outset he was the favorite. The only issue was our general qualifications to conduct the business of the city. I called on many of the voters personally. Sent out many letters. Spoke at many ward rallies. And kept my poise. In the end, most of my old Democratic friends voted for me. And I won by about 165 votes. On the first day of January, 1910. I began a public career. That was to continue until the first Monday of March, 1929. When it was to end by my own volition. Our city had always been fairly well governed. And had no great problems. Taxes had been increasing. I was able to reduce then some and pay part of the debt. That I left. The net obligations chargeable to taxes at about $100,000. The salaries of teachers were increased. My work commended itself to the people. So that, running against the same opponent for reelection. My majority was much increased. I celebrated this event by taking my family to Montpelier. Where my father was serving in the Vermont Senate. Of all the honors that have come to me. I still cherish in a very high place. The confidence of my friends and neighbors. In making me their mayor. Remaining in one office long did not appeal to me. For I was not seeking a public career. My heart was in the law. I thought a couple of terms in the Massachusetts Senate would be helpful to me. So when our senator retired. I sought his place in the fall of 1911. And was elected. The winter in Boston I did not find very satisfactory. I was lonesome. My old friends in the house were gone. The Western Massachusetts Club that had its headquarters at the Adams House. Where most of us lived. That came before beyond the Connecticut, was inactive. The committees I had, except the chairmanship of agriculture. Did not interest me greatly. And to crown my discontent, a Democratic governor sent in a veto which the Senate sustained to a bill authorizing the New Haven Railroad to construct a trolley system in western Massachusetts. But as chairman of a special committee I had helped send settle the Lawrence strike, secure the appointment of a commission that resulted in the passage of a mother's aid or maternity bill at the next session, and I was made chairman of a recess committee to secure better transportation for rural communities in the western part of the Commonwealth. During the summer. We did a large amount of work on that committee and made a very full and constructive report at the opening of the General Court in 1913. This was the period that the Republican party was divided between Taft and Roosevelt, so that Massachusetts easily went for Wilson. But in the three quarter contest I was re elected to the Senate. It was in my second term in the Senate that I began to be a force in the Massachusetts legislature. President Greenwood made me chairman of the committee on railroads, which I very much wanted because of my desire better to understand business affairs and also put me on the important committee on Rules. I made progress because I studied objects sufficiently to know a little more about them than anyone else on the floor. I did not often speak, but talked much with the senators personally and came in contact with many of the businessmen of the state. The Boston Democrats came to be my friends and were a great help to me in later times. My committee reported a bill transforming the railroad commission into a public service commission with a provision intending to define and limit the borrowing powers of railroads, which we passed. After a long struggle and debate, the Democratic governor vetoed the bill, but it was passed over his veto almost unanimously. The bill came out for our trolley roads in western Massachusetts and was adopted. He vetoed this and his veto was overridden by a large majority. It was altogether the most enjoyable session I ever spent with any legislative body. It had been my intention to retire at the end of my second term. But the President of the Senate was reported as being a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. And as it seemed that I could succeed him, I announced that I wished for another re election. When it was too late for me to withdraw gracefully, President Greenwood decided to remain in the Senate. I wanted to be President of the Senate because it was a chance to emerge from being a purely local figure to a place of statewide distinction and authority. I knew where the votes in the Senate lay from the hard legislative contest I had conducted, and I had them very well organized. When I found the President was not to retire in this year of 1913, the division in the Republican party in Massachusetts was most pronounced. Our candidate for governor fell to the third place at the election and another Democrat was made chief executive, carrying with him, for the first time in a generation, the whole state ticket. But my district returned me. When I reached my office the next morning, I found President Greenwood had been defeated again. I was ready. By 3 o' clock that Wednesday afternoon I was in Boston, and by Monday I had enough written pledges from the Republican senators to ensure my nomination for President of the Senate at the party caucus. It had been a real contest, but all opposition subsided and I was unanimously nominated. The Senate showed the effects of the division in our party. It had 21 Republicans, 17 Democrats and two progressives. When the vote was cast for president on the opening day of the General Court, Senator Cox, the progressive, had two votes. Senator Horgan, the Democrat, had seven votes, and I had 31 votes. I had not only become an officer of the whole Commonwealth, but I had come into possession of an influence reaching beyond the confines of my own party, which I was to retain so long as I remained in public life. Although I had arrived at the important position of President of the Massachusetts Senate in January of 1914, I had not been transported on a bed of roses. It was the result of many hard struggles in which I had made many mistakes, was to keep on making them up to the present hour and expect to continue to make them as long as I live. We are all fallible, but experience ought to teach us not to repeat our errors. My progress had been slow and toilsome, with little about it that was brilliant or spectacular, the result of persistent and painstaking work which made it a foundation that was solid. I trust that in making this record of my own thoughts and feelings in relation to it, which necessarily bristled with the first personal pronoun, I shall not seem to be overestimating myself, but simply relating experiences which I hope may prove to be an encouragement to others in their struggles to improve their place in the world. It appeared to me in January 1914 that a spirit of radicalism prevailed, which, unless checked, was likely to prove very destructive. It had been encouraged by the opposition, by a large faction of my own party. It consisted of the claim in general that in some way the government was to be to blame because everybody was not prosperous, because it was necessary to work for a living, and because our written constitutions, the legislatures and the courts, protected the rights of private owners, especially in relation to large aggregations of property. The previous session had been overwhelmed with a record number of bills introduced, many of them in an attempt to help the employee by impairing the property of the employer. Though anxious to improve the condition of our wage earners, I believe this doctrine would soon destroy business and deprive them of a livelihood. What was needed was a restoration of confidence in our institutions and in each other, on which economic progress might rest. In taking the chair as president of the senate, I therefore made a short address which I had carefully prepared, appealing to the conservative spirit of the people. I argued that the government could not relieve us from toil, that large concerns are necessary for the progress in which capital and labor all have a common interest, and I defended representative government and the integrity of the courts. The address has since been known as have faith in Massachusetts. Many people in the commonwealth had been waiting for such a word, and the effect was beyond my expectation. Confusion of thought began to disappear and unsound legislative proposals to diminish. The office of the president of the senate is one of great dignity and power. All the committees of the senate are appointed by him. He has the chief place in directing legislation when the governor is of the opposite party, as was the case in 1914 at the inauguration, he presides over the joint convention of the General court and administers the oath of office to the governor and council in accordance with a formal ritual that has come from colonial days and is much more ceremonious than the swearing in of a president at Washington. It did not seem to me desirable to pursue a course of partisan opposition to the governor, and I did not do so, but rather cooperated with him in securing legislation which appeared to be for the public interest. The general lack of confidence in the country and the depression of business caused by the reduction of the tariff rates in the fall of 1913 made it necessary to grant large appropriations for the relief of unemployment during the winter. But I could see the steady decrease of the radical sentiment among the people in the midst of the following summer. The world war enveloped Europe. It had a distinctly sobering effect upon the whole people of our country. It was very apparent in Massachusetts, where they at once began to abandon their wanderings and seek their old landmarks for guidance. The division in our party was giving way to reunion. Confidence was returning. The Republican State committee chose me to be the chairman of the committee on resolutions at the state convention, which met at Worcester, largely because the impression made by my speech at the opening of the Senate, I drew a conservative platform pitched in the same key, pointing out the great mass of legislation our party had placed on the statute books for the benefit of the wage earners and the welfare of the people, but declaring for the strict and unimpaired maintenance of our present social, economic and political institutions. While I did not deliver it well in print, it made an effective campaign document. After starting in the contest with little confidence, our strength increased so that our candidate, Samuel W. McCall received 198,627 votes and was defeated by only 11,815 plurality. All the rest of our state ticket was victorious. The political complexion of the Senate was completely changed. From a bare majority of 21, the Republican strength rose to 33 and the opposition was reduced to seven Democrats. That's all for Alex Reed's old stuff. Good night.
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