Mr. Coolidge's Week

THE PRESIDENCY

Mr. Coolidge's Week

"The season approaches when in accordance with a long established and respected custom, a day is set apart to give thanks to Almighty God for the manifold blessings which His gracious and benevolent providence has bestowed upon us as a nation and as individuals. . . .

"Now, therefore, I, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States, do hereby set apart Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next, as a day of general thanksgiving and prayer."

P: At the opening of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra in Washington, Mrs. William Howard Taft, Justice and Mrs. Harlan F. Stone and Mrs. Robert Lansing sat in the audience, and as they opened their programs their eyes fell on the name of Mrs. Calvin Coolidge heading the list of patrons and patronesses. Later their eyes wandered to the box at the right of the stage decorated with the seal of the U. S. and two small American flags. They saw no one there; the President's box was quite empty. But a few keen-eyed watchers detected a familiar figure in one of the smaller boxes in the horseshoe in the front of the gallery. There sat Dr. and Mrs. Spence, who had been guests at the White House for several days, and with them was a slender woman in a plain black suit, with a black velvet hat, grey fox collar.

P: In the park before the Pension Office ("Judiciary Square") a crowd gathered, and in the Plaza San Martin at Buenos Aires, another crowd. Each crowd looked up to a great equestrian statue and saw just what the other crowd saw, the same horse, the same man. The crowd at Buenos Aires then looked to a platform and saw President Alvear and Ambassador Peter Augustus Jay; and the crowd at Washington saw President Coolidge and Ambassador Honorio Pueyrredon. Before the crowd and before the replica of the statue of Jose de San Martin, liberator of Argentina, Mr. Coolidge exclaimed:

"Today the country which gave him to the cause of freedom is presenting to the Government of my own nation this statue of him. . . . May it stand through the centuries as an inspiration to all who love liberty. May it ever be an added reminder of the fellowship between the great nation which gives and that which is honored to receive it."

P: Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge declined with thanks the offer of an apple pie for Thanksgiving from the Girls' Club of Vermont University. The gift was declined because it was offered as a part of "Apple Week," as the White House does not wish to lend itself to advertising.

P: Mrs. Coolidge spent a busy day. At eleven in the morning she wen t with Mrs. Butler, wife of the Senator from Massachusetts, to attend a Beethoven program at the Library of Congress. At a quarter of one she called on President Coolidge and induced him to enroll in the Red Cross. He made out a check for $25* and she pinned a Red Cross button on his lapel. At a quarter of two she received 75 women attending a convention of the Young Men's Christian Association.

P: Senator Albert Baird Cummins of Iowa called at the White House office with the attorney of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation. He told the President that the farmers of Iowa need money badly to move their corn crop.

P: Reporters, calling at the White House for the usual press conference, put the question to the President whether there was any significance in the sudden departure of Attorney General Sargent for Vermont--was he about to resign? The Presidential eye twinkled. The President took pleasure in assuring the reporters that Mr. Sargent had again become a grandfather.

*Last year he contributed a brand new dollar bill at the request of the Red Cross committee, which specified that he contribute no larger amount.