The Coolidge Week

P: The beginnings of the Republican Party remain somewhat of a mystery. Historians generally agree on the year as 1854. But the place is in dispute. Historian Charles A. Beard thinks that a mass meeting held in Ripon, Wis., was the true party matrix. Historian William Starr Myers of Princeton is inclined to agree and adds the name of one Alban E. Bovay as instigator of the meeting. But, Jackson, Mich., and Kansas City, Mo., also advance claims for the historic honor. Last week President Coolidge favorably entertained a suggestion from Kansas Citizens that the Republican Party's 75th Anniversary be celebrated this year. The President did not, however, go so far as to agree that the celebration should be held in Kansas City's Convention Hall, scene of the Hoover nomination. He wished to consider the claims of Jackson and Ripon.

P: As everyone knows, White House press conferences in the Coolidge administration have been quiet, circumspect affairs. Last week, however, the President surprised the newsmen by having a grievance of which he spoke feelingly and at length. He was, he said, convinced that the Interstate Commerce Commission was a sluggish body which sadly required verve. It had taken the Commission three years to fix the cost of mail transportation. At the end of this time the Commission had judged that the government owed railroads $45,000,000 for previous service. The President stated that he had objected to this decision, had refused payments. The question had been carried to the Supreme Court. This difficulty would have been avoided, said the President, if the Commission had been more expeditious.

The President further complained that the Commission had yearly asked for repeal of the law requiring it to prepare plans for railroad consolidation. He was also skeptical about the Commission's ability to evaluate the railroads, a problem before it since 1906. But he was inclined to be lenient in this regard, feeling that such valuation is impossible and would cost millions & millions to bring anywhere near completion.

The President concluded that obtaining action from the Commission was ponderously difficult. He predicted that if the Commission answered his criticism it would probably be with the hoary governmental reply--lack of power, lack of funds.

P: President Coolidge asked the Senate to appropriate $5,000 for the purchase of an oil portrait of himself to be hung in the White House. The procedure is customary with outgoing Presidents. Hungarian Artist Philip A. Lazlo de Lombo's suave, briskly painted Coolidge portrait, which now hangs in the state dining room, seemed a probable choice. Other famed Coolidge portraits are by Frank 0. Salisbury, "painter laureate of England," for the New York Genealogical and Biographical Soci ety, Manhattan, and by Ercole Cartotto, adroit Italian. The Cartotto Coolidge is soon to be hung in the Manhattan clubhouse of President Coolidge's fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta.

P: The East Room of the White House shimmered and twinkled with bright uniforms, emblems, medals, pomade. Two thousand were present. When it was over, Mrs. Coolidge leaned on the arm of the President, said farewell to scores of the guests. Thus, with a state reception in honor of the Army & Navy, ended the social program of the Coolidge administration.

P: Sausages, buckwheat cakes and maple syrup were served according to ritual at a White House breakfast attended by 14 functionaries of Congress -- chaplains, librarians, doorkeepers and the like. Many were the quips, many the Presidential laughs. After the meal, the President could reflect that he had completed his quota of Congressional breakfasts.

P: President Coolidge signed a bill granting an annual pension of $3,000 to Mrs. Thomas R. Marshall, relict of the late Vice President.

P: Senator Simmons of North Carolina, and onetime ("ernstwhile") Senators Ernst of Kentucky and Lea of Tennessee, were appointed by the President to a commission for the erection in Nashville, Tenn., of a memorial to Presidents Jackson, Polk and Johnson.* The Commission will also include three Senators chosen by the president of the Senate, three U. S. Representatives chosen by the Speaker of the House, six prominent Tennesseeans. The government will appropriate $300,000 when an equal amount has been raised by private subscription.

P: The President signed the Cooper-Hawes bill, providing that only States which permit convict-made goods to be sold in competition with commercial goods, can receive and sell convict-made goods from other states.

P: Brigadier General Charles H. Bridges, veteran of France and the Philippines, was appointed by President Coolidge to be the Adjutant General of the U. S. Army, succeeding the late Major-General Lutz Wahl.

P: President Coolidge heard his support of commercial aviation praised by retired Major Lester D. Gardner, president of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce. "You harmonized differences of opinion," said Major Gardner, "and replaced confusion with orderly discussion through the agency of the Aircraft Board under the chairmanship of Dwight Whitney Morrow."

P: In Memorial Continental Hall, President Coolidge addressed the semi-annual business meeting of the government, de scribed and praised the work of the Bureau of the Budget.