Post by RS Davis on Jul 2, 2004 14:29:33 GMT -5
Silent Cal Had a Lot To Say
by Gary Galles
Historians have trivialized Calvin Coolidge as a do-nothing President naïve enough to believe that "the business of America is business," and many have rated him as one of the worst of all time. However, he produced remarkable results without sacrificing our freedoms. And given that he was born on the 4th of July, there is no better time than our Independence Day to remember him.
Under Coolidge, the top income tax rate of 65% under Wilson was eventually cut to 20%. The stock market began its unprecedented "roaring 20s" climb as it became clear through 1924 that Coolidge's tax reduction bill would pass.
In both his first and last year in office, federal receipts were $3.8 billion and expenditures were $3.1 billion, and in between, he cut the national debt from $22.3 billion to $16.9 billion.
His policies took more than a million people off the income tax rolls, and 98% of Americans paid no income tax at the end of his term. As a result, America prospered under Coolidge. Real economic growth averaged 7% per year while he was in office (the highest growth on record), while inflation averaged only 0.4%. Investment, manufacturing output, and disposable income rose dramatically, and unemployment averaged 3.3%.
That remarkable record explains why, after Coolidge outpolled his Democratic opponent by nearly 2 to 1 in 1924, he would have won in another landslide if he had run again in 1928.
But unfortunately for America, he did not. So why is there such a disconnect between Coolidge's success and his reputation? In large part, it is because he advocated individualism, as clearly spelled out in his speeches (which he composed himself), and the newspaper column he wrote after leaving the Presidency.
But while that seems appropriate for someone born on the Fourth of July, it is so distant from the modern mindset that many now cannot understand why someone who, as Senator, Governor, Vice-President, and President viewed government intervention in broad areas of life as a problem rather than a panacea.
Further, people have attributed to Coolidge the origins of the Great Depression under Herbert Hoover, his Vice-President. But they have not done so because of any evidence that his policies were responsible.
Along with monetary policy blunders, the Great Depression was triggered by Hoover's abandonment of Coolidge's policies, in favor of disasters ranging from erecting monumental trade barriers to sharply raising tax rates.
Never was this divide between the policies of the two made clearer than when Coolidge said of Hoover: "That man has offered me unsolicited advice for six years, all of it bad."
Calvin Coolidge may have been called "Silent Cal," but his record brags for him, if people would bother to look honestly. Further, he closely reflected our founders' insight in what he wrote and said, which we would truly profit from, given how far we have deviated from those ideas in modern America.
On Liberty and Rights
There is no greater service we can render the oppressed of the earth than to maintain inviolate the freedom of our own citizens.
Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.
There is no substitute for a militant freedom. The only alternative is submission and slavery.
Freedom is not only bought with a great price; it is maintained by unremitting effort.
There is no justification for public interference with purely private concerns.
The individual has rights...And the protection of rights is righteous.
Ultimately, property rights and personal rights are the same thing.
When once the right of the individual to liberty and equality is admitted, there is no escape from the conclusion that he alone is entitled to the rewards of his own industry. Any other conclusion would necessarily imply either privilege or servitude.
The property of the people belongs to the people. To take it from them by taxation cannot be justified except by urgent public necessity. Unless this principle be recognized, our country is no longer secure, our people no longer free.
A government which requires of the people the contribution of the bulk of their substance and rewards cannot be classed as a free government...
I want the people of America to be able to work less for the Government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. That is the chief meaning of freedom. Until we can re-establish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very distinct curtailment of our liberty.
If ever the citizen comes to feel that our government does not protect him in the free and equal assertion of his rights... he will withdraw his allegiance from that government...
In its main features the Declaration of Independence...is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man...are ideals.
Our doctrine of equality and liberty and humanity comes from our belief in the brotherhood of man...
Continued...
by Gary Galles
Historians have trivialized Calvin Coolidge as a do-nothing President naïve enough to believe that "the business of America is business," and many have rated him as one of the worst of all time. However, he produced remarkable results without sacrificing our freedoms. And given that he was born on the 4th of July, there is no better time than our Independence Day to remember him.
Under Coolidge, the top income tax rate of 65% under Wilson was eventually cut to 20%. The stock market began its unprecedented "roaring 20s" climb as it became clear through 1924 that Coolidge's tax reduction bill would pass.
In both his first and last year in office, federal receipts were $3.8 billion and expenditures were $3.1 billion, and in between, he cut the national debt from $22.3 billion to $16.9 billion.
His policies took more than a million people off the income tax rolls, and 98% of Americans paid no income tax at the end of his term. As a result, America prospered under Coolidge. Real economic growth averaged 7% per year while he was in office (the highest growth on record), while inflation averaged only 0.4%. Investment, manufacturing output, and disposable income rose dramatically, and unemployment averaged 3.3%.
That remarkable record explains why, after Coolidge outpolled his Democratic opponent by nearly 2 to 1 in 1924, he would have won in another landslide if he had run again in 1928.
But unfortunately for America, he did not. So why is there such a disconnect between Coolidge's success and his reputation? In large part, it is because he advocated individualism, as clearly spelled out in his speeches (which he composed himself), and the newspaper column he wrote after leaving the Presidency.
But while that seems appropriate for someone born on the Fourth of July, it is so distant from the modern mindset that many now cannot understand why someone who, as Senator, Governor, Vice-President, and President viewed government intervention in broad areas of life as a problem rather than a panacea.
Further, people have attributed to Coolidge the origins of the Great Depression under Herbert Hoover, his Vice-President. But they have not done so because of any evidence that his policies were responsible.
Along with monetary policy blunders, the Great Depression was triggered by Hoover's abandonment of Coolidge's policies, in favor of disasters ranging from erecting monumental trade barriers to sharply raising tax rates.
Never was this divide between the policies of the two made clearer than when Coolidge said of Hoover: "That man has offered me unsolicited advice for six years, all of it bad."
Calvin Coolidge may have been called "Silent Cal," but his record brags for him, if people would bother to look honestly. Further, he closely reflected our founders' insight in what he wrote and said, which we would truly profit from, given how far we have deviated from those ideas in modern America.
On Liberty and Rights
There is no greater service we can render the oppressed of the earth than to maintain inviolate the freedom of our own citizens.
Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.
There is no substitute for a militant freedom. The only alternative is submission and slavery.
Freedom is not only bought with a great price; it is maintained by unremitting effort.
There is no justification for public interference with purely private concerns.
The individual has rights...And the protection of rights is righteous.
Ultimately, property rights and personal rights are the same thing.
When once the right of the individual to liberty and equality is admitted, there is no escape from the conclusion that he alone is entitled to the rewards of his own industry. Any other conclusion would necessarily imply either privilege or servitude.
The property of the people belongs to the people. To take it from them by taxation cannot be justified except by urgent public necessity. Unless this principle be recognized, our country is no longer secure, our people no longer free.
A government which requires of the people the contribution of the bulk of their substance and rewards cannot be classed as a free government...
I want the people of America to be able to work less for the Government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. That is the chief meaning of freedom. Until we can re-establish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very distinct curtailment of our liberty.
If ever the citizen comes to feel that our government does not protect him in the free and equal assertion of his rights... he will withdraw his allegiance from that government...
In its main features the Declaration of Independence...is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man...are ideals.
Our doctrine of equality and liberty and humanity comes from our belief in the brotherhood of man...
Continued...
