Coolidge, wirephoto inagurated

In a brilliant but unpretentious pageant President Coolidge took the oath as thirtieth President of the United states. Standing upon the Capitol the President affirmed the pledge of office, and then laid down a threefold programme for the Administration — economy, tax reduction and cooperation with the nations of the word. Chief Justice Taft, himself a former President, dressed in the black robes of his new office, stood beside Mr Coolidge and administered the oath. The President then delivered his inaugural address, which was carried through a microphone and then broadcasted to millions through 25 radio stations. Approximately 40,000 persons were jammed in Capitol Square, and thousands of others lined the route from White House to the Capitol. Justices of the Supreme Court, senators, congressmen, members of cabinet, government officials and many women occupied places of honour on the rostrum. The Capitol ceremonies were preceded by the traditional ritual in the senate chamber where Mr C.G. Dawes took the oath of office as Vice-President and delivered his inaugural address immediately following the closing of the sixty-eighth congress. Mr Coolidge's father attended the ceremonies, which were held in beautiful weather. The President then reviewed a parade in front of the White House and received the visiting Governors and others. He spent the evening quietly at home. A message from San Francisco states that five pictures of Mr Coolidge’s inauguration were released to the newspaper here less than two hours after they were taken by means of the new telegraphic process. Officials of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company announced that the transmission was perfect, the two delicate instruments, the transmitter at Washington and the receiver at San Francisco working in perfect synchronisation.

US not furthering concord

The major portion of the message inaugurating President Coolidge’s fresh term of office bears relation to matters in which the League of Nations is directly concerned. The address appears to be marked by that touch of generous platitude which is rather too characteristic of the set deliverances of American statesmen. Moreover, traces of the pressure of party exigency are distinctly noticeable. Mr Coolidge, inheriting the Harding policy, feels bound to steer clear of the Wilson tradition. The advocacy of the principle of the League of Nations has been annexed, so to speak, by the Democrats. Therefore the Republicans, following the vicious line of faction, are constrained to oppose it, or at least to express their not wholly dissimilar views in dissimilar terms. There is a remarkable canniness, not to say pawkiness, in President Coolidge’s treatment of world affairs. In one sentence he seems to emphasise the Monroe shibboleth in the strictest way; in another he envisages wide views of American obligation in regard to external developments. "We cannot live unto ourselves alone" is the keynote of the address; but the note is not consistently maintained. Indeed, following upon this edifying text, there appears to be a pointed suggestion that the American people would be well-advised to live unto themselves alone, so far as is compatible with decent self-respect. The President recognises that the United States government has committed itself in various ways to participation in European affairs. "We have," he says, "made a great contribution to the settlement of contentious differences in both Europe and Asia." But he does not seem to realise all that was involved in the engagement by the United States in the Great War. Perhaps if he or his predecessor had been in office in 1917 the engagement, so slowly reached, would never have eventuated. Mr Woodrow Wilson, with all his hesitancies and pedantries, finally did his duty in the cause of civilisation and humanity. The fact is that the curse of party politics lies with malign heaviness on the spirit of American international enterprise. It is reasonable to expect that insidious catchwords like "detachment" and "independence" will lose their force at no distant date; but in the meantime America is not exercising a tithe of its possible influence in furthering the permanent establishment of concord among the nations. — editorial — ODT, 6.3.1925

Compiled by Peter Dowden