United StatesWho was Calvin Coolidge?
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), a Republican born in Vermont who built his career in Massachusetts, served as governor of that state and as vice president under Warren G. Harding before becoming president on Harding's death in 1923. He won a full term in 1924 and chose not to run again in 1928. Known for his reserved manner, Coolidge favored lower taxes, reduced federal spending and a light regulatory touch during a period of rapid economic growth, and he generally deferred to Congress and the states on domestic policy.
Political views
Made the Revenue Acts of 1924 and 1926, which cut income tax rates, the centerpiece of his domestic agenda.
Source: millercenter.orgBalanced the budget, ran surpluses and reduced the national debt, vetoing two veterans' bonus bills on grounds of fiscal restraint.
Source: millercenter.orgFavored a light hand in regulating business as the best way to sustain economic prosperity.
Source: millercenter.orgOpposed the McNary-Haugen farm plan, under which a government corporation would have bought surplus crops to support prices.
Source: millercenter.orgSigned the Immigration Act of 1924, which set strict quotas on southern and eastern Europeans and excluded Japanese immigrants.
Source: millercenter.orgKept the United States out of the League of Nations but supported joining the World Court and signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war.
Source: millercenter.org
Legacy
Admirers, particularly fiscal conservatives, credit Coolidge with tax reduction, balanced budgets and restraint in the use of federal power during the prosperity of the 1920s, and recent biographies have revived interest in his record. Critics argue that limited oversight of banking and securities markets and resistance to farm relief contributed to the imbalances that preceded the 1929 crash and the Great Depression. He has also been criticized for responding only tepidly to the Ku Klux Klan's 1925 march in Washington and for signing the restrictive 1924 immigration law.
In their words
After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.