The Reins of Power

The possibilities of new political alignment with Mr. Coolidge as Pres- ident are extremely various. With one sweep the jokester, Fate, took all the pieces off one side of the political chessboard; then put them back in new arrangement.

The new President is a conservative. The announcement that he will continue in Pesident Harding's policies without changes in the Cabinet means something but not everything. There is a general belief that Attorney General Daugherty will not continue long in office. On the other hand President Coolidge is said to have much in common with Secretary of Labor Davis and Secretary of the Treasury Mellon.

Mr. Coolidge's recent innocuous desuetude may be attributed to the office that he has held during the last two years. But he is an able politician; he has never been defeated in an election. It is not to be gratuitously assumed that he will not figure in the Republican National Convention next year.

Theoretically the field is open to all contenders for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1924. Mr. Coolidge is now in a position where he can make himself felt if he chooses. He had such a position before, as Governor of Massachusetts, and he went to the Convention of 1920 with many more strongly marked attributes than did Senator Harding. By forcing action on any one of numerous issues the new President may make himself a power to be reckoned with.

It is true that President Coolidge seems to be essentially at one with the late President on most policies. It is true that he will not have the opportunity to consolidate his power by as many appointments as a newly elected President. He may, however, give old issues a new twist. He may take a decisive stand on an old question, bringing it forward as a leading issue.

The anthracite coal situation (TIME, Aug. 6), the World Court, the railroads, immigration, the twelve-hour day, prohibition--any of these may arouse the new President to action. Without altering greatly President Harding's course, Mr. Coolidge may, by exercising less of a spirit of compromise or conciliation and by a more vigorous championing of his beliefs, change the course of any one problem, upset the calculations of politicians. Political observers incline to the opinion that he is capable of just such action.

Until President Coolidge's course of action begins to develop all vaticination is guesswork. There is but one fact evident at this time: The reins of power are in new hands-- hands that were previously active, but have lately been idle. The personality of Calvin Coolidge has slept in the Chair of the Senate. Has it awakened?