The State of the Union

Calvin Coolidge completed the preparation of his message to Congress, or, in Constitutional language, prepared "information of the state of the union." and recommendations for such measures as he judges "necessary and expedient." Having drafted his " information," he put it quietly into his pocket.

All that the world was allowed to know until such time as the message is delivered to Congress--was that it was brief as such messages go, presenting a few proposals, but not going into detailed argument. This was only political wisdom. There are a whole host of Presidential aspirants ready to seize upon any pretext in the message as an excuse for attacks on the Administration's policy and for advancing their respective candidacies. The less argumentative and the more general the message is, the less ground these gentlemen will have to stand on, and the more advantage will accrue to Mr. Coolidge.

Nevertheless, many guesses were made about the leading topics of the message. The consensus of these predictions favored: 1) tax reduction; 2) agricultural relief; 3) the railroads; 4) no general building or " pork barrel" bill, but a program for the better housing of Government departments at the Capital. Whether or not the President designs to make it so, it is felt that the first of these will stand out. It was not generally agreed whether the President would definitely support the tax plan of Secretary Mellon (TIME, Nov. 19) or favor tax reduction in such general terms as would permit of compromise. A soldiers' bonus and participation in the World Court are likely to be lightly passed over if not completely ignored.

On the opening day of Congress, Dec. 3, the President is to submit the estimates of the Budget Bureau for the next fiscal year. The budget is accompanied by a letter, and in this letter the President is expected to present in detail Secretary Mellon's plan for tax reduction, probably without supporting argument.

Ordinarily the President sends his message to Congress or addresses Congress in person on the second clay of the session. But this year there is reason to believe (See page 3) that Congress will not be ready to receive the President's message for one or two, perhaps several, days afterwards. The " spokesman at the White House" said that President Coolidge had not decided whether he would read his message in person or merely send the message to be read by the clerks of the two Houses. The practice of reading messages in person has been followed by only four Presidents, the two first, Washington and John Adams, and the two last, Wilson and Harding. If one of the two Houses is not ready to receive the President's message until some time after the other House, it is quite likely that the President's message may be sent to be read by the clerks.