The White House Week

The White House Week

P: Sir Auckland Geddes spent half an hour with President Coolidge by way of a farewell courtesy call before sailing for Great Britain and retirement. P: Henry M. Dawes (Controller of the Currency and brother of General Dawes), George James and J. H. Cunningham of the Federal Reserve Board, and Eugene Meyer, Jr., Managing Director of the War Finance Corporation, left the capital for Chicago to study the Western banking situation "at the suggestion of the President." P: President Coolidge wrote to the officers and crew of the Shenandoah (see Page 22) : "I congratulate you most heartily upon the fine exhibition of skill displayed by you"; to a Farmer-Manufacturer "Convention in Chicago: "The plight of the farmers in recent years has been ... a menace to the prosperity of every other element of the community"; on the 218th birthday of Benjamin Franklin: "He was one of that marvelous group of Revolutionary leaders each of whom seemed if his particular department a supreme genius" ; to the B'ne Israel Congregation of Cincinnati on its 100th anniversary: "To these long established agencies of American sentiment and patriotism our country is deeply indebted. . . ." P: Cyril William Peter Rees of London, 15 years, 78 pounds, insured for $25,000 and known as "Peter the Page," presented President Coolidge with a letter from the Lord Mayor of London inviting him to the British Empire Exhibition of 1924. Even the British are learning the art of getting free advertising. The President was obliged to send his regrets.

P:The President received: Sidney I. Rothschild, President of the Wholesale Hatters' Association; C. Ogden Chrisholm, International Prison Commissioner; a delegation of bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; a "delegation from the Association of Masters, Mates and Pilots. P: The President let it be known that he would not approve of extending the coastwise shippings laws to the Philippines on the ground that it would bring restrictions on shipping similar to those inflicted by Great Britain on American colonies before the Revolution. P:The socal whirl became more dervish-like. The President and Mrs. Coolidge attended a dinner given by Secretary of War and Mrs. Weeks, one of a series of ten given by various members of the Cabinet. The guests included the Presidents of Yale and Brown Universities, Under Secretary of State Philipps, Mr. and Mrs. Louis K. Liggett of Boston (drug stores), Mr. and Mrs. John Hays Hammond, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, etc. P: The President called a meeting of the "Government's business organization" (a body of Government executives first called together by President Harding some two and a half years ago), and urged continued and greater economy in the Administration, pointing out that under the new budget submitted to Congress last month there will have to be drastic retrenchment.