Mr. Coolidge's Week

P: Callers at White Court included Secretary of War John Wingate Weeks, recovering from a serious illness. He denied that he had resigned. To one correspondent he said: "I am getting along first rate. Of course, recovery from my illness has been slow, but I feel that it is more or less sure and I intend to be with Mr. Coolidge when he gets back to Washington."

To another he said: "I will return [to duty] in September if I ever return." Correspondents concluded that his resignation may soon be expected.*

P: The President called one morning at the summer Executive Office at Lynn, near Swampscott. This was his second visit to the office since he went on his vacation, although he has of course done much work at White Court.

P: In an all day motor trip, the President and Mrs. Coolidge traversed the 170 miles from Swampscott to Plymouth, Vt. They started in rain and ended in sunshine, with a cloudburst between. A stop was made near Camp Devens and Brigadier General Barnum appeared in his automobile with Corporal John Coolidge at his side. The President desiring to avoid ceremony, had requested that his son be allowed to see him outside camp. The rest of the trip was continuous, Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge eating a prepared lunch as they rode, and unprepared newspapermen riding on empty bellies. At Plymouth, the President's father, still weak from his recent operation, advanced to meet them with the remark: "Well, Cal, I'm glad to see you and Grace."

P:The President let it be known that he was disposed to favor a proposition made by John Hays Hammond Jr., Herbert L. Satterlee and Major General Clarence R. Edwards (TIME, Aug. 17, AERONAUTICS) to lease the naval dirigible Los Angeles (which, by international agreement, cannot be used for war purposes) and use it in commercial aviation between Manhattan and Chicago, with extension of the service to other cities if it prove successful. He even suggested that the Shenandoah might be similarly used, although he doubted whether the Navy Department would agree to it. P: One day the President developed a toothache and was obliged to motor 14 miles to Woodstock to his family dentist to have a gold crown removed and the interior of a tooth rectified. A temporary filling was installed, and later the crown restored. P: The Coolidge homestead was surrounded by tourists and the President could not venture out of doors without being cheered. When he and Mrs. Coolidge went across the street to church, it was found that many hymnals had been carried away by acquisitive visitors. Teahouses sprang up like mushrooms.

P:Secretary Mellon and Senator Smoot arrived at Plymouth to discuss with the President the debt terms that should be offered to Belgium (see CABINET).

*Possible successors to Mr. Weeks as Secretary of War are already being marshaled: Dwight F. Davis, Assistant Secretary of War; Charles D. Hilles, Republican leader in New York; Postmaster General New; David H. Blair, Commissioner of Internal Revenue.