Mr. Coolidge's Week

Mr. Coolidge's Week

P: President Coolidge received a letter from John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers, charging that bituminous mine operators were breaking their wage contract with the union, and asking what the Government is going to do about it. Shortly afterward Secretary Hoover, Attorney General Sargent and President Green of the American Federation of Labor had long conferences at the White House.

P:Senator Santiago Iglesias of Porto Rico presented to Mr. Coolidge a petition purporting to come from 13,000 Porto Ricans, alleging that the island is dominated by a political machine and oppressed by taxation, that four-fifths of its 800,000 laborers are without permanent employment, and that drastic remedies are called for. P: Governor Len Small of Illinois called to request the President to favor larger appropriations to aid the states in eliminating bovine tuberculosis, although the President is known to be opposed in principle to Federal aid for states. P: Senator Arthur R. Robinson, newly appointed Republican Senator from Indiana (succeeding the late Mr. Ralston), called to pay his respects.

P:Walking in the shopping district of the Capital, the President observed an elderly blind man groping his way through the traffic. He went to him directly, instructed a secret service man to see the blind man across the street in safety, and followed to see that it was well done.

P:The President, Amherst '95, announced the appointment of Stuart Crawford, Amherst '97, as Chief Clerk at the White House. Mr. Crawford was for more than 20 years a political writer for Republican newspapers in Manhattan, and for the last year has been assistant to Charles D. Hilles, Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee. There was method in the President's choice of a writer. The "Chief Clerk" gathers material for and assists the President in preparing speeches and important letters. P:Mrs. Coolidge autographed a picture of the White House and presented it to a local Presbyterian Church, where it will be auctioned at a bazaar, and the proceeds sent to Persia for the support of missionaries. She also lit two candles in a White House window as a signal for the opening of the sale of "Christmas seals" by the National Tuberculosis Association. P: "To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting:

"Whereas Gerald Chapman was convicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York of robbery of mail matter and placing the life of a mail carrier in jeopardy, and was sentenced Aug. 23, 1922, to imprisonment for twenty-five years in the United States penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga.; and ....

"Now therefore, be it known that I, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, divers other good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, do hereby commute the sentence of the said Gerald Chapman to the term of imprisonment already served."

Thus did the President commute the punishment of Gerald Chapman, mail robber, so that Gerald Chapman, murderer, might be hanged by the State of Connecticut. Mr. Chapman refused the commutation and denounced it as an abuse of clemency power. His lawyers will seek in the courts to establish his right to finish his 25-year sentence in the Federal penitentiary from which he escaped. If they succeed, his hanging will have to wait.

P:John Coolidge, student at Amherst and son of the President, was the guest of Governor and Mrs. Trumbull of Connecticut, at which time the Trumbulls gave a dinner and reception for their eldest daughter, Florence, 21. P:President Coolidge let it be known that he is annoyed when persons write him letters and give them to the press before he sees them (as John L. Lewis, for example, did recently). The Presi- dent inclines to the belief that the recipient should have the first look at a letter addressed to him.