The Coolidge Week

P: The more certain the G. O. P. Congressmen feel that President Coolidge will not be leading their party in the November election, the less do they feel obliged to fight for his ideas on legislation. Last week, following the President's message of renunciation to Wyoming (TIME, April 2), the three biggest bones of contention between the Administration and Congress--Tax Reduction, Muscle Shoals, Farm Relief--appeared more contentious than ever and the prospect of three vetoes increased. Also, the House passed a far smaller Navy bill than the Administration had asked. Also, the Senate passed a Flood Control measure in which local contributions, as urged by the President, were only "recognized in principle," not levied in fact.

P: President Coolidge signed the radio bill, extending the life of the Federal Radio Commission to March 16, 1929 (see p. 12).

P: To Mrs. Frank B. Willis, President Coolidge sent condolences upon the death of her husband, Senator Willis (see col. 3). To Fuad I, King of Egypt, President Coolidge sent congratulations on the royal 60th birthday.

P: Worry continued at the White House over the health of Mrs. Coolidge's mother, Mrs. Lemira Goodhue. Mrs. Coolidge passed the week near the sickbed in Northampton, Mass. With her she had taken Blackberry, a fuzzy, black chow-dog. She gave Blackberry to Miss Florence Trumbull, daughter of Connecticut's Governor and friend of her son John.

P: Where-to-go-this-summer remained unfinished business at the White House. From a letter President Coolidge lately wrote, Vermonters were persuaded he will be among them during at least part of his vacation. From another letter, North Carolinians were sure that the President appreciated his invitation to a mansion on Beaucatcher Mountain, near Asheville. Georgians talked of offering an island estate off their coast. Senators McKellar and Tyson of Tennessee called and offered the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Pound of Chattanooga, on historic Lookout Mountain. Governor Byrd of Virginia and small Boiling Byrd Flood, son of the late Representative Henry D. Flood of Virginia, and C. Bascom Slemp, the President's oldtime (1923-25) private secretary, called and offered the Swannanoa Country Club, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, only four hours from Washington. . . . President Coolidge thanked them all but said it was too early to decide.

P: Another caller was George Fisher Baker, white-whiskered Manhattan financier, just turned 88. Mr. Baker, on his way home from the South, stayed at the White House for lunch, chatted optimistically about Business.