Life — July 13, 1922 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

2 LAP E - Has Our Coolidge Feet of Clay? Sounder Reviews Shortcomings of Vice-President ASHINGTON, July 11.—I trust, that whatever I may say in the course of these brief remarks about the vice-presidency will not be taken to mean that I have any de- signs on the office. I am speaking solely for the good of the party. From the beginning I have felt, that the present incumbent—Mr. Coolidge—has not been taking his work seriously enough. For a while indeed there seemed to be grave danger that, abetted by his chief, he might let the office slide into some- thing important. That menace seems fortunately to have passed, but he has not yet got a really firm grasp on what the office means. His Manner of Presiding over the Senate, for example, is hopelessly inefficient. He has actu- ally tried to pay attention and to follow the debate, and the strain of it is beginning to show on him. I predict that unless he changes his methods, he won’t last for more than six months or a year, or, say, until the tariff debate gets along to about “metal trouser buttons.” When on occasion I have tem- porarily occupied the chair, I have been able to invent many little diver- sions to keep my mind off the debate. It Is Amusing, for instance, through connivance with the majority leader, to order an executive session every half-hour or so, and watch the annoyance of the spectators being hustled out of the galleries. And there is constant fun in failing to recognize Democrats; and another sure-fire trick is to hand down a fantastic ruling on some point of order. It’s just that spirit of play that Mr. Coolidge needs to get into his work. In the Cabinet, too, he has been inclined to neglect his oppor- tunities. There was an ugly rumor for a while that he was really going to be allowed to do serious work at Cabinet meetings, but it proved only a canard. As a matter of fact, I never feared “Had a cup of coffee and a ham sandwich sent up to his room.” that this administration, with an able man in the vice-presidency, would kick over all precedents by making use of his abilities. There are, however, little things he could do at the meetings without lowering the dignity of the office. If the President and Mr. Hughes and Mr. Fall were getting all haired up over the Mexican situation, he ought to -be all ready to break in with some appropriate anecdote to ease the ten- sion. That’s what I should do—try to get a little lighter tone into the discussions. If I felt that Mr. Hoover was getting too serious over his unemployment statistics, I should cut right in with a “that reminds me of a good one, Herbert,” and there we'd be all clubby and friendly again. In His Speeches at bankers’ conventions and teachers’ conferences, Mr. Coolidge has fallen far short of what we have a right to expect in a vice-president. On more than one occasion he has really said something worth while. Now a “That reminds me of a good one, Herbert.” vice-presidential speech should never be on any other topic than something like “The Spirit of Thrift in Citizen- ship” or “Let's All Pull Together for America,” and it should invari- ably leave an audience exactly where it found it. I do not want to say that Mr. Coolidge has not tried hard: yet I feel that by putting a little more care into his talks, he could readily learn to say nothing at all. In the gastronomic department, however, lies his greatest - failure. As everyone knows, the only news paper mention of a vice-president's name occurs in the Washington society column under “Breakfasts, Luncheons, and Dinners.” Apparent- ly the vice-president is expected to do all the official eating for the Presi- dent, the Cabinet, and the more im- portant heads of state. A Really Efficient Man in this position ought to be able to tuck away two or three formal break- fasts, dash from a luncheon with the Italian ambassador to one with a ng admiral, and top off the day by attending simultaneously a dinner at the Shoreham, the British E-m- bassy, and the Brazilian Legation. I am reliably informed that Mr. Coolidge has been inclined to shirk this work, that there have been sev- eral days when his record for meals actually fell below six, and that once he was so derelict in his public duty that he actually refused to dine out and had a cup of coffee and a ham sandwich sent up to his room. Enumerating the requirements of the office in this way has brought it rather forcibly to my mind how eminently it would suit me, and, I think, vice versa.’ Indeed, I may, after all, reconsider and become a candidate in 1924. One of the party leaders has urged me to do this in or- der to end the cur- rent talk about wast- ing a good man in the vice-presidency; and although I don't quite follow his rea- soning I am willing to do anything I can to promote party harmony. Sounder. comicbooks.com