you know, the more i learned about calvin coolidge, the more impressed i become. i guess that's because i think he's relevant to our political discourse today. i think back to what was going on in the 1920s and how coolidge responded to the challenges of that time during the eight years of the harding and coolidge administrations, the federal debt declined every year. there was a restraint in spending. as he oversaw the federal budget with a fine tooth comb, he lowered the taxes, the top marginal rate of the personal income tax declined during those years. he valued entrepreneurship. remember, he talked about the fact that the chief business of america is business. he was an egalitarian. he spoke eloquent eloquently about the tremendous contributions that blacks soldiers made during the recent world war, evaluating causality. earlier this morning welcomed the dozen new americans at a naturalization ceremony just a few steps from here and coolidge said on numerous occasions that the strength of our country is its and we welcome from different lands, different cultur

and that was the portrait of calvin coolidge. and i must tell you, my love for calvin dates back to my youth and my study of history, but it was greatly enlivened by the epic biography by amity shlaes. i believe her book perfectly captures silent kell's character, his personality, and his philosophy. he, in fact, when i was vice president, there's a small library of works about and by vice presidents that's in the library at the naval observatory. and i remember one sunny sunday when i had a few moments after church to grab a book, and i pulled calvin coolidge, his autobiography off the shelf, first edition, and sat down and read it in an afternoon. and i want to thank the coolidge foundation for putting calvin coolidge, his autobiography, back in print and available for every american in. amity. your words about him, his words in a book much shorter than my book. a lot shorter than my book. evidence of his brevity and economy of words or my lack of. inspired me greatly. and i've been inspired since by his humility, his principled

thus of calvin coolidge requires a higher standard of statesmanship. this, despite the fact that just before speaking at mount rushmore, coolidge announced, he would not run reelection in 1928. well, it is a great to a president and a major source of safety to the country for him to know that he is not a great man. that said, then what, is coolidge's legacy. we have a great for you to assess this. i am mostly a historian of washington and lincoln and the early american presidency. our first speaker today is craig furman, who has studied many presidents as writers and the author of author and chief, where he writes about coolidge as one of america's best writer presidents great. thank you, matthew. thank you to amity and thank you to all of you for coming out. there's there's a lot of things you could be doing this afternoon, so it's really nice that you're spending it with us. talking about presidents and history. today i want to celebrate coolidge's talent and legacy. a presidential writer. both have been overlooked. forget the silent cal nonsense. coo

you mentioned the great success of calvin coolidge's education reform. at our current education system is decidedly lacking. how would you suggest that we combine both coolidge's prudence and thriftiness with money with his great success with the education programs? >> this is your fifth question, your next one is free. i would employ two words. school choice. i think by last count, 26 states now has some form of school choice. jeb bush, the former governor of florida, was a leader in this. the unions, of course, are against it. because this is how you train a new secular humanist big government. contacts, envy, we are all racist, and all this other business in our government schools. i don't call them public schools because they don't serve the public. they are government schools. most of them are indoctrination centers. the history books are all written in a way that is endemic of the secular progressive left. to me it is always amusing that some of my friends on the left who are pro-choice when it comes to abortion are anti- choice for those fortunate

when reagan replaced thomas jefferson portion in the cabinet room with calvin coolidge , i think it was not a displacement to jefferson as much is a recognition that coolidge may be the rest representative of 20th century jeffersonian is him. coolidge, unlike the political people of his day or our day understood deeply the purposes of the american regime. especially as expressed in the declaration of independence. after lincoln, who was following washington and jefferson, coolidge was the most significant and subsequent interpreter of those concepts. the progressive impala get to be different by the spirit of the changing times. it is progress. and the need for progressive leadership. coolidge but the things of the spirit would come first. that no advance or progress could be made be on the fundamental truths of the declaration. we must cling to those things, he said. for all maternal -- material prosperity will return to a scepter. hence the politics of prudence. and the necessity of statesmanship. there can be no statesmanship without statesman. while circumstances are often revealed

i think training really is why calvin coolidge had such a successful presidency. coolidge and governor, you quoted from have played them out. i just want to say i'm proud of my son, too, but he's not elected yet. we probably be there won't be. then you'll wait by the phone like i do, waiting to be asked for advice. while we're speaking about fathers, i want to say hi to my own his who's joining here with my mother. it's great to. governor quoted and help explain to us coolidge's very well-known speech. i have faith in massachusetts and you said part of one of the lines which don't hurry to legislate. what he says after that is give administration a chance to catch up with legislation. and i fear of perhaps we have forgotten about that. we could use that wisdom as. former public leaders of your own operating the executive branch. what's your thought about working a legislature or a city council? and is there a tendency to create too many laws. well, the bane of good government is the legislative branch. they feel that when they get elected, they have to do something

today, the imprint of calvin coolidge. thank you. thank. thank you, garvin. we turn now to chris cox. chris. thank you, chris. by the time coolidge took the national stage, the progressive era had run its course. and that gave him the opportunity to assess based on real results, real world results, its successes and failures, the fundamental challenge that this presented is that progressivism in practice had diverged wildly from its aims. america, at the end of the wilson administration, was beset with race riots, runaway inflation, violent strikes and the suppression of civil liberties. in practice. progressive initiatives such as the income tax and prohibit one were proving to have very different impacts and middle class households than progressive theory had predicted. the income tax appeared in 1913 and it began with a relatively low top rate of 6%. it applied to the most wealthy people in america with incomes of $15 million and up adjusted to today's dollars. but by 1920, when coolidge ran for vice president, the 6% rate now applied all the way down to in

we're all here to celebrate 100th anniversary of calvin coolidge as presidency. and believe it or not, he's one of the biggest reasons why we're able to enjoy mount rushmore today. one of the things that i love about president coolidge is that even though he was from the east coast, he understood the american farmer. he once stated that agriculture, a position in this country that, it was never before able to anywhere else on earth. now, what does that mean? he recognized that in america we don't only grow our own food, that we grow the world's food to the eastern half of south dakota is part of the great and the great plains is the most productive farmland in the world. in the months just our full harvest, our crops actually produce more oxygen than the amazon forest in south. we do truly produce the food and it's the safest, most affordable food supply that can be generated anywhere in the world. we it better than anyone else as well. it's amazing how often that i'm able to apply the lessons i learned on the farm growing up to leadership and to politics. i think

john calvin coolidge was, as you've heard already born on july 4th, 1872, in plymouth notch, vermont he was named after his father. the family referred to him always as calvin or cal. so over the years that john was dropped to better understand calvin. one needs to understand his family in, the environment in which he was raised. first notch is nestled in the green mountains of vermont. it is somewhat centrally located in a state 12 miles north of ludlow. calvin was the fifth generation in the family to live in plymouth. his great great grandfather, captain john coolidge, served in the revolutionary army and later became one of the earliest settlers, the town. around 1780, the dutch sometimes referred to as an elevated area, surrounded hills and mountains full of natural beauty, with several streams. brooks running through it. there are a number of farms and open fields, but otherwise the area is largely forested with pines hardwoods. calvin's lived on a farm just down the road from the house where he was born. calvin's father, john coolidge, ran the general store in post office. fami

host: we are at the centennial of calvin coolidge ascending to the presidency. plenty of coverage of that on american history tv. if you have questions for ray smock on the house of representatives, he is with us for the next 20 minutes on the washington journal phone lines for republicans, democrats, independents. we have talked before about the expanding powers of the executive branch of the presidency, especially post-world war ii. i wonder when it comes to the speaker of the house, has there been a similar expansion of the powers of the speaker in the modern era? host: in the early history of the country the speaker was not that important office. it was important, it was a constitutional office since the beginning. duties as speaker have increased. the party leader, the chief administration are of the house of representatives, the national negotiator on all issues, always in the big meetings when congress is meeting with the president, it is the duties -- the duties of the speaker have expanded greatly over time. it has always been an important constitutiona

i saw a documentary on calvin coolidge, he is having an upward revision because like eisenhower, integrity matters. like jimmy carter. people will judge character as not just the defining thing -- some people said fdr would never let his -- he could make up stories. i am not talking about the moral right to tune. -- moral rectitude. but feeling it was honest and you were treated like respect. >> we appreciate>> good afternoe director of the john w -- library of congress. this center is one of the sponsors of this year's festival and are proud to bring beloved writers here.

and calvin coolidge and mellon. the congress managed it every year in the 1920s and reduced the federal debt. so and the economy boomed. so much for stimulus so much for secular stagnation. the economy boomed even though they running a steady surplus and and reducing the debt inflation we have a little inflation now. we're all mad about it. nothing like 19 and 19. from 1914, the price level was 100 1918. it had gone to 150, 50% cumulative inflation by 21, 99.7 price level had some serious inflation. you know, we might have had 15% altogether. that was 100% 19, 22. it went down from 199 to 1, 70 and stayed there until 20. inflation was conquered quickly. the story is a little bit about the standard, but a lot about i am so i do the fiscal theory, the price level and we learned this morning how the budget act was the crucial action that gave people the government was not going to go down what was happening in europe, hyperinflation, when you tend to the many powers kinds of hyperinflation germany and austria we weren'

i recentlyri saw a good documentary on calvin coolidge.e is starting to have a little bit of an upward revision. because, like eisenhower in the end, integrity matters. the long length of history. not just the defining thing, someut people said fdr, you kno, would never let his right hand know where his left hand was. i am not talking about this more elected to, but feeling that you were an honest broker and with e white house. >> as always, we appreciate you spending a few minutes talking with us at c-span on book tv. thank you so much. >> now more from the 2023 library of the congress national book festival. >> good afternoon. i am kevin butterfield. it is my pleasure to introdu

i recentlyri saw a good documentary on calvin coolidge. he is starting to have a little bit of an upward revision. because, like eisenhower in the end, integrity matters. the long length of history. not just the defining thing, someut people said fdr, you kno, would never let his right hand know where his left hand was. i am not talking about this more elected to, but feeling that you were an honest broker and with e white house. >> as always, we appreciate you spending a few minutes talking with us at c-span on book tv. thank you so much. >> now more from the 2023 library of the congress national book festival. >> good afternoon. i am kevin butterfield. it is my pleasure to introduce today's speakers. one of the sponsors of this year 'ss festival. we are proud to bring america's most beloved writers here into rooms like this one. the center works to bring scholars into residents to work into the library's collections. we are proud to sponsor this event. and to join with c-span as a partner for this project. our next panel is dig in. what

calvin coolidge had a hippo. in the 1930s, franklin roosevelt had a big dog named major that bit a british prime minister. during world war ii, political foes falsely said he sent a navy destroyer to fetch his little dog named fala after it was left behind on a presidential junket. >> i don't remember that, and my family don't resent that, but fala does resent that. >> reporter: in the '50s opponents accused richard nixon of misusing campaign donations. among the gifts was a cocker spaniel puppy his daughter named checkers. >> i just want to say this right now. regardless of what they say about it, we're going keep him. >> reporter: in the '60s, lyndon johnson outraged some dog lovers by lifting his beagles by the ears. and of course a previous biden family dog was also banished for biting. and ironically, just like fdr's snappy german shepherd, his name was major. still, comedy writer jill twist who wrote a book about him notes at least this is a different kind of political scandal. >> yeah, i feel bad for the d

so just to fill that out a little bit more he wasou appoind under calvin coolidge she then stayed on under herbert hoover the dawn of the great depression, they were not related there are lots of stories about that at the time. he was thin for all three plus terms of franklin roosevelt presidency. that the second world war he stays under harry truman he was therefore mccarthy us and for the red scare. he stays on under dwight iser to the 1950s as t they are under junk and he is there under lyndon johnson and he is there under richard nixon and he finally dies in may of 1972 still in office.e. so, what things that drew me too writing about hoover was this amazing time he has his fingers and everything. but also there were really important complicated things aboutin the changes in washingtn throughout that period changes in the federal government and particulatee growth of federal government and its security state drink that. a story about single bureaucrat could yield enough power to reshape many aspects of american mppolitics from our law and ord. to its broader politics constraining

was there from 1924 to 1972, so just to fill that out a little bit more, he was appointed under calvin coolidge. he then stayed on under herbert hoover, right, the dawn of the great depression. they were not related to their were lots of new stories about it at the time. he was then therefore all three plus terms of franklin roosevelt's presidency, so he is there through the new deal. he is there altered the second world war. he stays under harry truman. he is there under mccarthyism for the red scare. he stays under dwight eisenhower to the 1950's. he is there under john kennedy. he is there under lyndon johnson. and he is there under richard nixon and finally dies in may 1972, still in office. so one of the things that really true me to writing about hoover was this amazing sweep of time, the fact that he had his fingers in everything, but also there were important and i think complicated things to say about the changes in the city of washington throughout that period, changes throughout the federal government, in particular, the growth of the federal government and the security state during

so just to fill that out a little bit more, he was appointed under calvin coolidge.then stayed on under herbert hoover, the dawn of the great depression. they were not related. there were lots of news stories about that at the time. he was then there for all three plus terms of franklin roosevelt's presidency. so he's there to the new deal. he's there through all of the second world war. he stays under harry truman. he is there for mccarthyism for the red scare. he stays on under dwight eisenhower to the 1950s. .. ohnson and he is there under richard nixon. and he dies in may, 1972 still in office. one of the things that really drew me to writing about hoover was this amazing sweep of time. the fact that he had his fingers in everything but also there were really important and complicated things to say about the changes in the city of washington throughout a period, changes in the federal government and its security his security state during that period and it is a bureaucrat good wield power could shape many aspects of american policy from law and order to prospect

host: we are at the centennial of calvin coolidge ascending to the presidency.hat on american history tv. if you have questions for ray smock on the house of representatives, he is with us for the next 20 minutes on the washington journal phone lines for republicans, democrats, independents. we have talked before about the expanding powers of the executive branch of the presidency, especially post-world war ii. i wonder when it comes to the speaker of the house, has there been a similar expansion of the powers of the speaker in the modern era? host: in the early history of the country the speaker was not that important office. it was important, it was a constitutional office since the beginning. duties as speaker have increased. the party leader, the chief administration are of the house of representatives, the national negotiator on all issues, always in the big meetings when congress is meeting with the president, it is the duties -- the duties of the speaker have expanded greatly over time. it has always been an important constitutional office. when new degre