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Calvin Coolidge
Historical figureUnited States1872-1933

Calvin Coolidge

30th President of the United States (1923-1929) · 29th Vice President of the United States

Republican president of the 1920s who cut taxes, ran budget surpluses and held that the federal government should play only a small part in the economy.

Compare yourself See the 12 scores
Profile on 12 axes11 of 12 documented
ECONOMYSTATESOCIETYWORLDOwnershipMarketsWelfareAuthoritySecurityStructureMoralityReligionTechnologyCultureTradeForeign
Where they stood

Calvin Coolidge, axis by axis

  1. 01Ownership+50
    PublicPrivate
  2. 02Markets+60
    PlannedFree
  3. 03Welfare+60
    SharedSelf-reliant
  4. 04Authority-35
    DemocraticStrong leader
  5. 05Security+25
    LibertyOrder

    He became famous as governor for ending the 1919 Boston police strike, but his national record on policing is thin.

  6. 06Structure-45
    LocalCentral
  7. 07Morality+50
    ProgressiveTraditional
  8. 08Religion+35
    SecularReligious
  9. 09TechnologyNo clear record
    EmbraceCaution

    No recorded view on technology policy, set in a 1920s context.

  10. 10Culture+55
    MulticulturalNational identity

    He signed the strict Immigration Act of 1924. The score rests on that law, judged in its 1920s setting.

  11. 11Trade+60
    GlobalProtected

    He oversaw the high tariffs of 1920s Republican policy, although tariffs were not his own main cause.

  12. 12Foreign policy-10
    CooperationStrength

    He avoided the League and alliances but liked the World Court and signed Kellogg-Briand, while US troops stayed in Nicaragua and Haiti.

One axis has no clear record, so matching leaves it out.

Who was Calvin Coolidge?

Calvin Coolidge was a Republican from Vermont who built his career in Massachusetts. He served as governor there and then as vice president to Warren G. Harding. When Harding died in 1923, Coolidge became president. Voters elected him in his own right in 1924, and he decided not to run in 1928. He was a quiet, careful man. During years of fast economic growth he pushed for lower taxes, smaller federal spending and light regulation of business. On most domestic questions he left the lead to Congress and the states.

Political views

  • The Revenue Acts passed under him in 1924 and 1926 lowered income tax rates, and he treated tax cuts as his top domestic aim.Source: millercenter.org
  • He ran budget surpluses and paid down the national debt, and he vetoed two veterans' bonus bills to keep spending down.Source: millercenter.org
  • He believed that business prospers best when government regulates it lightly.Source: millercenter.org
  • He opposed the McNary-Haugen plan, which would have had a government body buy up surplus crops to hold prices up.Source: millercenter.org
  • In 1924 he put his name to a law that set tight immigration quotas for southern and eastern Europeans and barred Japanese immigrants.Source: millercenter.org
  • The United States stayed out of the League of Nations under him. He did back US entry to the World Court, and he signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, a treaty to renounce war.Source: millercenter.org

Legacy

Fans, especially fiscal conservatives, praise Coolidge for lower taxes, balanced budgets and a modest use of federal power in the boom years of the 1920s. Several recent biographies have brought new attention to him. Critics say that weak oversight of banks and stock markets, and his refusal to back farm relief, fed the problems behind the crash of 1929 and the long slump after it. Others fault him for a mild response to the Ku Klux Klan march in Washington in 1925 and for backing the strict 1924 immigration law.

In their own words

“After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”
Address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1925

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Calvin Coolidge: questions

Was Coolidge on the left or the right?

He was on the right. He wanted low taxes, balanced budgets, light regulation and a big role for the states.

Did Coolidge cause the Great Depression?

Most historians say no single president caused it. Critics argue his hands-off approach to banks and markets let weaknesses grow, while admirers point out that he left office in 1929 and that the causes were global.

Did Coolidge say that America's business is business?

Not in those exact words. In a 1925 speech to newspaper editors he said the main business of the American people is business, and he was speaking mostly about the press.

Sources