131

COOLIDGE, CALVIN

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:400.00 USD Estimated At:800.00 - 1,000.00 USD
COOLIDGE, CALVIN
<b>131. CALVIN COOLIDGE </b>(1872 - 1933) Thirtieth President of the United States who succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Harding. Superb content T.Ms.S. "<i>Calvin Coolidge</i>" 17pp. 8vo., Washington, Nov. 11, 1928, a contemporary typescript copy of his address marking the 10th Anniversary of Armistice Day, signed at conclusion. After giving thanks for the "supreme blessing" of ten years of peace, Coolidge comments <i>"...the eternal questions before the nations are how to prevent war and how to defense themselves if it comes. There are those who see no answer, except military preparation. But this remedy has never proved sufficient. We do not know of any nation which has ever been able to provide arms enough so as always to be at peace. Fifteen years ago the most thoroughly equipped people of Europe were Germany and France...But there is wide distinction between absolute prevention and frequent recurrence, and peace is of little value if it is constantly accompanied by the threatened or actual violation of national rights...All human experience seems to demonstrate that a country which makes reasonable preparations for defense is less likely to be subject to a hostile attack and less likely to suffer a violation of its rights which might lead to war. This is the prevailing attitude of the United States and one which I believe should constantly determine its actions. To be ready for defense is not to be guilty of aggression. We can have military preparation without assuming a military spirit. It is out duty to ourselves, and to the cause of civilization, to the preservation of domestic tranquility, to our orderly and lawful relations with foreign people, to maintain an adequate Army and Navy...The United States and other nations have been successfully engaged in undertaking to establish additional safeguards and securities to the peace of the world by another method. Throughout all history war has been occurring until it has come to be recognized by custom and practice as having a certain legal standing. It has been regarded as the last resort, and has too frequently been the first. When it was proposed that this traditional attitude should be modified between the United States and France, we replied that it should be modified among all nations. As a result, representatives of fifteen powers have met in Paris and signed a treaty which condemns recourse to war, renounces it as a national policy, and pledges themselves not to seek to resolve their differences except by peaceful action...So long as promises can be broken and treaties can be violated we can have no positive assurances, yet everyone knows they are additional safeguards...We want peace not only for the same reason that every other nation wants it, because we believe it to be right, but because war would interfere with our progress. Our interests all over the earth are such that a conflict anywhere would be enormously to our disadvantage. If we had not been in the World War, in spite of the profit made in exports, whichever side had won, in the end our losses would have been very great. We are against aggression and imperialism not only because we not want more territory inhabited by foreign people. Our exclusion of immigration should make that plain. Our out-lying possessions...are not a help to us, but a hindrance. We hold them, not as a profit, but as a duty...</i>". Near fine condition.<b>$800-1,000</b>