Inauguration Plans – Grandiose Simplicity or Simple Grandiosity? – (PIP #53)

By Louise Peloquin

Two articles about planning Calvin Coolidge’s inauguration report the flip from desired simplicity to imposed grandiosity.

A hundred years later, will the inauguration be grandiosely simple or simply grandiose?

L’Etoile – February 11, 1925

Simplicity of the Presidential Inauguration

     The ceremonies of the installation of the new President will be of elegant simplicity, at the request the President himself – There will not even be an official ball at the White House – Taking the oath and a short procession.

     Washington – Complying to President Coolidge’s wishes, yesterday the March 4th Presidential Inauguration Committee, on the motion of its president William L. Galliher, canceled all appropriations voted for the official celebration of the event.

     The President will pronounce his inaugural address on the west side of the Capital and will be as brief as possible, according to Mr. Coolidge’s spokesperson. (1) In keeping with the new economic savings program, the project to build a magnificent courtyard of honor at Lafayette Square would have cost $28,000. Fireworks have also been canceled for the evening.

     The official inauguration ceremony of President Coolidge and of vice-president Dawes is now simply reduced to taking the formal oath of office at the Capital and to a procession of troops and of several State governors, a parade to last an hour.

     Galliher declared that he felt almost constrained to rescind the vote, taken weeks ago, on the inauguration ceremonies. He said that patriots in Washington have already contributed $140,000 to the guarantee fund even though they had been repeatedly warned that this sum would probably never be spent. The money will be reimbursed to the donors.

     The Committee will nevertheless allow building a stand and is ready to rent space along the procession route on the boulevards.

     State governors, out of respect for the President’s wishes to have the least ostentatious ceremony possible, will not travel in great number to Washington. Of the 22 governors who, thus far, have responded positively to the invitation, 19 have refused to participate in the procession. The others will have a very modest escort. 

     The presidential inauguration ceremonies will not even include an official grand ball, a tradition for this event.

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L’Etoile – Front page, March 2, 1925 

     THE INAUGURATION WILL BE GRANDIOSE

     Mr. Coolidge will bend to the whims of the organization committee – The ceremonies are sure to be impressive – Huge preparations under way – The parade is sure to be long – The President’s suite.

     President Coolidge yielded to Committee wishes and his installation will not be as simple as he had originally desired.

     Stands are set up along Pennsylvania Avenue and another is now being constructed in Lafayette Square directly in front of the White House, with the President’s permission. All of the stand seats were reserved promptly at good prices.

     We calculate that it will take three hours to review the inauguration parade from the stand in front of the White House where the Chief Executive, Mrs. Coolidge, family members and guests will be placed.

     The President has also allowed local high school cadets to participate in the ceremonies. They will serve as ushers at the reviewing stands.

     G.A.R. veterans in the parade

     Another eleventh-hour change in the program allows the Great Army of the Republic to be represented at the parade. Since the ranks of these veterans are becoming scarcer as time passes, everywhere across the nation, these men who helped save the Union are invited to take part in the parade. The White House gave its favorable response yesterday. Veterans will parade in automobiles and will serve as part of the President’s escort.

     All of the Army and Navy divisions will be represented in the inauguration parade. Some detachments have already arrived from Camp Meade.

     The weather forecast announces pleasant cool temperatures for next Wednesday.

The President’s Suite

     When the President takes the oath of office, he will be accompanied by family members and by Mrs. A.I. Goodhue, Mrs. Coolidge’s mother who arrived last Friday. Colonel John C. Coolidge, the President’s father, and John, the President’s son, will be in Washington tomorrow. John will arrive from Amherst College in the company of college president Mr. Olds.

     Dr. George T. Harding, late President Harding’s father, made it known that it was impossible for him to accept the President’s invitation to be a White House guest during the inauguration.

     Although the President will not attend the charity ball, his aide-de-camp Colonel Sherrill announced that it would be one of the grand social events to take place in the capital.

     Air Force General Mitchell acted as ball committee president but left this post, probably because of accusations against him of insubordination. Consequently, Colonel Sherrill replaced him.

     THE ARRIVAL OF GENERAL DAWES

     General Charles G. Dawes, vice-president elect, arrived in Washington late yesterday afternoon with his wife, their two adopted sons and Francis J. Kilkenny, his long-time personal assistant in public and private affairs. 

     The General did not envisage taking on a task or traveling without Kilkenny….He accompanied General Dawes in France during the Great War. He was his right-hand man when the General initiated the national budget system at the request of President Harding. When Dawes was running as candidate for vice-president, Kilkenny was his personal assistant during the campaign. Kilkenny will remain in Washington until General Dawes takes the direction of the Senate and then will return to Chicago to manage General Dawes’s private affairs. 

     Ross Barclay, member of the Associated Press legal staff, will serve as the new vice-president’s secretary….

    When Calvin Coolidge swears on his family Bible to faithfully fulfill his duties and functions in front of Chief Justice Taft, he will have been the first President to take the oath from one of his predecessors.

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THE CROWD WILL BE AS LARGE AS USUAL  AT THE INAUGURATION

     The crowd expected to gather in Washington for President Coolidge’s March 4th inauguration will be as immense as that of other large crowds assembled in the Capital for similar ceremonies.

     Despite the desire for simplicity expressed by President Coolidge, people are hurrying just as much to see the historic event….

     This year, planes will not fly above the city of Washington during the inauguration because the Secretaries of the Army and Navy forbade it given that the noise of the planes had drowned out President Harding’s voice at the Yorktown ceremonies.

     General and Mrs. Dawes will parade in an automobile from the White House to the Capital behind Mrs. Coolidge, escorted by a squadron of cavalry. 

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THEY WILL  ATTEND THE INAUGURATION

     Representative Jewett will head the Lowell delegation.

     Lowell will send a delegation of several of its Boston legislative Representatives to Washington to attend the official installation of President Coolidge on Wednesday March 4th. Representative Victor-F. Jewett, Speaker of the House, an intimate friend of President Coolidge when the latter was Representative, Speaker, Lieutenant-governor and Governor, will lead the delegation. It will be composed of seven members belonging to the Republican and Democrat parties.

     The Republican delegates are: Representative Henri Achin Jr., Senators Charles P. Howard and Walter Pentam. The Democrat delegates are: Charles H. Shower, Daniel F. Moriarty and Patrick F. Nestor.

     All will attend the lunch which will take place at the White House. They will remain in Washington almost all week. (2)

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1) Calvin Coolidge’s inaugural address was the first to be broadcast nationally by radio.

2) Translations by Louise Peloquin.