“Government cannot relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards of service. It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize distinguished merit. The normal must take care of themselves. Self-government means self-support.” -Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge, who’s namesake I borrowed, is probably one of my favorite presidents. I don’t know that he was the best president, but I liked his personality. He wasn’t talkative, didn’t speak unless he had something to say. Very clever. Conservative, but not quite what we would call “Libertarian” today. Note the emphasis in the above paragraph. Even public funds assisting the disabled is too liberal for most libertarians. I’m very conservative, but much more in the vain of Calvin Coolidge than, say, Ron Paul.

“Do the day’s work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a stand-patter, but don’t be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a demagogue, but don’t be a demagogue. Don’t hesitate to be as revolutionary as science….Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. ”

I can’t emphasize that last sentence enough. These quotes are all from “Have Faith in Massachusetts”, a collection of speeches. I’ll admit there’s a lot of soppiness, but that comes with the pulpit.

Here’s another bit: think anti-materialism is anything new?

“I agree that the measure of success is not merchandise but character. But I do criticise those sentiments, held in all too respectable quarters, that our economic system is fundamentally wrong, that commerce is only selfishness, and that our citizens, holding the hope of all that America means, are living in industrial slavery.”

This from a speech in 1916. And in a later speech (like, the next speech he gave), again speaking of materialism:

“Destructive criticism is always easy because, despite some campaign oratory, some of us are not yet perfect. But constructive criticism is not so easy. The faults of commercialism, like many other faults, lie in the use we make of it. Before we decide upon a wholesale condemnation of the most noteworthy spirit of modern times it would be well to examine carefully what that spirit has done to advance the welfare of mankind.”

And just for the hell of it, here’s the next two paragraphs.

“Wherever we can read human history, the answer is always the same. Where commerce has flourished there civilization has increased. It has not sufficed that men should tend their flocks, and maintain themselves in comfort on their industry alone, however great. It is only when the exchange of products begins that development follows. This was the case in ancient Babylon, whose records of trade and banking we are just beginning to read. Their merchandise went by canal and caravan to the ends of the earth. It was not the war galleys, but the merchant vessel of Phoenicia, of Tyre, and Carthage that brought them civilization and power. To-day it is not the battle fleet, but the mercantile marine which in the end will determine the destiny of nations. The advance of our own land has been due to our trade, and the comfort and happiness of our people are dependent on our general business conditions. It is only a figure of poetry that “wealth accumulates and men decay.” Where wealth has accumulated, there the arts and sciences have flourished, there education has been diffused, and of contemplation liberty has been born. The progress of man has been measured by his commercial prosperity. I believe that these considerations are sufficient to justify our business enterprise and activity, but there are still deeper reasons. I have intended to indicate not only that commerce is an instrument of great power, but that commercial development is necessary to all human progress. What, then, of the prevalent criticism? Men have mistaken the means for the end. It is not enough for the individual or the nation to acquire riches. Money will not purchase character or good government. We are under the injunction to “replenish the earth and subdue it,” not so much because of the help a new earth will be to us, as because by that process man is to find himself and thereby realize his highest destiny. Men must work for more than wages, factories must turn out more than merchandise, or there is naught but black despair ahead.

“If material rewards be the only measure of success, there is no hope of a peaceful solution of our social questions, for they will never be large enough to satisfy. But such is not the case. Men struggle for material success because that is the path, the process, to the development of character. We ought to demand economic justice, but most of all because it is justice. We must forever realize that material rewards are limited and in a sense they are only incidental, but the development of character is unlimited and is the only essential. The measure of success is not the quantity of merchandise, but the quality of manhood which is produced.”

There’s that soppiness I was talking about. I see his point, work builds character, but even I cringe at some of the lines. “Factories must turn out more than merchandise”. “The measure of success is the quality of manhood which is produced.”

Anyway, was just reading these speeches and felt like posting some quotes. I’m sure there will be more where they came from as I get further along in the book.

‘Till next time,

-TJC-