Vermont Econ Debates, 2013

March 28, 2014March 28, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

Last August the George W. Bush Institute, the Debate Institutes at Dartmouth and the state of Vermont partnered with the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation to launch the first of what we hope are many debates to come over a range of topics. Involving some 100 high school students from 22 states, it brings the young and old together to think anew on economics, grappling with many of the same fundamentals that Calvin Coolidge faced not only in the academic halls of Amherst but in the increasingly globalized market that flourished during his administration. The next one, coming August 1 of this year, is sure to be immensely rewarding for all participants.

Writing to his father on November 13, 1892, he recounted the value of what results from classical education, which included a healthy portion of logical reasoning and debate skills, “President Gates preached to us this morning, his text ‘As a man thinketh, so is he.’ He discussed it from a psychological point of view and urged upon us the importance of keeping our thoughts centered along strong and profitable lines. It was not an exhortation to work harder on our studies but rather to keep before us some great and noble thoughts around which our whole personality might centre not as a narrow specialist but as a broad and liberal cultured man.” Occam’s razor has reduced too many educational institutions down to a restrictive specialization at the expense of inspiring students with the whole picture of existence, an entirely logical worldview grounded in the pursuit of truth.

Calvin described what happened when he took on the best debater at Amherst, in another letter to his father, dated January 14, 1894, “I had a debate yesterday as to whether a Presidential or Parliamentary form of government is the better; I had the Parliamentary side which is not particularly popular in as much as it is really to show England’s government is better than ours, and I spoke against Pratt of Brooklyn who is a very good debater and a general favorite being captain of our football team. But the Parliamentary side won by a large majority when the question was decided.” The encouragement fostered by the debates at Plymouth Notch are contributing mightily to help students and teachers, children and adults alike to apply the mind again to the art and discipline of good debating. Moreover, they are learning to think through the problems Calvin Coolidge encountered and thereby gain a greater appreciation not only for how he approached the problems of his day but also how to apply reasoned solutions for the future.

The Coolidges at Andover, May 1928, where Coolidge spoke at commencement before over 10,000 people, including a class of 650.

The Coolidges at Andover, May 1928, where Coolidge spoke at commencement before more than 10,000 people, including a class of 650.

“Calvin Coolidge” by Jerry Wallace

March 22, 2014March 22, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

Here is an awesome half-hour presentation of the life and landmark accomplishments of Calvin Coolidge by superb scholar Jerry Wallace to the Wichita Pachyderm Club. His irreplaceable volume Calvin Coolidge: Our First Radio President has contributed so much toward shattering the myth that Cal was too inept and silent to make use of the new medium of radio. In fact, Mr. Wallace explains that far from being a failure, Calvin Coolidge bequeaths an historic legacy as not only a masterful communicator but effectual doer and successful President. This is well worth the listen!

On Science and Character

March 16, 2014March 16, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / 2 Comments

“The National Institute of Social Sciences is met to honor one of the great of the earth, not as the world has always counted greatness in the past, but as it must and will recognize greatness in the future. It is not to a soldier or a statesman who has won the acclaim of multitudes in a contest of peace or war; not to one who has acquired great material possessions, but to one who, passing by all these, with a true humility, by the benefactions she has conferred upon mankind, by her great service to humanity, has forever laid all civilization under tribute. In her gentleness, in her intelligence, in her devotion to the advancement of science, there is mark and warrant of progress of an enlightened society among men…

“But only the most casual observation tells us that something is lacking…We have just had the terrible experience when for more than four years pure science was let loose upon the world…There is something lacking in our science. It is not to be discarded, it is not to be blamed, it is not to be ignored, it is not to be cast aside. All science must be protected and fostered and advanced. But the plain truth is that science alone does not provide the salvation of the world…

“Along with our boasting of science there needs must go a greater humility. We cannot substitute science for character. Least of all can we substitute the superficial for exact scholarship…Unless there be national character, there can be no national progress and no national prosperity…

“This nation cannot pay for what is not earned, it cannot respond to a contribution which has not been made, whether supposed to be of capital invested or work performed. We must take up again the burdens of civilization. We must make of science the handmaiden of character. This appeal has never been made to America without finding an adequate response. It is an appeal not to give up pleasure, but to seek the greatest of all pleasure, the satisfaction that comes from achievement. It is an appeal to turn from pretenses to realities…

“When America is engaged in this struggle, no less hazardous than those crises which she has met in the past through her own efforts and through the sustaining sympathy and assistance of others, it seems almost providential that there should come to us the personification of what American and Americans should seek to be. Other crises have brought us men; there has come to us now a woman…Her presence here tells, as we look back over our history and its accomplishments, that there is no time to forget our friends, that there is no time to take counsel of our animosities, that there is no time to cease to do and to require justice.

“More than this, she comes bearing witness, not to riches she has secured for herself, but to the riches she has bestowed upon mankind, more solicitous to give than to receive. She comes not for glorification, but that there may be bestowed upon her the means by which to continue that service to which she had dedicated her life…

“Recognizing how worthily you represent the principles of the National Institute of Social Sciences…I am directed to bestow upon you this medal, Madame Marie Curie, as the testimony of its approval and satisfaction” — speech presented on behalf of Vice President Calvin Coolidge in honor of Madame Curie’s historic work in radium, May 19, 1921

To which Madame Curie responded with thank-filled brevity, “I am grateful to the National Institute of Social Sciences and I would like you to know how deeply moved I am by the words of Vice-President Coolidge.”