Page:Jay Lovestone - What's What About Coolidge.pdf/4

 After he helped smash the Boston police strike he ran for re-election as Governor under the slogan of "Law and Order." In this super-patriotic campaign of his, Coolidge was supported by the powerful capitalist spokesmen of both parties. Congratulations and promises of support poured in on him from Governors, newspapers, labor-hating agencies and Chambers of Commerce the country over.

Tho the Democratic Party was about to face a national election Woodrow Wilson, then President, thus wired Coolidge on his gubernatorial re-election: "I congratulate you upon your election as a victory of law and order. When that is the issue all Americans stand together."

The New York Times of November 4,1919, said editorially: "The one vital election, the one in which the whole country takes a keen interest, is in Massachusetts. Governor Coolidge's energy and courageous action in the Boston police strike gave him a national reputation and won him national respect. He is the candidate of order, of law …"

And the notorious New England Red-baiter Henry M. Whitney chimed in with this chorus of hate against the workers in this fashion: "The principles for which Governor Coolidge stands are vital to the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the United States and over the whole world."

When Coolidge was running for a second term as Governor the big Boston bankers did their all to secure a victory for him in recognition of his strikebreaking services.

Even tho Coolidge was not yet considered marketable presidential timber in 1920, yet the big capitalists openly invested, according to the Senate investigation committee, from $60,000 to $100,000 to sell Coolidge to the Republican voters in the primaries prior to the Chicago National Convention of 1920.

From the San Francisco Chronicle of August 12, 1923, we learn that Coolidge was nominated for the Vice-Presidency mainly through the manipulations of the California delegates. In this delegation, according to a speech delivered by Mr. Chas. Stetson-Wheeler of California at the 1920 Republican National Convention, there were men representing "practically every big business interest on the Pacific Coast." There were "among them the men who dominate great electric light and power interests and the presidents of three of San Francisco's largest banks—banks whose deposits aggregate more than $240,000,000."

Coolidge's nomination as Vice-President was applauded by the powerful financiers of the country. Typical of such whole-hearted indorsement of Coolidge is the following statement made by Mr. Francis L. Hine, President of the First National Bank, 2 Wall St., New York, and a director and officer of the American Can Co., American Cotton