Immigration | Notion

Since We Last Discussed

Introduction

There is something about having a dog. They’re great, but they’re also a lot of work particularly if you have one that is untrained. Someone had given Coolidge a dog when he was Governor of Massachussets. He wanted to pass it along to his father, but his father refused. The following is from a letter to his father which captures Coolidges’ sense of humor:

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Your dog is growing well. She has bitten the ice man, the milk man, and the grocer man. It is good to have some way to get even with them for the high prices they charge for everything.

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There are perhaps many parallels between the debates of Calvin Coolidge’s time and today. As a state rep in Massachusetts, for example, he argued that colleges should not be exempt from taxes — an issue that remains contested today in Boston under Mayor Wu.

Coolidge also has a unique relationship with Harvard. In the fall of 1919, Coolidge faced a police strike as Governor of Massachussetts. In their contracts, the police were not allowed to strike, but they did so none the less. The President of Harvard, at the time, called on students to replace the police, with an explicit acknowledgment that final exams would be rescheduled.

At Harvard, President Lowell issued a call for volunteers to protect the city. The president carefully advised young men that they were not “strikebreakers” because police could not strike and promised the students that the university would schedule makeup tests for students who missed exams because of police duty.

While there are many Boston specific parallels with Coolidge, in this class we’ll look back at his national impact, and specifically on how he shaped U.S. Immigration.

Backdrop

Coming out of WW1, Veterans “were not all finding work. Many were in pain or disabled.” (Source) Moreover, prices had increased following the war, while wages - kept down during the war - didn’t jump.

Coolidge Quotes