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LIFE AFTER THE WHITE HOUSE, PART V

© John S. Cooper

Warren Harding, elected in 1920, died suddenly in 1923 and was followed in office by Calvin Coolidge. (See my eariler article "The Mysterious Death of Warren Harding" published on September 15, 2000.) Coolidge proved to be a popular President and was elected to a full term of his own in 1924. In 1927, Coolidge stunned the political world by announcing he would not run for another term in the election of 1928. After attending the inauguration of his successor, Coolidge retired to the Beeches, his estate home in Northampton, Massachusetts. He wrote his autobiography as well as articles for national magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s. During 1930-1931, he wrote a daily newspaper column called “Thinking Things Over With Calvin Coolidge” for the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. He wrote mainly about government, economics and politics. He continued to serve as a trustee of Amherst College, a position he had held since 1921, and in 1929 was named a director of the New York Life Insurance Company. In October 1931, Coolidge spoke on the radio warning his listeners to beware of insurance agents who frequently advised their clients to alter their policies. Lewis B. Tibbet, a St. Louis insurance agent, sued Coolidge for $100,000.00 because of the business he claimed to have lost because of that speech. Coolidge, wishing to avoid the publicity of a trial, settled out of court for $2,500.00. In 1932, Coolidge campaigned for the re-election of President Herbert Hoover, saying that the depression would have happened no matter who had been the President. Coolidge’s health, always worrisome, declined after he left the White House. He often complained of difficulty breathing, indigestion and listlessness. In the early afternoon on January 5, 1933, Mrs. Coolidge found him on the floor of their bedroom. He had died of a coronary thrombosis. Keeping in character, his will consisted of one 23-word sentence: “Not unmindful of my son John, I give all my estate, both real and personal, to my wife, Grace Coolidge, in fee simple.” (See my earlier article "Silent Cal Coolidge" published on September 18, 1999.)

Herbert Hoover was elected by a landslide in 1928, and defeated for re-election by a landslide in 1932, due to the Great Depression, which began shortly after he took office. After attending the inauguration of his successor, he retired to his home in Palo Alto, California. Hoover was an “ex-President” longer than any other person in our history. In his later years, he lived mostly at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. He was a vocal critic of the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt, calling most of its programs “fascistic.” He was especially critical of Roosevelt’s decisions to go off the gold standard, recognize the Soviet Union, and his attempt to “pack” the Supreme Court. He campaigned for Alf Landon, the Republican candidate opposing Roosevelt in 1936. In 1938, Hoover toured Europe and met with Adolf Hitler. He found Hitler “partly insane” but intelligent and well informed. Hoover opposed U.S. entry into World War II until the attack on Pearl Harbor. During the war, he served as chairman of the relief organizations for Poland, Finland, and Belgium, and opposed dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. After the war ended, President Truman appointed Hoover coordinator of the Food Supply for World Famine, a position he filled in 1946-1947. His most prominent service during his retirement was as chairman of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, popularly called the Hoover Commission, in 1947-1949, and of the Commission on Government Operations, called the second Hoover Commission, 1953-1955. The first commission made 273 recommendations for streamlining the government, roughly three-fourths of which were adopted. The second commission made 314 recommendations, about three-fourths of which were adopted. The most significant of these recommendations resulted in the combination of functions into new cabinet level Department of Defense and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Hoover opposed U.S. participation in the Korean War. Shortly before his death on October 20, 1964, he endorsed Barry Goldwater, the conservative Republican candidate for President. Among the books Hoover wrote during his retirement years were “The Challenge to Liberty” in 1934, “The Problems of Lasting Peace” in 1943, his “Memoirs” in 1952, “The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson” in 1958, and the three-volume “An American Epic” in 1961.