Coolidge and General John J. Pershing on the steps of the Massachusetts State House, Feb. 25, 1920

In February 1920, General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing visited Boston and posed with Coolidge on the steps of the Massachusetts state capital.

Pershing, who had led the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, was a national hero at the time, and some Republican activists were trying to draft him for a 1920 presidential run.

Coolidge, on the heels of his performance in crushing the Boston police strike, was also a rising star in national Republican circles.

Incidentally, Pershing’s nickname, “Black Jack,” derived from his stint in the 10th Cavalry Regiment, a unit composed of African American soldiers and white officers. The nickname was a sanitized version of a more offensive nickname bestowed on Pershing by West Point cadets.

Three brief thoughts on a visit to the Boston Public Library Exhibit Commemorating the 1919 Police Strike:

1) This is one of the most civilized libraries in the world. Charles McKim made a house of angels with all this pink Tennessee marble. You get the feeling in this library, that the architects and founders of this library knew they were right.

2) Relatedly, the documents of this small exhibit remind that Coolidge, in standing firm against the striking police was hardly standing alone. Today a political leader who fought back against public sector workers would have the support of — Rush Limbaugh, or the Washington Times which is to say, not the establishment. Then the establishment backed the leaders up.

3) A document from the strike (supportive of Coolidge) speaks about “Americanism” and defending it. The strikes were perceived as an action inspired by abroad, which in fact they were — with the Russian revolution so fresh and on everyone’s mind.

Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

On September 14, 1919, Coolidge sent a telegram to Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Artful and at times almost eloquent in its terse phraseology, it included a statement that would soon rocket Coolidge to national prominence. (See highlighted text below.)

A TELEGRAM
BOSTON, MASS., Sept. 14, 1919

MR. SAMUEL GOMPERS

President American Federation of Labor, New York City, N.Y.

Replying to your telegram, I have already refused to remove the Police Commissioner of Boston. I did not appoint him. He can assume no position which the courts would uphold except what the people have by the authority of their law vested in him. He speaks only with their voice. The right of the police of Boston to affiliate has always been questioned, never granted, is now prohibited. The suggestion of President Wilson to Washington does not apply to Boston. There the police have remained on duty. Here the Policemen’s Union left their duty, an action which President Wilson characterized as a crime against civilization. Your assertion that the Commissioner was wrong cannot justify the wrong of leaving the city unguarded. That furnished the opportunity, the criminal element furnished the action. There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time. [emphasis added] You ask that the public safety again be placed in the hands of these same policemen while they continue in disobedience to the laws of Massachusetts and in their refusal to obey the orders of the Police Department. Nineteen men have been tried and removed. Others having abandoned their duty, their places have, under the law, been declared vacant on the opinion of the Attorney-General. I can suggest no authority outside the courts to take further action. I wish to join and assist in taking a broad view of every situation. A grave responsibility rests on all of us. You can depend on me to support you in every legal action and sound policy. I am equally determined to defend the sovereignty of Massachusetts and to maintain the authority and jurisdiction over her public officers where it has been placed by the Constitution and law of her people.

CALVIN COOLIDGE
Governor of Massachusetts

Coolidge and Mary Baker Eddy (and I, as it happens) were descended from Edmund Rice. The Christian Science Monitor ran a piece on the Rice family (when, I can’t remember) that always seemed to me to be about making something out of Coolidge’s elevation to president to Mary Baker Eddy’s and Christian Science’s advantage. I’ve never looked for verification that Coolidge knew anything about the Rice’s and I have only the CSM’s report as to the connection. If you run across something, I’d appreciate knowing. Edmund Rice’s significance for me comes to this: if one is descended from a 17th-century Anglo-American, one is likely to be related to anyone and everyone.

"Have Faith in Massachusetts," which shares a title with one of Coolidge's most famous speeches, was published as he rose to national prominence in 1919

On September 11, 1919, Coolidge issued a proclamation, firmly establishing his position on the police strike, as well as an order to the city’s police chief.

Both documents were later reprinted in Coolidge’s book, Have Faith in Massachusetts.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
By His Excellency Calvin Coolidge, Governor

A PROCLAMATION

The entire State Guard of Massachusetts has been called out. Under the Constitution the Governor is the Commander-in-Chief thereof by an authority of which he could not if he chose divest himself. That command I must and will exercise. Under the law I hereby call on all the police of Boston who have loyally and in a never-to-be-forgotten way remained on duty to aid me in the performance of my duty of the restoration and maintenance of order in the city of Boston, and each of such officers is required to act in obedience to such orders as I may hereafter issue or cause to be issued.

I call on every citizen to aid me in the maintenance of law and order.

Given at the Executive Chamber, in Boston, this eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-fourth.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

At the same time, Coolidge also issued an order to Boston Chief of Police Edwin Curtis:

AN ORDER
BOSTON, September 11, 1919

To EDWIN U. CURTIS,

As you are Police Commissioner of the City of Boston,

Executive Order No. 1

You are hereby directed, for the purpose of assisting me in the performance of my duty, pursuant to the proclamation issued by me this day, to proceed in the performance of your duties as Police Commissioner of the city of Boston under my command and in obedience to such orders as I shall issue from time to time, and obey only such orders as I may so issue or transmit.

CALVIN COOLIDGE
Governor of Massachusetts

J.P. Morgan & Co. Bldg., Wall & Broad Streets, New York City, in 1914. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

This week the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is in NYC, and yesterday, the Manhattan Institute and Columbia University cohosted an event for Johnson and New York’s Mayor Bloomberg. Optimistically the institutions titled their event: “Thinking Big: New York and London Heading Back to the Top.”  Twittering, Johnson noted that he was encountering some stiff competition as the day prior President Obama was also in town, lunching with former President Clinton and speaking to Wall Street.

(For more on the event, visit, (http://www.universityprograms.columbia.edu/thinking-big-new-york-and-london-heading-back-top)

With his mention of a crowded roster of speakers Johnson hit on a fundamental tension. The reason New York, at least, isn’t at the top is that Washington is. The old fundamental balance between Washington and New York is gone. Washington is the new New York.

Interestingly, Silent Cal spoke about the two cities as far back as 1925, a time when the Fed was still run from NYC. Said Coolidge “New York is an imperial city. But it is not a seat of government.” Coolidge regarded this separation of government and commerce to two cities as progress.

In the modern world government is inclined to be merely a tenant of the city. Political life and industrial life flow on side by side, but practically separated from each other. When we contemplate the enormous power, autocratic and uncontrolled, which would have been created by joining the authority of government with the influence of business, we can better appreciate the wisdom of the fathers in their wise dispensation which made Washington the political center of the country and left New York to develop into its business center. (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4991/)

The question Silent Cal would have is whether today represents a retreat to the old all-purpose capital and all that retreat entails.

New York Times headlines describing events in Boston on September 10, 1919

On September 10, 1919, Boston city officials asked the state militia to help maintain public order. Units in Boston responded immediately, and Governor Coolidge summoned additional troops from outside the city. By nightfall, thousands of soldiers were patrolling the streets.

They had their work cut out for them. Looters roamed the streets throughout the city, breaking shop windows and loading their trucks with stolen goods. One thief made off with 39 cases of shoes (worth roughly $10,000) from the McElwain Shoe Company

“Numberless persons  were robbed,” the New York Times reported, and professional gamblers emerged from their dens to ply their trade openly on the streets. “One man on the Common,” the Times noted, “had just pocketed gains of $200 when he was knocked in the head and his roll taken.”

At times, the violence seemed particularly wanton and indiscriminate.

Other crimes of a revolting nature were committed. Unprotected women were brutally assaulted in dark corners. Two women pursued by a mob found refuge in the City hospital. Their pursuers forced their way into the institution, where they were driven back by policemen who had just brought in a man with a bullet in his head.

State Guard units responded vigorously to such disorder. ”Guardsmen opened fire with rifles and a machine gun on a mob in South Boston,” reported the Times, “killing two and wounding several others.” In Scollay Square, near police headquarters, a cavalry unit drew sabers and charged a mob of “hoodlums.” When the mob surged back, the cavalry asked for reinforcements, and 200 infantryman arrived to help restore calm.

Meanwhile, city and state officials traded accusations of incompetence, as each group tried to saddle the other with responsibility for the unrest. But as the strike entered its second day, all agreed that military units should be used to restore order. Governor Coolidge even promised to ask Washington for army and navy units should the need arise. Troops stationed at the Charlestown Navy yard, as well as  various forts around Boston harbor, were reported to be available.

A signal event in Coolidge’s career was the Boston Police Strike of 1919, which came ninety years ago this month.  As Joe mentioned yesterday, the Boston Public Library will host a panel discussion on the strike tonight.

The AFL/CIO carries an account of the strike here.

This event seemed to us worth tracking as it unfolded:

5:45 p.m. September 9:

The record of the Boston Police clerk for this date shows a busy one for the Boston police, including the granting of gun licenses and a permit for three musicians to demonstrate against the “the reduction of food, taxes, etc.” at Faneuil Hall.  At 5:45 pm.,  Boston police go on strike.  The day policemen complete their shift, and the night beat police are the first to stay away.  The police commissioner in that city has issued an order that they not affiliate with an outside institution. They affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.  As the New York Times wrote, “the strike was precipitated by the suspension of 19 patrolmen found guilty by Commissioner [Edwin] Curtis of violating a department order against unionizing.”

Evening, September 9:

Crowds bust store windows and loot stores in Roxbury, South Boston and West End.  Teens break into the Mohican Market in South Boston and steal eggs to throw.  Others take guns from a provisions store. The question is whether the governor will call out the state guard. The paper reports that “the secretaries of both Governor Coolidge and Mayor Peters intimated that no such action was likely for the present.”

Governor Calvin Coolidge inspects the state militia called into service during the Boston police strike of 1919

Tomorrow marks the 90th anniversary of the Boston Police Strike,  a watershed event in the history of American labor and a pivotal moment in the career of Calvin Coolidge. Over the next several weeks, Amity and I will be blogging about the strike, its origins, and its political impact.

In the meantime, anyone in Boston tomorrow night can visit the Boston Public Library for a panel discussion on the strike, featuring: James R. Green, professor of history and labor studies at the University of Massachusetts-Boston; Christopher Capozzola, associate professor of history, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Margaret R. Sullivan, records manager & archivist, Boston Police Department.

The Adams House Hotel on Washington Street in Boston

When first elected to the state legislature, Coolidge rented a small room in Boston at the Adams House, a once-grand hotel then well past its prime. Popular with politicians from Western Massachusetts who were looking for cheap accommodations, the Adams House rented Coolidge a room for $1 per day. According to historian Robert Sobel, the apartment had running water but no private bathroom and only a small window.

After being elected governor in 1918, Coolidge still refused to move. “There being no Executive Mansion the Governor has no especial social duties,” he later recalled, “so I kept my quarters at the Adams House, as I had always lived there.” He did agree, however, to rent a second room at the hotel for an extra dollar a day.