Evening Star Newspaper, June 30, 1929, Page 85

B The Sty Magasine Star Features PART 7. = WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 1929. 24 PAGES. o e CK T0 MAIN STREET| 5 From the Highest Position in the Land Calvin Coolidge Has Returned to' Small-Town Life’ Unchanged and Unspoiled by the Honors That Have Been His. This Fourth of July Will Be His First Birthday as a Private Citizen for Thirty Years. UT of Maln Street by way of Boston there came to the White House Cal- vin Coolidge. Now Main Street takes him back again unchanged by his great office. For this democracy there is inspiration In the recurring sight of men raised by the people to the highest power in the world, surviving the possession of that power into the ability to remain unspolled. Perhaps if the job is great enough it helps to inspire in its holder some- thing of greatness. Roosevelt at Sagamore Hill was the same T. R. Taft in New Haven remained the same Taft. Coolidge in Massasoit street is once more the same “Cal.” This week marks the Fourth of July, and on the Nation’s birthday Calvin Coolidge will be 57 years old. It is the first birthday he has known as a private citizen for 30 years. Wha'ever else it does to you, s pilgrimage to the small frame house at 21 Massasoit street, Northampton, Mass., gives a new reality to that immortal sentence of Lincoln’s: “A Gov- ernment for the people, and by the people, and of the people.” In the White House, in a legis- lative setting, Mr. Coolidge fitted into the picture of a political leader in high office. In this he was not unlike many other men who have been the choice of the people. In 21 Massasolt street, Northampton, Mass., he is once more a man of the people. At the corner of the block there is a sign * which reads: “Calvin Coolidge’s house, No, 21.” This has a meaning. Among his neighbors ) R T ELE S o) Many important people call on Mr. Coolidge at his Main Street home. By Hyde which says: “Leave Ice Today.” The neigh- bors display the same sign. Under the win- dow is a painted flower box whose geraniums are a far cry from the exotic blooms of the White House conservatory, the roses and tulips named in honor of Mrs, Coolidge. To have seen Calvin Coolidge only presiding ° in the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to have watched him only as governor in the State House, to have observed him only as presiding officer of the Senate, or to have known him only as President of the United States, is to be unprepared to find him falling back into his niche in his home town as one of its private citizens. I’r is perhaps one of ‘the most illuminating highlights on his character that after 30 years of public service he steps again into the ranks, fits into the simple picture—a great common denominator of the American people. The exaggerated praise, the boot-licking, the flattery, which are the daily food of distin- guished public men, have left lttle impression on him. Nothing seems to change Calvin Coolidge very much. Standing in his small hallway, dressed in his characteristic double-breasted suit, he greets old friends and other visitors as he has been greeting them for a generation— “Glad to see you,” and then a polite inquiry as to the well-being of the neighbor's family. No waste of words or . He comes di- rectly to the point with his friends, even as with those who served under him in the direct- ing of the destinies of 120,000,000 people. Through a generation we have geen lesser men enter public life in the halls of the Legis- lature, the gubernatorial mansion, the House, or the Senate, and then return to private lifte . Clements. trailing after them some personal pride in the glamour of high places. We have seen Sena- tors retired from Washington, building great houses importing decorators discarding old souvenirs and early possessions. They have left Main Street behind. Not so our latest President. P Nothing can give us a keener sense of sta- bility than a visit to 21 Massasoit street. - It isn’t a beautiful house. It is a homelike house. It stands today almost ‘exactly the same, within as without, as it has been ever since the year John Coolidge was born. Then, I am told, Mr. Coolidge himself found this house, rented it and furnished it all the way to the curtains, ready for Mrs. Coolidge to set up housekeeping. All that is new about it are the following: Beans, the Boston terrier, and Tim, the Chow; the fine etching of Lincoln in the hall opposite the upright piano; a drawing in colored chalks of Mr. Coolidge and an oil painting of the Black Hills; a small head by Gutzon Borglum upon the mantelpiece in the living room; s combination radio and victrola which domi- nates the tiny room; the photograph -of Cal- vin, jr., which once occupied the upstairs private living room of the White House, and the large portrait which there hung in the upper hall, ' By the photograph a single rose house, unchanged in their point of view by all the experiences which have carried them so far away from it. “ Smotmmntwplemmm call at their home. They enter and con- tinue by habit and by courtesy to address him as “Mr. President.” To Northampton gener- ally he remains “Mr. Coolidge.” To his friends and neighbors he remains “Cal.” A neighbotf® comes to borrow a fishing reel. The man who' mestics, but only what the ex-President calls ' a housekeeper, who is an excellent cook, It is all very homey, very small towney, very cozy and intimate. The Great Common De nominator is functioning back in the everyday