National Affairs: Candidate Coolidge

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Tax Reduction. "The bill which I signed will save the people about $1,000,000 each day. I want further tax reduction and more tax reform. . . . Our first thought should be to maintain unimpaired the activity of agriculture and industry. That tax is theoretically best which interferes least with business. Every student knows that excessively high rates defeat their own purpose. They dry up that source of revenue and leave those paying lower rates to furnish all the taxes. . . . Good business is worth more to the small-income taxpayer than a considerable percentage of tax reduction. Only about 3,500,000 people pay direct income taxes. The remainder pay, but pay indirectly, in the cost of all purchases-from a pair of shoes to a railroad ticket. This country has at least 107,000,000 of these indirect taxpayers. I am not disturbed about the effect on a few thousand people with large incomes because they have to pay high surtaxes. They can take care of themselves, whatever happens, as the rich always can. What concerns me is the indirect effect of high surtaxes on all the rest of the people. . . ."

The Political Compaign. "Economy should be practiced scrupulously in the conduct of a National campaign. ... I can perceive no reason why the budget system should not be beneficial in a campaign, as it has proved to be in government. It is to 'be tested by our Committee. . . . There should be no relaxing of resolute endeavors to keep our elections clean, honest and free from taint of any kind. Only the closest scrutiny, both of the sources of contributions and the character of expenditures, can accomplish this laudable purpose. For the first time, this has been provided for the coming campaign through the appointment of a competent Senate Committee vested with ample authority. . . . The statutes provide for publication of the names of contributors and of amounts contributed. But a deficit at the end of the campaign in part defeats this. The budget will cure that defect. So far as the Republican Party is concerned, I have made an absolute requirement that our campaign shall live within its means.

"I would make clearly and definitely one other requirement—that no individual or group of individuals may expect any governmental favors in return for party assistance. . . ."

Our Institutions. "The Constitution is the sole source and guarantee of National freedom. We believe that the safest place to declare and interpret the Constitution which the people have made is the Supreme Court of the United States. . . .

"We believe the people of the Nation should continue to own the property and transact the business of the Nation. We harbor no delusions about securing perfection. . . . That system is best which gives the individual the largest freedom of action and the largest opportunity for honorable accomplishment. Such a system does not tend to the concentration of wealth but to the diffusion of wealth. Under our institutions, there is no limitation on the aspirations a mother may have for her children. This country would not be a land of opportunity ... if the people were shackled with Government monoplies. . . .