The quotation from President Coolidge's 1925 inaugural address that I cited in my last posting may be found in an intriguing little book called, The Quotable Calvin Coolidge, compiled and edited by veteran Washington PR consultant Peter Hannaford (Images from the Past, Bennington, VT, 2001).

The book is an eye-opener for anyone who has dismissed our 30th president as a man of few words and fewer brains. He is worthy of more serious attention than is usually accorded him, as this next quotation attests. It's from a speech he gave in 1921 when he was still Vice President, but it has an eerily topical ring:

"The trial the civilization of America is to meet does not lie in adversity. It lies in prosperity. It will not be in a lack of power, but in the purpose directing the use of great power. There is new danger in our very greatness.... It is impossible to overlook our imperfections. The war has greatly diminished the substance of some and greatly increased the substance of many. It has already given a new tongue to envy. Without doubt it will give a new grasp to greed."

This was a warning that the America of the Roaring 20s ignored, and the result was the crash of 1929.