Warm and Witty Side of Attila the Hun by Jeffrey Sackett Read Free Book Online Page B

baptismal certificates, birth certificates, etc. etc. etc., to prove that Harding was of Anglo-Saxon, Scots-Irish, and Dutch ancestry, and this put the issue to rest. Harding was elected in a landslide, and his party kept control of the Senate and took control of the House.
    But one final comment from Harding himself is interesting. When asked about the accusation that one of his ancestors was a black woman from the West Indies, he smiled and said, "Who knows? One of my ancestors may have jumped the fence."
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    Harding's successor, Calvin Coolidge, was popularly known as "Silent Cal," because of a well deserved reputation for a disinclination to say anything. "I was never hurt by anything I didn't say," he once remarked. Three examples:
    One: At a social gathering, an acquaintance approached him and said, "Mr. President, I bet someone ten dollars that I could get you to say three words in a row." Coolidge replied, "You lose."
    Two: When a congressman arrived at the White House for a scheduled meeting with the president he was dismayed to see a particularly loquacious senator preceding him. He sat down sadly, expecting to have at least an hour's wait; but the talkative senator walked out after fifteen minutes. When the Representative entered Coolidge's office, he said, "Mr. President, whenever I have to meet with that fellow, I can't get rid of him for an hour at least, but you got rid of him real quick! How did you do it? What am I doing wrong?" Coolidge replied, "You talk back to him."
    Three: Vice-president Coolidge had succeeded to the presidency upon the death of President Harding, had been elected in his own right in 1924, and was eligible for reelection in 1928. He had not indicated whether he would indeed run again when the press was summoned to his country home in Vermont to hear an announcement. Pens and pencils at the ready, the reporters awaited the presence of the president with eager anticipation. Eventually Coolidge arrived, took a piece of paper from his pocket, and read the words, "I do not choose to run for reelection." He then folded up the paper and left. He never said another word about it.
    When in 1924 Coolidge's death was announced, writer Dorothy Parker inquired, "How can they tell?"
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    Effective presidential leadership is often as much a matter of style as of substance. No better contrast can be found than the one between two sequential chief executives, Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. Whatever one's opinions may be of their policies, it cannot be denied that their personalities could not have been more different. A good example of this can be seen in their respective responses to the Bonus Army.
    In 1924 veterans of the First World War and the families of casualties had been issued Service Certificates which were very similar to savings bonds. They had a cash value redeemable twenty years after the date of issue, i.e., in 1944. But when the Great Depression began in 1929, a movement began among veterans for an early payment of what they called their "bonus."
    In the spring of 1932, 43,000 protesters, calling themselves the "Bonus Expeditionary Force" converged on Washington. The press nicknamed them the Bonus Army. President Hoover was concerned that this large mass of angry people constituted a threat to public safety, and feared that a riot might break out at any moment. To forestall this, Hoover ordered Colonel Douglas MacArthur to "clear them out," which he proceeded to do with elements of infantry and cavalry. Precise casualty numbers are unknown, but there were numerous deaths.
    The next year, after Roosevelt entered the White House, the Bonus Army reassembled in Washington to confront FDR with the same demand. He sent his wife Eleanor, who frequently acted as her disabled husband's representative, to speak with the leaders and urge them to have their followers apply for work with the Works Progress Administration. As she left his office, FDR told his wife, "Make sure they all have