What Calvin Coolidge’s 1925 Inauguration Can Teach Us Today

Coolidge was the only president who actually shrank the government.

U.S. President Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) at his desk, circa 1925. Charles Phelps Cushing/FPG/Getty Images

Commentary

One hundred years ago today—on a chilly March 4, 1925—President Calvin Coolidge was inaugurated again after his reelection the previous November. He is a classic example of a man far wiser than all the critics who underestimated him.