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Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
Boone Papers. Chapter on President Coolidge from the Memoirs of His Physician, Joel T. Boone.
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My arrival at my home in St. Clair on April 1 provided me with
a
rare opportunities to have serious talks with my father and my brother Herbert in re
a
gard to their business affairs. They were not organized under any modern business concept. They were very lax in their detailed attention to finances. I plead with them about improving their business organization and of its conduct, also with them to be more systematic, to give full support to my brother-in-law, Walter Straub, who had joined the firms surrendering his interest in shirt manufacturing in order to help save my father's firm from collapse. He was a tower of strength in the business and he needed every support on the part of my father and my brother in his attempts to place this business on a firmer financial basis. Walter was a perfectionist as to keeping accounts,
customers and making every effort to customers' indebtedness
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to the
r
firm recognized and for meeting their payments on time, as previously agreed upon by my father's firm when he made sales. The business had been rather carelessly operated, although my father and my brother were very ha
d
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d workers, unsystematic, and my
ha
father became too indifferent as he grew older in the matter of collections, purchases. He carried in his pocket many mortgages and he was loath to foreclose or take action to foreclose those obligated to the mortgages which my father carried. He was a great lender to his friends and associates and did not give proper attention to collections, which he acted as benefactor when they needed money. He had been very successful, as time went on, in his business up till the point when he became
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older, showing mental and physical fatigue, finding business management a great chore and, no doubt, as he became more and more advanced in age and approached senility evidenced in one form or another, he was careless in the conduct of his business and it gradually went into financial difficulties, Walter Straub making every effort to salvage it and put it on a high plane of business efficiency. Walter had reason to become very frustrated, very discouraged. His love and dedication to my father and our family was the only factor that kept him as an integral part and member of the firm. One of weaker substance would have thrown up his hands and walked out of the business, but not such a person as Walter Straub. He was a wonderful husband to my sister, but one weakness that he over-indulged in, he did not let her know about his own financial conditions. She never had to pay a bill. She always had money. She thought she always had credit and she was led to believe that money was always available for her to make any purchases she saw fit. Sad was the revelation of fact when Walter died. I always felt it was a cruelty for any husband to over-indulge his wife, not let her share with him the knowledge of their financial condition, help to meet their obligations, knowing every degree of all the financial matters related to their joint lives. She was left a widow as time passed on without any knowledge whatsoever of finances and she was not left with money, but she was left in debt. It was the only weakness I ever found in Walter Straub. Lovable, this fine Christian gentleman, but he was weak in educating his wife, as they went along in their
married
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life, in finances that related
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to each of them
in
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their home. Husband and wife, I feel, must face up to all the vicissitudes of life and one not try to spare the other to make life easier for them. Marriage is a joint enterprise and must be equally shared in all its facets.
Except for the financial situation in my father's family
, in
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my strenuous efforts to have my father and brother see the light of day about the course that his business was taking, I had a delightful visit otherwise with my father, brother, brother-in-law and my sister, and other relatives and my wife's relatives where some of both lived in St. Clair and some in Pottsville. Then we stopped for visits in Reading, Pennsylvania, to see other relatives and Philadelphia, where we had friends
and
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intimate acquaintance over many years and then to see relatives in Newark, Delaware.
My three days' absence from Washington seemed like a long holiday for me, as it had been a rare occasion to really give attention to personal affairs and to have visits for that many days with my loved ones in Pennsylvania and Delaware, as well as a number of friends of whom I was very fond. It did me good. It released me from some of the tensions and strains of constant official and professional obligations. I was pleased to have the blessing of the President and Mrs. Coolidge when I left on this three day holiday. I was able also while I was home to contribute professionalwise to some of my relatives by having consultations with their physicians. There were some domestic problems between members of the family where tensions had arisen and some hard feelings had developed. I felt ? that I had been of some help in helping to iron out some
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of these unfortun {begin inserted text}a{end inserted text} te {begin inserted text}instances{end inserted text} incidents--not deep-seated, I didn't feel, but they were causing {begin inserted text}a{end inserted text} friction which, if permitted to continue, would have left a family unhappiness.
While in Philadelphia I had the pleasure of revisiting my college Alma Mater, Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia.
I had the opportunity while in Newark to counsel my uncle Daniel Thompson, one of my mother's brothers, in regard to his son James. There was a dom
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stic situation which my uncle asked me to advise him about. His son James had come into life later than usual for the birth of a son, and as he began to grow up, it wasn't punishment that he needed for what seemed to be shortcomings, but a firm hand and insistence on his acquiring the best kind of an education. I felt James had the making of a fine man, and my surmisals with the passing of time proved to be correct, whereas he has become, as the years passed, very splendid and successful business man and a devoted husband. I have always had a great interest in growing youth and find it a compliment when I am conferred with by parents in relation to their children's upbringing, particularly to the
ri
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character development and their education.
When I returned to the White House on April 4th after my three days' leave, the President seemed for a moment to have forgotten that he had granted me leave, but then laughed and hoped that I had had a good time. He seemed pleased that I had returned to Washington. Captain Andrews said to me that day that he found President Coolidge very difficult to serve, yet he liked him very much. He said hefelt
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the President was changeable. He didn't respond with much gratitude for services rendered to him. Andrews felt the President was quite inconsiderate of others at times and too often. Andrews told me he was much displeased one evening President Coolidge had sent for him after he, Andrews, had gone to bed aboard ship and when he was very,
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very tired. Mrs. Coolidge told Andrews she knew that the President was very sorry to have disturbed him, but the President characteristically was not the kind to voice confession of regret.
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