¶ The beginnings of the Republican Party remain somewhat of a mystery. Historians generally agree on the year as 1854. But the place is in dispute. Historian Charles A. Beard thinks that a mass meeting held in Ripon, Wis., was the true party matrix. Historian William Starr Myers of Princeton is inclined to agree and adds the name of one Alban E. Bovay as instigator of the meeting. But, Jackson, Mich., and Kansas City, Mo., also advance claims for the historic honor. Last week President Coolidge favorably entertained a suggestion from Kansas Citizens that the Republican Party's 75th Anniversary be celebrated this year. The President did not, however, go so far as to agree that the celebration should be held in Kansas City's Convention Hall, scene of the Hoover nomination. He wished to consider the claims of Jackson and Ripon.
¶ As everyone knows, White House press conferences in the Coolidge administration have been quiet, circumspect affairs. Last week, however, the President surprised the newsmen by having a grievance of which he spoke feelingly and at length. He was, he said, convinced that the Interstate Commerce Commission was a sluggish body which sadly required verve. It had taken the Commission three years to fix the cost of mail transportation. At the end of this time the Commission had judged that the government owed railroads $45,000,000 for previous service. The President stated that he had objected to this decision, had refused payments. The question had been carried to the Supreme Court. This difficulty would have been avoided, said the President, if the Commission had been more expeditious.
The President further complained that the Commission had yearly asked for repeal of the law requiring it to prepare plans for railroad consolidation. He was also skeptical about the Commission's ability to evaluate the railroads, a problem before it since 1906. But he was inclined to be lenient in this regard, feeling that such valuation is impossible and would cost millions & millions to bring anywhere near completion.
The President concluded that obtaining action from the Commission was ponderously difficult. He predicted that if the Commission answered his criticism it would probably be with the hoary governmental reply—lack of power, lack of funds.
¶ President Coolidge asked the Senate to appropriate $5,000 for the purchase of an oil portrait of himself to be hung in the White House. The procedure is customary with outgoing Presidents. Hungarian Artist Philip A. Lazlo de Lombo's suave, briskly painted Coolidge portrait, which now hangs in the state dining room, seemed a probable choice. Other famed Coolidge portraits are by Frank 0. Salisbury, "painter laureate of England," for the New York Genealogical and Biographical Soci ety, Manhattan, and by Ercole Cartotto, adroit Italian. The Cartotto Coolidge is soon to be hung in the Manhattan clubhouse of President Coolidge's fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta.