Excerpt from Weekly Articles Volume 3 The Coolidge Years, 1922-1925:

POLITICS AND TRAVEL

Well, all I know is just what I read in the papers, and what I see as I prowl hither and thither. The wife and I had a fine visit in Havana, Cuba. It's the first time I had ever been there, although she had stopped there with our retinue of children one time when they come around through the canal. It sure is a pretty place, one of the cleanest cities I ever saw. They have got some new Chief of Police or somebody and they are a Nut on cleaning up and believe me they got the old town scrubbed and shining.

I will write you more about the Pan American Conference later, as they have only been there long enough now to get over their complimentary remarks, and will be calling each other by their right names as the thing gets hotter. Calvin made quite a hit down there. He dident say nothing much only the usual pleasantries. But they liked it. Or course when they held a clinic over the speech and took it apart, he had simply delivered a high school oration.

Havana is just packed with Americans. All seem to be having a good time. The balance wheel is not so much on this flying personally, so we had to come home by train, about four or five days and nights of it. It's a nice trip over on the boat from Havana to Key West, about six hours. Nice comfortable steamers. Then a drive around Key West, which is a pretty and unique little city. They have just opened up a highway up along the Keys to Miami.

Florida is picking up fine. All the towns are building, and they have got rid of all the ones who only come there to speculate. All the smart ones have just charged a certain amount off to loss, and started the whole thing in on a sensible basis. It's a great winter resort. All the Real Estate panics in the world can't take that away from it.
We come along the whole Gulf coast country. That's the coming country, the whole thing that lays along the gulf of Mexico. New Orleans is going great. If they will ever do anything on that flood relief, it will go stronger than ever. You know if we should happen to have another flood next spring and cause another catastrophe like last spring, just think what Congress would have to answer for. Here it's been nine months and not a single shovel full of dirt moved to prevent another one.

Went on over through Houston who put their hand in what they thought was a prize convention grab bag and come out with the Democratic one. Well, they seem to be all hopped up over it. You know they never had one before, and they are just as innocent about it. They don't know what they are. I am glad they got it though. It will give some of these Northern Deligates a chance to get that old moss-back idea out of their heads about the South to have it down there, and it is especially a great thing for Texas. I have repeatedly said after being in each State of the Union for two consecutive years, that North Carolina has made the most progress in the last 5 years, and Texas is next. It seems a surprise to people who don't travel around much to hear this. Perhaps they hadent heard of anything that either one of these two had done. But I want to be impartial, and I want to be fair, and that is what I absolutely believe. Course we got a lot of them that are humming. But like Oklahoma, and California, and Florida and a dozen others, they have been improving over a longer stretch of time. They have been great for quite a while. But North Carolina just looked like it popped up over night. They got everything. But Texas, that's not a state, it's a Dominion. Dan Moody's got the biggest range of any Governor in the World, I reckon.

This Houston wanted an Ocean and they dident have one, so they just dug one. One man, Jessie Jones, just pulled out his check book when the towns were bidding on the Convention, (nobody had given him any money, there had been no collection taken up before he left Houston) and wrote out his personal check for $200,000, and layed it °n the barrel head, and I want to tell you those Democrats pounced °n it like a Congressman on a Mellon hard-earned savings. It takes a game Guy in any man's town to do what Jones did. Most towns Would have to have Chamber of Commerces speeches and luncheons a"d drives for a year to dig that up. But that's the way those Babies down there do things. So go to see the town, even if you are not interested in the Convention, and the State has dozens of ones like it, not all as big, but they all believe they are, and they will all surprise you.

They say the Railroads are going to cut off three hours, going east from California to Chicago. I don't know why they don't cut off 12 corning this way. There is not a road west of Chicago coming out here that couldent take off a full night, or day. When they get these Aeroplane lines going fine they will make these Railroad Birds step out here like the trains do east of Chicago. You won't see 'em stopping at every little place. There is not a schedule out here that can't let a train be 3 hours behind and then make it up in one division. They do it all the time.

The Hickman trial run Tom Heflin off the front page out here. Hoover has just been declared the Candidate of California. That means that Arizona will be against him. That's the State I got my vote from last time. I hope that Deligate hasent died. Hoover is talking about resigning. That shows right there he is not a politician. He seems to think you can't serve two masters.

Lowden is strong with the Farmers, but the East is sorter scared of him. The East thinks if he was elected he would give the Farmers relief, and if they ever got relief, they would charge 'em too much for their grub. Dawes is the Baby that's just sitting back, listening to the Senate, but paying no attention to 'em at all. His mind is on Kansas City on a hot day. Curtis will be on the home grounds, and should Hoover and Dawes go into a huddle, that "Injun" is liable to come out of the scrimmage with the ball. But I still claim that if it looks like a tough race with Smith going to be nominated on the minority side, that Calvin will be rushed from the side lines to save the game. At least Hearst hasent won my money yet.