Free I Wish I Knew That: U.S. Presidents: Cool Stuff You Need to Know by Editors Of Reader's Digest, Patricia Halbert

drove an electric car.
     

29th President ~ 1921–1923
    WARREN G. HARDING
    Wobbly Warren
----

“I’m not fit for this office and never should have been here.”
Born
November 2, 1865 Blooming Grove, Ohio
Political Party
Republican
Vice President
Calvin Coolidge
First Lady
Florence “Duchess”
Stepchild
Marshall Eugene DeWolfe
Pets
Laddie Boy, an Airedale terrier; Old Boy, an English bulldog; canaries
----

What Does a President Do?
    Called by many the worst president the United States has ever had, Warren Harding worked hard to earn the title. His campaign slogan was “Back to Normalcy,” inviting Americans to turn back the clock to the simpler times before World War I—and before all the accomplishments of Woodrow Wilson.
    Unfortunately, America took him up on it, and Harding won by a landslide. Once in office, Harding realized he really didn’t know what the job of president was. Never a deep thinker, Harding behaved as if all he had to do was look and act presidential, avoiding big issues whenever they came up. “I don’t know what to do or where to go,” he told a friend. “Somewhere there must be a book that talks all about it.”

A Few Good Men
    Luckily, Harding had appointed three or four good, solid men to his cabinet, who kept the country from falling apart—men like Calvin Coolidge, Andrew Mellon, Charles Evans Hughes, and Herbert Hoover. But still, the good-natured and trusting “Wobbly Warren” let a gang of dishonest scoundrels into his administration, and they got busy taking bribes and breaking laws to make themselves rich. Harding would play poker with these men late into the night, drinking liquor (even though alcohol was illegal then). Harding even lost the White House dishes in a card game.
PRESIDENTIAL FIRST
Warren Harding was the first president to visit the state of Alaska.
----
FUN FACT
Harding kept plenty of alcohol in the White House for his late-night poker games—even though he voted for Prohibition (which outlawed the sale of alcohol) when he was a senator.
----

A Mysterious Death
    When the word got out that many of these dishonest men were about to be brought to trial, one fled the country, two committed suicide, and Harding, on a trip out west, got sick from what seemed to be food poisoning and died of heart failure in San Francisco. People immediately started to suspect that he had been murdered, although it could never be proved.

     

30th President ~ 1923–1929
    CALVIN COOLIDGE
    Silent Cal
----

‘’Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House.”
Born
July 4, 1872 Plymouth Notch, Vermont
Political Party
Republican
Vice President
Charles Gates Dawes
First Lady
Grace
Children
John and Calvin
Pets
Rebecca and Reuben, raccoons; dogs: Palo Alto, King Cole, Blackberry, Rough, Ruby, Boston Beans
----

Taking the Oath
    Vice President Calvin Coolidge was visiting his father in Vermont when President Harding died in San Francisco. The news reached them at night and Coolidge’s father, who was a justice of the peace, administered the oath of office to his son, who immediately went back to bed.

A Calm Leader
    A quiet, witty, redheaded New Englander, Coolidge was the kind of calm and wholesome president the country needed after Harding’s escapades. Trained as a lawyer and a former governor of Massachusetts, “Silent Cal” was famous for not talking. Once a high society lady seated next to him said, “You must talk to me, Mr. Coolidge. I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you.” Coolidge replied: “You lose.”

Boom Times in America
    During Coolidge’s terms in office, the country was going through good times, often called the Roaring Twenties. Coolidge believed the government should not interfere with the strong economy. He gave tax cuts to the rich and did little to help farmers who were going out of business. People put more and more of their money into the stock market, even if they were risking