President Coolidge signs Kellogg Treaty. President Coolidge today formally signed the document of ratification of the Kellogg treaty before a distinguished gathering in the east room of the White House, including Vice President Dawes, members of the Cabinet and members of the Senate and House. In the front row, left to right: Vice President Dawes; President Coolidge; Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg; Secretary of the Treasury Mellon; and Secretary of War Davis. in the back row, left to right: Senator William E. Borah; Senator Claude A. Swanson; Senator Thomas F. Walsh; Vice President-elect Charles Curtis; and Senator D.O. Hastings

John Calvin Coolidge Jr. (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th President of the United States (1923–29). He was elected as the 29th vice president in 1920 and succeeded to the presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Born in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. He was graduated from Amherst College with honors and started his political career as a councilman in Northampton, Massachusetts, and became Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, and also as a man who said very little, although having a rather dry sense of humor. Coolidge was a popular figure and restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration. He left office with considerable popularity amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying during the 1920s era. Coolidge was both the most negative and remote of Presidents, and the most accessible. He once explained to Bernard Baruch why he often sat silently through interviews: "Well, Baruch, many times I say only 'yes' or 'no' to people. Even that is too much. It winds them up for twenty minutes more."

America’s Richest Families, 1900-1940