This Day in History: 1925-02-24

President Coolidge, just before his inauguration on March 4th, announced that during his first term the national debt had been reduced by over three million dollars to 865 million dollars.  He pointed to American prosperity as well as his own economy in government as making it possible.  He praised the “heroic” efforts of the American public for bearing up under the immense burden of wartime taxes and pledged to keep reducing the debt.  As an example of his economy he announced that the cost of his inauguration had been cut drastically.  The ceremony, he insisted, was intended to demonstrate once more that the US Government was dominated by civil, not military power.  For this reason only those military forces actually stationed in Washington would take part.  As a result the cost of the inauguration had been cut from $100,000 to $450.

(Bristow)