Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed.: A Collection of Speeches and MessagesCoolidge, Calvin
History
Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed.: A Collection of Speeches and Messages
Coolidge, Calvin
Massachusetts
In recognition of the long-established policy of making this
Commonwealth first in humanitarian legislation, the General Court
enacted a law providing for reducing a fifty-four hour week for women
and minors to a forty-eight hour week. It passed the weavers'
specification bill. The allowance under the workmen's compensation law
was increased. Local option was provided on the question of a
twelve-hour day for firemen. Authority was granted corporations to give
their employees a voice in their management. Representatives of the
employees have been appointed to the Board of Trustees of great public
service corporations. Profiteering has been made a crime. A special
commission of which the chairman is Brigadier-General John H. Sherburne
was established to deal with the problem of the high cost of
living--with power which has been effective in reducing the prices of
the necessaries of life. No other State has taken any effective measure.
The compensation of public employees has been increased. The entire
public service of the Commonwealth has been reorganized in accordance
with the constitutional amendment into twenty departments. In caring for
her service men Massachusetts led all the States of the Nation in relief
and in assistance, besides voting the stupendous sum of twenty million
dollars, not as compensation, but as recognition of the gratitude due
those who had represented us in the great war. The educational
opportunities of the youth of the State have been improved. All of these
acts of great importance, which are of course only representative of the
character of current legislation, had the executive approval. There has
been not only a sympathetic but a very practical attitude toward the
ideal expressed in my inaugural address, that there is a right to be
well born, well reared, well educated, well employed, and well paid. We
shall not be shaken in the mature determination to promote these
policies. The ancient faith of Massachusetts in the worth of her
citizens, the cause of great solicitude for the welfare of each
individual, will remain undiminished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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