[2013. 2.23] 美国第三十任总统柯立芝VS经济大萧条

confrontation than about wages or the prosperity of the companies that could provide them.

一开始，柯立芝支持轰轰烈烈的进步运动【1】，该运动旨在支持国家干预并让工会参与到经济中去。但是，当他意识到那些观点在实践中意味着什么时，他的看法发生了变化。比方说，许多人认为铁路是可憎的，铁路也受到了越来越严格的监督管理。而柯立芝在小时候曾亲眼看到过，那些远离铁路线的农民是如何深受其害的。他认为铁路运输益处多多，并明白要放宽对铁路的限制，这样才能带来更大的收益、来扩建过多的铁路。柯立芝曾被派协调一场发生在马塞诸塞州的、由羊毛加工工人发起的罢工。他首先向工作环境恶劣的罢工者表示了同情，但柯立芝随后意识到站在罢工者身后的许多人更加关心政府在罢工中的表现，甚至超过了对公司给他们薪酬的高低、及公司未来的发展前景的关心，因而对他们的同情就相对减少了。

Coolidge’s defining moment came in 1919, when the Boston police held a strike while he was governor of Massachusetts. Politicians from President Woodrow Wilson down wavered. Coolidge stood firm, insisting on the need for public safety. This “is not a strike, it is a desertion,” he said, and then sacked the entire force. The country, it turned out, was on his side.

一九一九年，决定柯立芝仕途的时刻到了——波士顿的警察举行了一场罢工，当时他正担任马塞诸塞州州长一职。伍德罗 威尔逊总统和他下面的政客在立场上发生了动摇。而柯立芝却态度坚决，坚称大众需要公共安全。他说，这“不是罢工，而是擅离职守”，接着就把整个警察队伍解散了。结果，整个国家都站在了他的一边。

The journey to the White House, which began when Warren Harding asked him to be vice-president on the Republican ticket in 1920, enjoyed strong support. By the summer of that administration’s first year, though, the stockmarket had fallen by 47.8% from its peak in 1919, further than it would fall in 1929. The country was awash in debt left over from the first world war; unemployment was high. The new administration responded with austerity. In a symbolic first step, President Harding shunned a costly inaugural. Taking office after Harding died suddenly in 1923, Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a notary, by the light of a kerosene lantern. His reaction on becoming president was just as spartan: “I think I can swing it.”

他的总统之路始于沃伦 哈定 (Warren Harding)的邀请。哈定在1920年参加总统竞选时，邀请柯立芝作为共和党候选人竞选副总统，这条路走得十分顺畅。然而，截至那一届政府上任后第一个年头的夏天，股市从1919年的峰值下降了47.8%，下降幅度比1929年的还要大。美国深深陷入了第一次世界大战留下的债务当中，而且失业率很高。对此，新一届政府班子以紧缩策略应对。在象征性的第一步中，哈定总统就把就职仪式搞得很简洁。哈定总统于1923年突然去世，接着，柯立芝就映着煤油提灯的光芒、由其父（公证员）宣誓就职。成为了美国总统后，他的反应也同样简洁：“我认为我能做好”。

Coolidge felt that his duty to the public did not include protecting Washington’s influence, and he set to shrinking it. MsShlaes uses Coolidge’s diaries to show how often the