CALVIN COOLIDGE, THIRTIETH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Press Account of His Taking the Oath of Office.

AS here recounted in a dispatch to the New York "Times," Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office and became the thirtieth President of the United States at 2:43 a.m., August 3, 1923, in Plymouth, Vermont, where he was recreating. His aged father, who was a notary public, administered the oath, it being the first time in the history of the Republic that a parent so officiated.

Coolidge had been elected Vice-President in 1920, on the Republican ticket with Harding. His nomination was largely the result of his determined stand, as Governor of Massachusetts, against the unionization and strike of the Boston police in 1919, when he asserted that "there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime."

As Vice-President he established a precedent by sitting regularly in Cabinet meetings, on invitation of President Harding. In 1924 he was nominated and elected President.

FACING his father and with his wife at his side, Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the thirtieth President of the United' States at 2:43 this morning [August 3, 1923], standard time, in the parlor of the Coolidge homestead, directly across the road from the house in which he was born.

The President's father, John Calvin Coolidge, 78 years old, administered the oath of office. It was the first time in the history of the Republic that a father installed his son as the Chief Executive of the nation.

The ceremony took place in a typical New England parlor or sitting room, a comfortably furnished, livable room in the father's farm house at Plymouth Notch, in the southern part of the Green Mountains, nearly 2,000 feet above the level of the sea.

The faint light of an old-fashioned kerosene lamp, with a fluted top chimney and etched sides, was sufficient to throw the faces of the President and his father into bold relief. The rest of the small group that witnessed the simple ceremony were in a half light, almost a shadow. Back of the President was a large framed portrait of himself, which occupies the position of honor in his father's home.

The President's father, sturdy and active despite his years, stood at the south side of a small center table that held the lamp, the family Bible and a number of other books.

The President stood at the other side of the table, facing his father. Mrs. Coolidge, her face saddened by the gravity of the occasion and sympathy for Mrs. Harding, expressed a few minutes earlier, stood in the space formed by a bay window, less than a yard from her husband.

It was an impressive sight when Mr. Coolidge took his place opposite his father. His face was pale. His bearing was marked by the simple dignity and poise which has characterized him all through the difficult period of President Harding's illness.

The elder Coolidge, who bears a marked resemblance to his son and has the same immobility of features, asked the President to raise his right hand. The President did so, and his father then read him the following oath, prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, the form of which had been received by telegraph and telephone only a few minutes before from Washington.

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The President repeated the oath after his father. There was a tense moment as he paused, with hand still uplifted, and added in a voice deep with feeling :

"So help me God."

Friends and neighbors who had gathered at the news of the death of President Harding were grouped outside in the soft summer darkness, and witnessed the ceremony through the open doors and windows. It was a much warmer night than usual in the Vermont hills. Except for the voices of the President and his father not a sound disturbed the silence of the night.

The administration of the oath followed the receipt of a message from Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty advising that the President should take the oath as soon as possible, if he had not already done so. Ordinarily the President's oath of office is administered by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial officer in the country. It was explained that administration by any officer authorized by law to administer oaths was just as binding. The President's father is a notary public of Windsor County.

Before taking the oath and after receiving news of President Harding's death at ten minutes before midnight, President Coolidge had talked with Washington several times on the telephone in the general store across the road, formerly run by his father.

This telephone is on the line of the Southern Vermont Telephone Company, a so-called "farmers' line," and . . . a circuit was established to give direct connection between Washington and the Coolidge farmhouse, which became fora few hours the nation's capital.

The President's father declined the President's invitation to accompany him to Washington. When it was suggested that such a trip should give him great pleasure, the elder Mr. Coolidge said:

"I think that my place is at home. There'll be a funeral down there. I think that my place is here to take care of the farm."