EDUCATORS ’ PERSPECTIVE mortgaged .” Thus , most home purchases prior to the 1930s were made with cash . Homeownership was out of reach for most American families , including the young Coolidges .
The Coolidge Family Financial Papers held by the Vermont Historical Society give us a detailed look at Coolidge ’ s saving and investing activity for the years 1915 – 1932 . A disciplined saver , Coolidge had over $ 43,000 in 12 different savings banks in New England by 1925 . 2 He was also a frequent purchaser of US government Liberty Bonds , purchasing $ 50,000 par value , 4.25 % bonds on April 3 , 1928 ; $ 50,000 on September 15 , 1928 ; $ 50,000 on September 29 , 1928 and $ 100,000 on November 20 , 1929 . He also invested in bonds from corporations such as American Agricultural Chemical Company and Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Corporation .
Coolidge was especially fond of preferred stock . In September 1926 , President Coolidge purchased 100 shares of Allis Chalmers preferred and 100 shares of Mack Truck 2nd preferred . 3 Although a relatively high level of risk aversion biased Coolidge towards investing in fixed assets and preferred stock , he occasionally took a risk on common stock .
The earliest recorded stock purchase found in the Coolidge Family Financial Papers was on March 29 , 1915 , when Coolidge purchased 100 shares of Anaconda Copper Company for $ 29 a share . He continued to purchase shares of Anaconda Copper , adding 50 shares at the end of 1916 and 50 shares in 1918 . In 1918 , he also purchased US Steel common stock . Coolidge was a typical buy-and-hold investor , selling both his Anaconda Copper shares and his US Steel shares in 1928 .
Biographer Robert Sobel uncovered several letters from Coolidge to his father where Coolidge gave his father stock tips . These letters indicate that Coolidge was trading stocks well before 1915 . For instance , in a 1908 letter , Coolidge recommended railroads and copper stock to his father and advised , “ There will come a time when it is best to sell and take 3½ percent in a safe bank … It is very likely these [ railroad and copper stocks ] will drop off 10 or 15 %— not points — but there
President Calvin Coolidge shakes hands with a boy , August 24 , 1925 .
is the same likelihood they will thereafter go higher than they are now .”
Of all Coolidge ’ s biographers , Amity Schlaes provides the most complete picture of Coolidge ’ s finances . She relates the story of Coolidge ’ s purchase of 3,000 shares of Standard Brands :
He purchased shares in Standard Brands , a new company consolidating retail companies such as Fleischmann ’ s Yeast and Chase & Sanborn , the coffee and tea company . [ Dwight ] Morrow ’ s old firm , J . P .
Morgan 4 , brought Coolidge in on the initial public offering . Both investment houses and the Wall Street Journal editors had long deemed retail food companies “ depressionproof .” Food was something people had to buy , the reasoning went . Going long on yeast , a food product used to make beer , was a mischievous way to bet that Prohibition might not always hold .
Coolidge purchased his shares on September 5 , 1929 and sold them on April 3 ,
Library of Congress . Calvin Coolidge Papers : Series 1 : Executive Office Correspondence , 1923 – 1929 . www . MoAF . org | Summer 2023 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 9