Letter from the Editor

On Jan. 17, 1925 President Calvin Coolidge remarked that the “business of the American people is business.” Pundits and politicians invoke this often-cited dictum to confirm that we live in a land of capitalism and free markets, and to remind us that while America is an ideal place to do many things, it is first and foremost a place of business. One would thus expect the origin of the quote, a speech Coolidge delivered to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington, D.C., to be a firm endorsement of enterprise and its place at the center of America. In fact, this could not be further from the truth.
The address, titled “The Press Under a Free Government,” was actually a consideration of the possibility that wealthy newspaper owners would put profit before the public interest in covering the news. In the speech, Coolidge concluded that the dual role of the press, “whereby it is on one side a purveyor of information and opinion and on the other side a purely business enterprise,” was not a “cause for alarm.” He felt that because business was so much a part of America -“After all, the chief business of the American people is business” – and because wealth is not an end in itself but rather a means to “the widening of culture,” we need not fear the influence of profit on the press.
Looking back on Coolidge’s remarks, one is struck by both the prescience of his concerns, and the falseness of his reassurances. Recent financial trouble in the media, particularly with newspapers, has forced profitability to the forefront of decision making in the press. Coolidge believed that, since business was an integral part of America, a newspaper that was not influenced by profit would be less reliable than one that was, but even a brief comparison of the news programs on PBS to those on Fox News or MSNBC strongly suggests otherwise.  The preponderance of misinformation on death panels and President Obama’s citizenship indicate that the quest for ratings has indeed detracted from news quality.
Coolidge’s second point, that Americans are not driven to pursue wealth itself and that newspaper owners will thus consider the greater good, is even more off the mark.  He felt that, “So long as wealth is made the means and not the end, we need not greatly fear it,” and that 1925 America exemplified this correct view of wealth. To say that his confidence on the brink of the Great Depression was misplaced would be a painful understatement. Even more painful is the resemblance between 1925 and 2007, where from bankers’ bonuses to golden parachutes wealth was again viewed as a panacea, with consequences nearing those of 1929.
Yet we should not let Coolidge’s shortsightedness stand in the way of embracing what he got right. In the speech he wisely remarked that, “The accumulation of wealth can not be justified as the chief end of existence,” and that in America, “we make no concealment of the fact that we want wealth, but there are many other things that we want very much more.” In reconstructing our economy we should forget Coolidge’s policy prescriptions, but remember his recognition of the limits of wealth. Failing to do so would be both morally disastrous, and bad for business.