WHAT BECOMES OF THEM?

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 26, 9 July 1952, Page 3

WHAT BECOMES OF THEM?

AMERICA'S EX-PRESIDENTS When presidents of the United States leave the presidential office they retire to the status of private citizens. In effect, they become unofficial elder statesmen — respected, removed from the arena of politics, and in some instances more popular out of office than in it. This is the general rule. There have been exceptions. Within relatively recent memory, Mr Grover Cleveland, defeated at the end of his first term as President in 1888, returned to the political arena in 1892 as the Democratic party's candidate, to win election to a second four-year term as president. Mr Theordore Roosevelt, who relinquished the presidency in 1908 when he supported William Howard Taft as his successor, returned to an active role in politics in 1912 as the Progressive Party for president in that year . With his great personal following throughout the country, he drew enough votes from Taft, running for re-election as the Repub'lican Party candidate, to insure the election of Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat. Mr Warren G. Harding, the next president and a Republican, died in office. President Calvin Coolridge, who succeeded him, retired in 1928 to a quiet and unobtrusive private life.

Mr Herbert Hoover, who served a single four-year term as Mr Coolidge's successor and who is now the country's only living former president, hqs spoken occasionally on public questions, but never since his defeat by the late Mr Franklin Roosevelt has he been regarded as the leader of the Republican Party. Mr Hoover's chief contribution to public affairs since his retirement in 1933 has been to serve as chairman of the so-called Hoover Commission on re-organization of the national Government. This was a non-partisan group of nationallyknown citizens. Its reports and recommendations have guided the president and congress in making many important changes in the Government^ administrative structure during recent years. From time to time there has been public discussion of providing a continuing- income of ex-presidents. This, however, has never been done. They are expected to live on their own resources following retirement. However, widows of former presidents have, in instances of need, been voted special pensions by the U.S. Congress. About the only privileges an expresident enjoys after leaving office are:— The right to withdraw books from the Congressional Library while residing in the Capital, the right to receive the Congressional Record free of cost, and the right of admission as a visitor to the floor of the U.S. Senate.

A It is traditionally true also that ex-presidents, after leaving office, are rarely regarded as national leaders or spokesmen for their political parties. In the early days of the Republican, Mr Thomas Jefferson, one of the founders, so exhausted his considerable personal resources after leaving the presidency that he died a poor man. Mr John Quincy Adams, another of the early presidents, was elected to the House of Representatives after leaving the presidency and died while serving in the legislative branch of the Government. There has been some speculation that President Truman might like j to return to the U.S. Senate, of which he was formerly a member, after retiring as president. But he has said that he desires only to live the life of a private citizen.