[2013. 2.23] 美国第三十任总统柯立芝VS经济大萧条
Calvin Coolidge and the Great Depression
卡尔文•柯立芝和大萧条
When less led to more
政府干预减少经济效益增加
America’s 30th president has been much misunderstood
长期以来，人们严重误解美国第三十任总统柯立芝
Feb 23rd 2013 |From the print edition
Coolidge. By Amity Shlaes. Harper; 560 pages; $35. Buy
书名：《柯立芝》
作者：Amity Shlaes
出版社：Harper出版社
页数：560页
价格：35美元
有售
“WEANED on a pickle” was how the acid-tongued Alice Roovelt Longworth described Calvin Coolidge, America’s president from 1923 to 1929. Popular historians have been no kinder. Many blame his laisz-faire approach for prompting the Wall Street crash of 1929.
说话刻薄的艾丽斯•罗斯福•朗沃思曾形容1923年至1929年间任美国总统的柯立芝“是用盐水断的奶(形容他性格内向、沉默寡言）”。大众史学家对他的态度也没有好到哪去。许多人责怪他的自由放任政策，称这种做法导致了1929年的华尔街股市大崩盘。
Implicit in this view is the presumption that only interventionist central government can hel
p America recover from economic shock. Mr Coolidge’s hallmark was distrust of government. He saw it as an entity that us “despotic exactions” (taxes) that sap individual initiative and prosperity across the board. American readers who believe intervention to be a good thing are likely to blanch at a controversial new biography of Coolidge by Amity Shlaes, an American columnist and historian of the Depression. However, if they are brave enough to read on they will also discover a presidency of remarkable achievement that has received too little attention. During Coolidge’s tenure American debt fell by one-third, the tax rate by half and unemployment collapd.
该观点暗含着这样一种推论，即只有实行干涉主义的中央政府才能帮助美国从经济冲击中复苏。柯立芝的特点就是对政府的不信任。他视政府为使用“专横的苛捐杂税（税款）”来削弱个人积极性、破坏国家全面繁荣的实体。这本备具争议的柯立芝传记是美国专栏作家、研究大萧条的历史学家 Amity Shlaes的新作，认为干涉主义是一件好事的美国读者们可能会对这本书避之不及。然而，如果他们足够勇敢来读下去的话，还会发现柯立芝在总统任职期间取得的巨大成就鲜为人知。在他任职期间，美国的债务削减了三分之一、税率
减半、失业率大幅降低。
Coolidge learned young about dealing with tough times. He grew up in a farming community with poor access to markets. To save on school fees, he studied law in a free library. As a lawyer and in a ries of elected positions in western Massachutts, he acquired a reputation for speaking rarely but knowing a lot.
柯立芝在年少时期就学习了该如何度过困难时期。他在一个农社长大，这个农社因交通不便，而与外界市场的联系少的可怜。为了减少学费，他在一个对外免费的图书馆自学法律。柯立芝最后成为了一名律师，并在美国马塞诸塞州西部被多次选举在政府担任各种职位——人人都说他“寡言而博学”。
Coolidge learned at first towards the surging progressive movement, which supported state intervention and union involvement in the economy. But his views shifted when he saw what tho ideas meant in practice. The railways, for example, were regarded as vill
ainous by many, and were subjected to increasing regulation. Coolidge had en how the farmers of his childhood suffered from lack of rail access. He regarded rail transport as hugely beneficial, and understood that the railways needed to be free to make a profit in order to expand. Called upon to mediate in a strike of wool workers in Massachutts, he first sympathid with the strikers who worked under brutal conditions. But this was quickly tempered by a n that many of tho behind them cared more about the 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 Massachutts. 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 dertion,” 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 Hou, 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 kerone 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 t to shrinking it. MsShlaes us Coolidge’s diaries to show how often the president met with his budget director, Herbert Mayhew Lord. They cut back on the u of pencils, changed the fabric of mailbags and lowered the tariff on paintbrush handles. Government departments that reduced expenditures were rewarded with special citations. Sensitive to the importance of personal example, he was equally tough on his own houhold, questioning even the amount of food on the White Hou table. “I am for economy. After that I am for more economy,” Coolidge said as he faced an onslaught of interests eking cash, from the army to civil engineers to pensioners to governors.
柯立芝感到他对民众的义务不包括保护华府的影响力，相反他决心减小这种影响力。作者Shlaes引用柯立芝的日记来证明，柯立芝经常会见他的预算主管Herbert Mayhew。他们削
减在铅笔方面的支出、改变了邮袋的用料、降低了刷柄的价格。柯立芝还会给予减少支出的政府部门以特别表彰。他还意识到个人榜样的重要性，因此自家花销也是能省就省。他甚至对摆在白宫餐桌上食物的多少也提出质疑，称“我是很简朴的，以后我还得更简朴”。他这么说是因为人们请求政府拨款的消息如雪片般飞来，那些请求有的来自军队、有的来自土木工程师、养老金领取者和各州州长。
Coolidge was, MsShlaes writes, “the great refrainer”. He wanted government to support innovation by using it—he made the first presidential radio broadcast—but not get involved otherwi. “It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones,” he said. “Let administration catch up with legislation.” Coolidge oppod the dams and power projects beloved by his successors, Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roovelt. He also objected to public ownership of the Post Office, tax exemptions for municipal debt and farm subsidies, all of which have produced costs that still hang heavily over America.
作者Shlaes写道：柯立芝“很能克制住自己”。他想通过使用创新来让政府支持创新——比如说他让民众第一次可以在广播中收听到总统的演说——但不想让政府以其他方式干预创新。他说：“否决不合理的法案，远比通过好的法案重要。我们一定要“让行政赶上立法”。柯立芝还反对建造大坝和搞电力项目，而这些项目后来备受他的继任者胡佛和罗斯福的推崇。他还反对让邮局公有化、对市政债券实行税收豁免、及对农场进行补助——他所反对的这一切所产生的代价至今仍让美国不堪重负。
Even in the face of natural disasters, he held back, fearing that intervention would undermine individual initiative and corrupt the national government. This restraint was tested twice in 1927, first during devastating floods of the Mississippi river and then by floods in his home state of Vermont, which affected neighbours and friends. The acts of resistance pitted Coolidge against the vast forces that converge on Washington eking benefits, and turned him into an anti-debt activist.
即使在天灾面前，他仍然不进行干预，因为他害怕那样做会降低人们的积极性并腐化国家
政府。他的这一政策在1927年经过了两次考验，第一次是发生在密西西比河的具有破坏性的洪灾；紧接着是发生在他的家乡佛蒙特州的洪灾，那次洪灾波及到了他的邻居和朋友。柯立芝的这些做法得罪了许多聚集在华盛顿要求政府提供补助的人，并使柯立芝成了人们眼中的反债活跃者。
The person who says no is rarely loved. But Coolidge survived becau his faith in America proved justified. The share crash and the economic slump that greeted the Harding-Coolidge administration were forgotten as the stockmarket and economy recovered. After winning a new election in his own right in 1924, he declined to run in 1928 despite substantial popularity, believing that the presidency was a transitional position, and not a monarchical one.
说“不”的人很少招人爱，但柯立芝却能一直人们的支持，因为事实证明他对美国的信念是正确的。随着股市与经济呈现复苏态势，人们便忘记了哈定-柯立芝政府所遭遇的股票大跌和经济不景气。1924年，柯立芝凭借自己的能力赢得了新一轮选举。这之后他拒绝在1928
年再次参加总统竞选，尽管他广受人们的喜爱。因为他相信总统一职是一个过渡性的职位，而不是君主性质的。
Hoover, the next president, was a successful businessman, a proven mobilir of people and resources who was eager to push a more expansive agenda. Seven months into the new administration, the stockmarket fell again. The economic malai that followed was so long and deep it became known as the Great Depression. It took until 1942, after America’s entry into the cond world war, for unemployment to shrink back. MsShlaes’s biography provides a window onto an unfairly tarnished period. It derves to be widely read.
柯立芝的继任——胡佛总统是一名成功的商人，历史证明他对民众的号召力和对资源的调动力极强，他迫不及待地实行他更宏伟的计划。然而他新上任七个月后，股市再降。接下来的经济低迷因其持续时间之长、程度之深，而被人们称作“经济大萧条”。直到1942年，也就是美国参加二战后，失业率才下降。Shlaes为柯立芝书写的传记让人们得以一窥那被
不公平地抹了黑的年代。本书值得人们广泛阅读。
From the print edition: Books and arts
I. 表达：
across the board 全部每一个
blanch at 对---避之不及
in one's own right 靠自己的能力
II. 注释：
【1】美国史学界一般把1900年～1917年间美国所发生的政治、经济和社会改革运动统称
进步运动。在性质上，进步运动是以中产阶级为主体、有社会各阶层参与的资产阶级改革运动，目的在于消除美国从 “自由”资本主义过渡到垄断资本主义所引起的种种社会弊端，重建社会价值体系和经济秩序。在内容上，进步运动同时在联邦、州和市三级展开，从政治上的争取妇女选举权、市政改革到经济领域的反托拉斯运动，从救济穷人和改善工人待遇的社会正义运动到自然资源保护，囊括社会生活的各个方面，影响深远。
