18 JANUARY 1952, Page 18

Running for the Presidency

SIR,—May I correct your quotation of Calvin Coolidge's supposedly. equivocal declaration of his intentions regarding the Presidency. In the U.S.A. one does not strike a gentlemanly pose and " stand " for office ; one runs." with all the loss of dignity the term implies. The taciturn and frosty New Englander stated flatly (and characteristically) that he did not " choose to run." Incidentally, in the New England vernacular " I do not choose " is an unequivocal negative. Calvin Coolidge meant exactly what he said.—Yours faithfully,