Calvin Coolidge writing to his father in the aftermath of the Boston Police Strike: September 18, 1919.

The police began the strike on September 9, and, on September 11, Coolidge called out the Massachusetts State Guard to restore order. He proclaimed, “The entire state guard of Massachusetts had been called out. Under the Constitution the governor is the commander in chief thereof…that command I must and will exercise.” The Guard would remain in the city to keep order until a new police force could be established as Coolidge refused to rehire the striking officers. In a telegram he sent labor leader Samuel Gompers, Coolidge reminds him, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anytime, any where.”