The first meeting of the commission to arrange for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington to be held in 1932, took place today, Feb. 16th at the White House with President Coolidge as chairman. The committee includes four members appointed by the Senate, four from the House and four appointed by the President. Left to right, front row: Senator Selden P. Spencer, Missouri; Mrs. Anthony Wayne Cook, President General, D.A.R.; President Coolidge; Mrs. John D. Sherman, Federation of Women's Clubs and Senator Simeon Fess, Ohio. Second row: Frederick H. Gillett, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Representative John Q. Tilson, Connecticut; Representative Willis C. Hawley, Oregon. Top row: Frank Munsey, publisher; Representative Joseph W. Byrns, Tennessee; Senator Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware; Senator Carter Class, Virginia, and Hanford Monider, former Commander of the American Legion

George Washington was the first President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. "Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected."

John Calvin Coolidge Jr. (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th President of the United States (1923–29). He was elected as the 29th vice president in 1920 and succeeded to the presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Born in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. He was graduated from Amherst College with honors and started his political career as a councilman in Northampton, Massachusetts, and became Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, and also as a man who said very little, although having a rather dry sense of humor. Coolidge was a popular figure and restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration. He left office with considerable popularity amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying during the 1920s era. Coolidge was both the most negative and remote of Presidents, and the most accessible. He once explained to Bernard Baruch why he often sat silently through interviews: "Well, Baruch, many times I say only 'yes' or 'no' to people. Even that is too much. It winds them up for twenty minutes more."

The American Legion was chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness.