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This article traces the development of communication from the White House in Washington D.C. during a critical period in the United States' history. President Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information by executive order on April 14, 1917, eight days after the U.S. had declared war. It soon came to be known as the Creel Committee because of its dynamic chairman, George Creel, former journalist and free-lance writer. The idea for the Committee, whose ostensible purpose was to deal with the problem of censorship and enlist the public's understanding of and participation in the war effort, apparently was the President's, so far as one can tell. The twentieth century has witnessed what can only be called a major shift of the center of gravity in the U.S. national governmental system away from the legislative branch and toward the White House. The result has been among other things, a virtual ballooning of the public image of the Presidency to the point that, in this century, the White House occupant has often eclipsed other branches of government in the public eye. It has worked both as a source of action and initiative and as a source of news and focus of major governmental interest.

The article analyzes how U.S. President Calvin Coolidge played his presidential role as leader and molder of public opinion on a national scale. It is stated that as per the political record, he is the weakest of modern day weak presidents. The article states that he used his power to gain publicity. It states that there is no program worthy of the name to advance. His name must be listed among those presidents who helped sketch the giant outlines of the present day public image of the Presidency. He used his status of presidency as publicity generating and attention arresting potential tools. The article critically analyzes how the communication media radio and the press conference were utilized by him. As per the evidence, it would seem that Coolidge was hardly the archetype of the passive President. It is the president's impact on public policy, that is, on his virtual failure as legislative leader by which the weak President or passive President label is derived. It states that though Coolidge might not have created the prosperity, he mobilized an impressive array of publicity media to identify himself with it.

Using simple correlations and step-wise multiple regression analyses, we examine the bases of public support and opposition for seven constitutional revision calls and nine ratification referenda in the American states. On the calls, increased support for conventions came from among higher socio-economic groups or from a combination of these groups and specific partisan support within a state. Contextual variables accounted for 75 percent of the variance in three of five states where we could use the step-wise analysis, but less than 50 percent in the other two. On ratification, the same general pattern appeared. In three states the contextual variables were more powerful on the call. The call as an independent variable did not add much cumulative explanation of variance, but it was associated with support for ratification in five of seven states. The conventions and the constitutions they produce act as intervening variables in the public consciousness, probably through the mechanism of the ratification campaigns. There are state-to-state uniformities of behavior on constitutional revision, though state uniqueness of culture or circumstance can result in exceptional behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]