Coolidge took advantage of the cover of victory to announce his controversial “Big List,” the new names for his slimmed-down government. The papers first noted how many of the old officials had been dropped—those on the old state board of labor, those on the civil service commission, the head of the immigration bureau, and the chairman of the highway commission. In their place, bound to infuriate, were fewer departments and new names to head them. Coolidge issued a carefully worded explanation for his choices. He was acting, he claimed, in the best reform tradition, selecting the old and
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