Calvin Coolidge to work jointly with Edward T. Clark, a Massachusetts Republican organizer whom he retained from his vice-presidential staff, as Secretaries to the President (a position equivalent to the modern White House Chief of Staff). Perhaps the most powerful person in Coolidge's Cabinet was Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, who controlled the administration's financial policies and was regarded by many, including House Minority Leader John Nance Garner, as more powerful than Coolidge himself. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover also held a prominent place in Coolidge's Cabinet, in part because Coolidge found value in Hoover's ability to win positive publicity with
SS President Coolidge and two Navy doctors from the Philippines that were already among passengers being evacuated from the war zone that had now reached Hawaii. The ship reached San Francisco on 25 December. On 12 January 1942 the first large convoy, including the large former ocean liners "President Coolidge" and , to Australia after Pearl Harbor departed the United States carrying troops, supplies, ammunition and weapons, including P-40 fighters intended for the Philippines and Java with fifty of the planes carried by "President Coolidge" and "Mariposa". Arriving Melbourne on 1 February in "President Coolidge", along with supplies and munitions not intended for