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 the War Shipping Administration assigned her to the US Navy. After her conversion, "President Coolidge" resumed service in the South West Pacific theatre. In the spring of 1942, escorted by the cruiser , she took Manuel Quezon, President of the Philippines from Melbourne to San Francisco. In her first few months of service "President Coolidge"s ports of call included Melbourne, Wellington, Auckland, Bora Bora, and Suva. On October 6, she left homeport of San Francisco for New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. Embarked were the 172nd Infantry Combat Team, 43rd Division, and a harbor defense unit intended to protect