Leadership Quote by Calvin Coolidge

Industrial capitalism, in Coolidge's hands, becomes a religion with smokestacks. Calling a factory a "temple" is not a cute metaphor; it's a rhetorical power move that baptizes profit, discipline, and hierarchy as moral goods. The owner becomes a kind of high priest for having "built", while the worker is recast as a worshipper whose dignity comes from participation in the rite of production. Work is not merely necessary; it's sanctifying.

The intent is defensive and strategic. Coolidge governed in the 1920s, when labor unrest, union organizing, and fears of radicalism still hung in the air after strikes and the Red Scare. By sacralizing the workplace, he offers an alternative moral vocabulary meant to quiet class conflict: don't scorn the industrialist, don't blame the laborer. Both deserve "reverence and praise". That line is the soft glove over the hard premise: the system itself should not be contested, only properly appreciated.

The subtext is a bargain: meaning in exchange for consent. If the factory is a temple, then management decisions start to look like stewardship rather than power, and obedience starts to resemble devotion rather than necessity. It also flatters the worker while keeping them in their place. Worship is honorable, but it is not sovereignty.

What makes the quote work is its audacity. It hijacks a sacred frame Americans already recognize, then reroutes it toward economic life, collapsing moral worth into productivity. It's aspirational, calming, and quietly coercive all at once.