Author: Randall Reeder

Will offers to help Obama find a church

#502

COLUMBUS, Ohio:  What a week for the Democratic Party. A candidate resigns from the church he attended for twenty years, and two days later his opponent beats him two to one in a primary. Of course that primary was in Puerto Rico, which can’t even vote in November. Senator Clinton explained that it was still an important win because it gives her momentum going into the even bigger primary on Tuesday, in Mexico.

What church will Senator Obama join next? He resigned for political reasons, and if he joins a new one for the same reason, I don’t know what denomination he’ll choose, but don’t be surprised if it’s located in Ohio. Over the next six months he’ll spend more days in Ohio than any other state, so why not Sundays.

I’ll be happy to send him a personal invitation to our little church. This morning’s sermon was on the importance of building on a solid foundation, and no political opponent could harp on that. We don’t have any prominent politicians attending, but the congregation does include a football coach with more influence than the Governor.

Meanwhile in Washington, the Democrats finally decided on Florida and Michigan. According to the original rules their votes counted for zilch. Here lately Senator Clinton insisted they should count a hundred percent, or at least as much as votes in Puerto Rico. So 30 Big Men (and Women) met and argued all day Saturday, then went off to a side room and compromised on 50 percent.

From now on, or at least till the end of August, if you’re a Democrat from either of those two great states, you’re worth exactly half as much as if you hailed from Kentucky or West Virginia. But that’s way more than you were worth before Saturday’s decision. These half-delegates have until the Convention to pair up so they will at least have a whole vote in there.

NASA engineers had an amazing week. After a journey of four hundred million miles, they landed a spacecraft on Mars, near the North Pole. Yesterday they discovered the landing was on a small patch of ice. When Al Gore heard the news he congratulated them, then added, “Ten years ago, the ice patch was much bigger.”

Finding water on Mars is a notable scientific discovery. Next they’re going after a notable economic discovery, by drilling for oil.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“Well, they have been balloting all day at the Democratic side show at the Garden, for that is what some misguided people think is the nominating place. The real nomination is taking place in a room at some hotel with less than six men present.” Convention Article #9, after seven days of the 1924 Democratic Convention

“Who said miracles don’t happen? Didn’t the Democratic National Convention nominate a man at last? This should bring more people back to religion than any other one thing. It has been a demonstration of faith, because, after all, God is good.” Convention Article #18, after sixteen days of the 1924 Democratic convention.

 

Senators’ grilling slows oil men’s drilling

COLUMBUS: The Senate invited the Big Oil men to Washington for a meeting last week. When they went in, oil was $130 a barrel, and by the time they got out it was $135.

The more those Senators lambasted ’em, the higher the price jumped. Every single word of criticism cost the American driver an extra 1.9 Million dollars. (Normally it would have been just an extra 1 Million dollars, but everything priced by an oil company has “point nine” tacked on to it.)

Sen. Patrick Leahy was the lead antagonist. He represents that big oil producing state, Vermont. He was more interested in how much these men made last year than in whether they could produce enough oil to keep Vermont warm next winter.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California complained about high prices but didn’t offer to let ’em drill off her coast. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinios pointed out that no company in America should be allowed to make a profit above ten percent, “Where is your corporate conscience?” (At that last comment a young assistant whispered to the Senator, “Last year McDonalds made 15% and Microsoft 30%.)

You might remember that when these same executives visited the Senate for their monthly confab in April oil was $95. At this rate I think all prospective summer vacation travelers will agree with my plea: Cancel the June meeting!

While the Senate was conferring with the oil men, the House passed the Farm Bill. They had been working on it two years. They sent a copy to the President, he took less than ten minutes to veto it and ship it back, then the House overrode the veto twenty minutes later. Then, someone read the bill that had been vetoed and overrid, and discovered a chunk of it missing. It may take another two years to straighten out the mess.

They call it the “Farm Bill”, but three-fourths of it goes to pay for food stamps and nutrition programs. Really, it should be named the “Food for Poor Americans” bill. The President might still veto it, but at least Laura would make him read it first.

I heard on the radio about a farmer in Tennessee who parked his tractor and is plowing with mules instead. He said he couldn’t afford to buy fuel. Well, it’s hard to argue with such a down-to-earth old gentleman. Only trouble is, compared to a big tractor, by the time those mules finish plowing it’ll be August, and too late to plant anything but turnips and buckwheat.

Senator McCain invited a bunch of prospects to his Arizona ranch for a barbeque this weekend. He’s personally inspecting the political views and etiquette skills of possible V-P candidates. Meanwhile Senators Obama and Clinton went to Puerto Rico digging for delegates. What’s this country coming to when Puerto Rico has the final say in who gets nominated for President? You would be surprised at the number of Democrats sneaking in there from Florida so their vote will count.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“United States Marines landed at Vera Cruz, Mexico, to protect Standard Oil interests. (The) next week Standard Oil, in repayment for Marines’ courtesy, raised price of gas 3 cents.” WA #111, January 25, 1925

“Say, young John D. Rockefeller, Jr. kinder jarred the oil boys dident he? He has the idea that the business can be run at a profit and still keep it off the front pages and out of the Senate investigation room. It seemed rather a novelty to have a man testifying before the Senate that would tell them what they wanted to know. I wouldent doubt that they would keep him as a regular testifier about everything, for all the others refuse to answer for fear it will be used against them later when they come to trial.” WA #270, Feb. 26, 1928

“It was us leaving the Mule and taking to machinery that put us in the dog house. That’s why I think in a lot of things we got to get back to old principles. The Mule has got to bring the farmer back just the same as many other common every day thing has to bring us all back. The difference between good times and bad times is gasoline, and what goes with it.” WA #636, March 3, 1935

“The farmer deserves a profit, but the guy that’s not eating deserves a meal more.” DT #2228, Sept. 24, 1933

Food and fuel prices make Will ponder

COLUMBUS: With the price of gas and the cost of food, we sure got a lot of people riled up in this country. Throw in a million or so with mortgage problems and they want you to think the world is about to end.

Well, it ain’t been so long ago that oil was so cheap you couldn’t give it away, wheat was fifteen cents a bushel, and so many farmers were abandoning their land you could buy all you wanted just by paying the back taxes.

Oklahoma Gov. Bill Murray tried to shut down all their oil wells in 1931 till the price went up to a dollar a barrel. Of course Frank Phillips, Harry Sinclair and the other big oil men didn’t listen to any governor wanting to raise the price, and they sure won’t pay attention to Congress wanting ’em to lower the price today. Just think, if they had listened to him and left the oil in the ground, today they would be selling it for $120 and Oklahoma would be leading the nation in prosperity.

Hardly anybody listens to Congress. Remember a few years ago they wanted to raise gasoline by fifty cents so we would use less? Well, their plan failed, but since then it’s gone up more than two dollars, and the only effect, instead of driving less, is we’re complaining more.

You would think that paying more for food would be good for a country where two-thirds of us eat way more than we should. But chances are we’ll consume the same but complain more as we go to the mall to buy a new summer outfit in the next larger size.

One thing we’ve learned in the last 75 years: give more money to farmers and they find a way to raise more food; give more to the oil companies and they go find more oil; give more to the government and Lord knows where it’ll wind up.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“Frank Phillips, of oil fame, was out the other day; said he was going to Washington. The oil men were going to draw up a code of ethics. Everybody present had to laugh. If he had said the gangsters of America were drawing up a code of ethics, it wouldn’t have sounded near as impossible.” DT #2164, July 11, 1933

“Another drought (in Oklahoma) looks like it’s going to kill off the corn crop. Oats 15 cents a bushel. If food is not cheaper than it ever was then somebody is making money, and it ain’t the farmer. The farmer can’t abandon the farm. He ain’t got enough to move to town on.” DT #1553, July 15, 1931.

Will suggests Presidents work in shifts

COLUMBUS: I suspect that Howard Dean and the rest of the Democratic party wish I would quit reminding you folks about their 1924 Convention.

For more than a year they’ve been battling for the nomination on CNN, MSNBC, and all but one of the other television networks, and they can’t seem to break the deadlock. This week they finally admitted they needed help. They are appealing to the viewers of Fox News to sort out the mess. I don’t know if it’ll work; up to now those Fox viewers have not heard many compliments for either Clinton or Obama. Or, for that matter, even McCain.

Since they have openly admitted a need for aid, I dug into the records of the 1924 convention and uncovered an idea that the American people might go for. That convention had already been in session for eight long days, with three equally qualified candidates, and no end in sight when I wrote the suggestion below (July 2, 1924). By coincidence we have three candidates today, and I’m taking the liberty to insert their names in here also.

“I was awfully glad to meet [John W. Davis], as I already knew the other two leading candidates, Mr. William McAdoo and Al Smith. They are all great fellows. I hate to see one win because I will hate to see the other two lose.
How would this do? Put in all three and put on three eight-hour shifts. Divide the work.
Let Mr. Davis (McCain), on account of his European experience, attend to all foreign affairs, also social ones. Let McAdoo (Obama) handle the money, the labor questions and the railroads, and let Al Smith (Clinton) take a big stick and club those politicians into line and make them do something. A combination like that would be unbeatable. Elect them for life; then they wouldn’t have to worry about where they were going from there. They could give all their time to their work.”

Of course nobody saw fit to adopt my plan in ’24, so I doubt if it will be accepted in ’08. But still… can’t you see Mr. McCain taking the morning shift, then Mr. Obama relieving him in the afternoon. That leaves Mrs. Clinton fresh for the midnight shift and all those phone calls at 3:00 a.m. Now this arrangement may seem to give Hillary the lighter load. But with these three couples sharing the White House, she’ll have her hands full seeing that Bill doesn’t get too frisky with the other First Ladies.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“Another rule [of the Democratic Convention] reads: no money shall change hands among buyers or sellers while on the floor of the convention. This is purely a Democratic rule; the Republicans have no such restrictions. That is why they are the most prosperous party.

…I want to see this thing over and get back to the serious business of trying to entertain people. If they are smart they will nominate some man we don’t know. I didn’t think at first that the Democrats were serious about really nominating someone this year, but they tell me they have to put up somebody or they will lose their franchise.” Convention Article 9, July 1, 1924

Candidates take aim on Indiana and N. Carolina

COLUMBUS: The Democrats in Pennsylvania voted to draw out the campaign a while longer. They said, If we can hold up for six weeks of this onslaught, then North Carolina and Indiana should be able to survive for two.

Farmers in the Midwest are planting corn, some of ’em sixteen to eighteen hours a day. Of course they want to get all their fields planted, but these long work days is partly just an excuse to get away from all the political commercials on televison.

If the airlines could make money off these candidates the way the television stations do they wouldn’t be going broke. Maybe they could sell ’em ad space on the sides (and bottoms) of their planes and fly at five thousand feet instead of thirty so everybody on the ground could read them. Hang a banner off the back the way you see ’em flying during big football games.

Chicago has jumped back in the news. They were last known as the “Murder Capital of the Country” in the 1930s, and they’re dead set to win back the title. Meanwhile, Al Sharpton is over in New York getting everybody riled up, armed, and ready to shoot. Then kind of in the middle between them is Detroit where Reverend Jeremiah Wright was firing away Sunday night at a meeting of 10,000. Of course, he was using words, not bullets. I don’t know which city’s gonna “win” this battle, but you all know which people are gonna lose.

Senator Obama wishes his Rev. Wright would lay low for a few months, but Barack has as much chance controlling him as Hillary does with Bill.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“Democrats never agree on anything. That’s why they’re Democrats. If they could agree with each other, they would be Republicans.” Saturday Evening Post, May 1, 1926

“Just passed thru Chicago. It’s not a boast, it’s an achievement… To try and diminish crime they laid off six hundred cops. Chicago has no tax money… What they’ve got to do is to tax murder. Put such a stiff tax on it that only the higher class gangsters can afford it.” DT #1079, Jan. 9, 1930

“Machine Guns have helped Chicago; the novelty of the weapon has as much to do with it as the prominence of the ones annihilated. Detroit is still shooting with pistols… This is what I told the [Detroit] Mayor, and you just notice from now on if you don’t see an improvement in publicity with Detroit’s crime. They won’t have to increase it. It’s just getting it known, that’s what they need.” WA #216, Jan. 30, 1927

Will suggests presidential campaign photo ops

COLUMBUS: The most entertaining Presidential campaign since ’24 rolls on. In Pennsylvania Senator Obama went bowling and Senator Clinton went out drinking. I saw her on television chugging a beer and a shot of whiskey, which shows you she has conceded the Baptist vote.

What do you suppose they will do as they move on to the other states? In North Carolina, don’t be surprised to catch Hillary puffing on a Camel. And Barack may counter with a cheek full of Mail Pouch.

In Kentucky they’ll both go horseback riding. In West Virginia one of ’em will eat at a ramp dinner to woo the voters, and the other will counter with an all-night coon hunt. You know, there’s no better time to reach a coon hunter on a cell phone than at 3:00 a.m.

In Indiana they can visit a farmer planting corn. If the weather’s fine, they better stand at the edge of the field and wave as he goes by, because no farmer wants to be interrupted at planting time by chemical salesmen, insurance peddlers or a politician promising relief for the farmer.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“I don’t belong to any organized political party… I’m a Democrat.”

 

Will offers tip to political speakers

COLUMBUS: Seems like the last couple of weeks our Presidential candidates are spouting off when they should’ve kept quiet. I had a suggestion for ’em back in the campaign of ’32, and nothing’s changed: “There should be a moratorium called on candidates’ speeches… From now on they are just talking themselves out of votes.”

They ought to just go fishing. Senator McCain can take his boat out on Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam. Obama and Clinton could rent one together and fish on Lake Michigan. Take their spouses with ’em, and a slew of advisors and spokesmen. No phones or fancy electronic gadgets except a fish finder. About the middle of August we’ll signal them to come back to shore and they can count the millions of new votes they picked up.

Not only these senators, but former presidents Clinton and Carter are in hot water for talking too much and to the wrong people. Now of course Mr. Clinton, for most of his married life, has been congregating with some folks not approved of by Hillary, except now they pay him. Sometimes a million dollars a day.

As for Mr. Carter, I guess if George Mitchell can get the Irish to stop shooting each other over religion, maybe Jimmy can pull the same miracle and get the Arabs and Israel to talk peace. He’s been at it for 30 years. Of course they’ve been going at each other for about 1500.

The mortgage lenders and over-optimistic home buyers contrived with each other to mess up the housing market. Maybe not on purpose, but they learned that easy payments ain’t so easy after the rates go up to where they belonged in the first place.

In Cuba, the new (and younger) Castro saw the trouble home mortgages caused some Americans, and announced that Cubans are now allowed to buy a house or apartment. Haven’t they suffered enough? Some of our unscrupulous real estate men are taking a crash course in Spanish and buying a ticket to Havana.

Did you hear about the 2010 Census? The government has given up getting their new handheld computers to work. How hard can it be; all the computer has to do is add up to about 300,000,000. They should’ve turned the Census over to Google and FedEx. Google has a picture of everybody’s house and their address, and FedEx can find ’em overnight. The final count would be ready about January 3.

After wasting billions on it the government says they will take the Census the old fashioned way, with pencil and paper. Now they have another problem: where to find enough census takers that can write.

Congress still hasn’t passed a Farm Bill. They’ve been arguing over it more than a year. Lucky for us, the corn and soybean farmers will go ahead and plant according to the weather, not the politicians. They’ll take their chances Congress won’t pass a law requiring ’em to grow radishes and turnips instead.

So long for now. Gotta get back to my taxes.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“Borrowing money on what’s called ‘easy terms,’ is a one-way ticket to the Poor House…

Instead of passing Bills to make borrowing easy, if Congress had passed a Bill that no Person could borrow a cent of Money from any other person, they would have gone down in History as committing the greatest bit of Legislation in the World…

Banking and After-Dinner Speaking are two of the most non-essential industries we have in this country. I am ready to reform if they are.” WA #14, March 18, 1923

“See where Congress passed a two-billion-dollar bill to relieve bankers’ mistakes. You can always count on us helping those who have lost part of their fortune, but our whole history records nary a case where the loan was for the man who had absolutely nothing.” DT #1715, Jan. 22, 1932

“The crime of taxation is not in the taking it, it’s in the way that it’s spent.” DT #1764, March 20, 1932

Hillary drops out; may accept McCain’s offer

COLUMBUS: Offer? What offer? Why, the offer to be his Vice-President.

Of course, if she doesn’t take him up on it by the end of the day, it’ll be just another April Fools joke.

Senator Obama is ahead in the polls and some newspaper writers think Senator Clinton ought to concede. Anybody getting paid by the day to talk politics, or write about it, wants her to stay. Now on the other hand, if you agreed for a fixed sum to cover the Democrat campaign until there’s only one candidate standing, why then you’ve got a gripe coming. You can send your gripe directly to the Democrats’ head honcho, if you can figure out who it is. For entertainment, Mr. Ziegfeld himself couldn’t have put on a better production, and these Democrat Follies are running almost as long as most of his did.

Only thing that’s gone according to plan is the big college basketball tournament. Out of all the teams in the country, the men in charge said, “These four are the best ones.” Then those teams heard the news and went out, played the games and proved ’em right. So now you’ve got Memphis, Kansas, North Carolina and UCLA to choose from. Put your money down, and by next Monday night you’ll know if you picked the right one.

Do you wonder if this could work for the Democrats? Well, did you notice that after the field narrowed to four, it’ll only be a week or so till we know the winner. Then all the shouting and celebration can begin without delay. But here we have the Democrats down to two, and they spread the final playoffs over two months. Even after the game ends in June, they’ll wait two more months to declare the winner.

Here’s my suggestion: as soon as the last primary is counted, hold the convention the next weekend. If Denver won’t go along with the switch, then find another town with empty hotels. Maybe New Orleans. That would put the Democrats back in the race with a two-month head start on McCain. That’s a big lead even if Hillary ain’t running with him. No foolin’.

Historic quote from Will Rogers:

[Will wrote 18 daily articles on the 1924 Democratic Convention (for a fixed sum), from June 23 to this one on July 10.]

“Who said miracles don’t happen? Didn’t the Democratic National Convention nominate a man at last? This should bring more people back to religion than any other one thing. It has been a demonstration of faith, because, after all, God is good.

It is generally conceded and understood that a comedian has no sense, and that we are only to make people laugh and not to think. About six days ago (seems like six years) I devoted a whole article to my prediction of John W. Davis’s nomination.”

 

Weekly Comments: A museum and dude ranch recall memories in Arizona

COLUMBUS: Last week I told you I had just returned from Arizona. But with Eliot Spitzer and Bear Stearns grabbing all the headlines I didn’t have time to tell you much about it.

I flew to Phoenix on Southwest Airlines. They had been in the news themselves lately about some small cracks in their planes. So I took along a roll of duct tape in case any showed up near my seat.

Drove to Wickenburg where they have a wonderful award-winning museum called the “Desert Caballeros Western Museum”. They built a new addition and Pavilion and wanted “Will Rogers” to help with the dedication. Well, I was honored to be invited. Wickenburg is northwest of Phoenix, on the banks of the Hassayampa River. Most places in Arizona, the word “river” is used mostly as a joke. They flood sometimes, but mostly they’re dry, kinda like some of their lakes. So finding one with water in it is like discovering gold. And this one has water. Sometimes you have to dig to find it, but it’s there.

In the old days (that means before interstate highways) this was a major resting point for anyone heading on to Los Angeles or the Grand Canyon, and it’s still the shortest route to Las Vegas. In 2013 this town will celebrate its 150^th birthday.

During my talk I got the mayor up to do some rope tricks with me. And also a local ranch lady named Elladeen Hayes Bittner. She’s 89, and said she remembered everybody I talked about. I asked her about her roping experience. “I was the state champion roper”, she quickly answered, “in Alaska.” That got a laugh, so I had to ask her, “Exactly how many ropers were in the contest?” “Just one.”

Well, Mrs. Bittner is authentic. I bet she roped plenty of steers in her day.

In my remarks I talked about a letter I received in 1926 from a talented local fellow, asking is I could help him get hired as an entertainer. Here’s part of his letter: “I can do a lot of Rope spinning…, also I punish a guitar, and sing Cowboy songs. I can lie on my back on a (high) wire and sing too. I can spin the rope either while standing on the wire or on the floor. I can play a Harmonica standing on my hands.” And it was signed, Romaine H. Lowdermilk, Wickenburg, Arizona.

A cowboy with all that talent ought to be encouraged, so I included his letter, and my reply to him, in my syndicated column the next week. I figured if getting promoted in five hundred newspapers won’t get you work, what will.

It seems Romaine and his mother (Katherine) had bought land in 1909 along the Hassayampa and named it the Kay El Bar Ranch. In the 1920s a long drought dried up all their pastures, they lost their cattle, and Romaine switched to dude ranching. That’s no surprise because Wickenburg soon became known as the “Dude Ranch Capital of the World”. But what he really wanted to do was be an entertainer.

Well, imagine my surprise when I heard the ranch Romaine founded is still operating, hosting folks from all over the country and the world. They can ride horses all day, mostly along trails across the desert hills. Some folks, especially the teenagers when they get a bit bored with roughing it, like to ride about three miles down the dry riverbed to town, climb the riverbank and tie up their horses at McDonald’s. In the evening, for those unaccustomed to staying in the saddle for hours a day, a hot tub and heated pool feels mighty soothing.

(If you want to check out these places, go to www.westernmuseum.org and www.kayelbar.com.)

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“Arizona prolongs the life of the afflicted (and) makes perpetual the lives of the well.” DT #2158, July 4, 1933

“Going to fly over in Arizona tomorrow and see Mr. Coolidge dedicate the great Coolidge Dam. Arizona had to build the dam way over in the middle of the State to keep California from claiming two-thirds of the water.” DT #1124, March 3, 1930

“The (Hoover) dam is entirely between Nevada and Arizona. All California gets out of it is the water.” DT #1900. Sept. 6, 1932

“Dude ranching is one of the healthiest and finest vacations in the world.” DT #2089, April 14, 1933

“All your life every man has wanted to be a cowboy. Why play Wall Street and die young when you can play cowboy and never die?” DT #1549, July 10, 1931

Politicians and J. P. Morgan haven’t changed much

COLUMBUS: Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, kinda got caught with his pants down, and resigned. The scandal reminded me of something I wrote eighty years ag “Today they are voting in New York State on whether to keep a Governor two years or four. I think a good, honest Governor should get four years, and the others life.” (Nov. 8, 1927)

I included that line in a talk Saturday in Wickenburg, Arizona. Afterwards a ranch lady who had seen Spitzer with his wife on television, told me she was tired of seeing these various wives have to go endure such embarrassment with their scandalous husbands, “Just once, I would like to see the wife haul off and slug him.” You know, that might be as good a preventive measure as the threat of a life sentence.

J. P. Morgan stepped up again to save the country, like he often did in the 1930s. JP Morgan Chase volunteered to pay a couple of dollars for Bear Stearns if the government committed thirty Billion to make sure they didn’t lose any dough on the deal. Some homeowners behind on mortgage payments are complaining: why should a big investment bank getting bailed out, but not us. Well, I can assure those distraught folks that Mr. Morgan will be happy to take the house off their hands if they are willing to accept two cents on the dollar. He won’t even ask for a government guarantee.

Just when you figured Florida democrats had figured out a compromise, they announced, “No, we’ll sit this one out.” Only chance for those Democrats is to find a state that ain’t voted yet (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan??), and move there for the summer.

One thing you can count on, whether Republican or Democrat: taxes are due in a month.

Historical quotes from Will Rogers:

“You can tell this is an election year from the way these appropriation bills are passing. It will take the taxpayers fifty years to pay for the votes in this election. Our only solution seems to be to fix it so people who are in a hole through borrowing can borrow some more. Borrowing, that’s what’s the matter with the world today. If no individual or country could borrow a dime for five years that would be the greatest five-year plan ever invented.” DT # 1717, Jan. 25, 1932

“The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. (President) Hoover was an engineer. He knew that water trickled down. Put it uphill and let it go and it will reach the driest little spot. But he dident know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands. They saved the big banks but the little ones went up the flue.” WA # 518, Nov. 27, 1932

“The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make one out on the level, you don’t know when it’s through if you are a crook or a martyr. Of course, people are getting smarter nowadays; they are letting lawyers, instead of their conscience, be their guides. There is some talk of lowering it, and they will have to. People are not making enough to pay it.” WA #17, April 8, 1923