Category: Uncategorized

For a Kentucky Derby win, ride a thin horse

COLUMBUS: The BP oil well in the Gulf is causing havoc. It’s not the first time an oil gusher got out of control, but they say trying to cap this one is like trying to plug a volcano. It’s a shame we lost those 11 men, just like the 29 miners killed in West Virginia. We need some new safety procedures enforced to reduce the hazzards. But oil, coal and natural gas are incredible fuels and keep the country moving. For now, nobody but a hermit can live without them.

A lot of folks are saying we ought to stop off shore drilling; there’s too much risk. But, for a moment put aside the damage to the Gulf region. This well is producing 200,000 barrels a day! Most farmers and ranchers would be thrilled to have a well producing 2 or 3 barrels a day. It make no sense to ignore the potential of these offshore sites.

In the Kentucky Derby, Calvin Borel won again by staying on the rail. This year he rode Super Saver. Thanks to Calvin they need to add another statistic on the Racing Form: width of the horse. I think his secret is that he only rides extremely thin horses. Then he can squeeze through a sliver of space against the rail that no other jockey would even consider.

The Arizona illegal immigration law got a lot of people riled up. All this hollering seems to be about a person having to show ID once in a while. But we all show ID to board a plane, cash a check, vote, enter the Capitol, and even to donate blood at Red Cross.

This new law is the same as a Federal law that’s been around since Roosevelt signed it in1940. Only difference is that Arizona intends to enforce theirs.

Just suppose you bought tickets to the Kentucky Derby, or a baseball game in San Francisco, or a Broadway play in New York. You arrive to find someone sitting in your seats and they refuse to budge. Naturally this would upset you and you would find an officer, show your tickets, and insist the freeloaders be removed. The officer walks with you to your seats, and says to you, “Sorry, I’m not allowed to ask these folks to show a ticket, or any ID. In fact when we opened today, half the seats were occupied because no one guarded the entrances last night. You and the other ticket holders are out of luck.”  So think awhile before you jump on Arizona and start a boycott.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:
“No business in the United States is as cockeyed as the oil business. If ever a business needed a dictator it is them.” DT #2115, May 15, 1933

“If you think this ain’t going to be the worst winter for unemployment we ever had, just count the number in these college graduation classes. Immigration is not our biggest problem, it’s surplus diplomas.” DT #1526, June 14, 1933

“I am here in Iowa looking over the future Californians. We are just picking the best. We are not letting them all come like they used to; it’s restricted immigration now.” DT #491, Feb. 22, 1928

Cloud over Wall Street is not from a volcano

COLUMBUS: While the ash cloud hangs over Europe, another cloud hangs over Wall Street. In Europe everyone knows the Iceland volcano is to blame, but in New York we’re not sure if the blame belongs to Goldman Sachs, the SEC, Congress or our own ignorance.
Rather than keeping an eye on Wall Street, the S-E-C was watching S-E-X tapes. Now, it’s hard to blame those men, given the option of spending eight hours a day looking at Bernie Madoff, Barnie Frank, Chris Dodd and Lloyd Blankfein. Washington is blaming the brokers and bankers, but really it was Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae propping up loans to people they knew could never pay it back.
Earth Day was April 22. For forty years, we’ve been spending one day a year caring for our land and water. The one-day celebration of our environment is a wonderful idea. But some of my farmer friends reminded me that they take care of the Earth every day of the year. So you tend your own little patch of ground, and be thankful that a farmer is taking care of a few hundred acres, or even thousands of acres, of farm and ranch land.
Farmers are mighty happy this spring. Weather has been good in the Corn Belt and Great Plains and planting is way ahead of schedule. Farmers would welcome a day or two of rain just so they can get some rest.
In Arizona the Governor signed a bill that says illegal immigrants are illegal in Arizona. Seems reasonable, but a lot of folks say the bill is illegal, and that illegal immigrants in Arizona are not illegal. I’m no lawyer, but even a high-paid shyster lawyer would have a tough time proving that illegal is legal. Maybe the half million illegal immigrants in Arizona should go back home where they would be legal. Or take their chances in New Mexico.
Concerning the problem with Wall Street and the big banks, it was mortgages that caused the housing bubble in the first place. If people bought a house to live in, and not to make twenty percent a year, they wouldn’t care so much what it’s worth. It’s home. Live in it thirty or forty years and you get your money’s worth even if it goes to zero.
The government should stop encouraging big mortgages, especially for us old folks. When you reach 60, or maybe even 55, cut off the tax deduction for mortgages. By the time you get within sight of retirement, you ought to pay off your debts and be ready to live off of interest instead of paying it.
(Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to duck before some of my old mortgage-afflicted friends shoot me.)

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:
“After Wall Street had been dead for a couple of years….(a government investigation) will find out exactly what everyone else already knows: the deceased died from overgorging while the gorging was gorgeous.” DT #1783, April 11, 1932
“Did you read that Senate Wall Street investigation? … Twenty-four thousand patriotic Americans was all betting against the country. And we used to arrest men for just saying something against it.” DT #1793, April 22,1932
 “You know it’s too bad everybody was so busy getting in on it, that no one had time to investigate Wall Street before 1929, when the horse was being stolen.” DT #1796, April 26, 1932

Weekly Comments: Volcanic ash has clouded Will’s brain on tax solution

COLUMBUS: Who would ever imagine that a volcano in Iceland could shut down air travel in Europe. The ash is wreaking havoc and travelers are crowding onto trains and ocean liners, and squeezing into those little cars.

Kinda reminds me of 75 years ago and the dust storms in Oklahoma, Kansas and other Great Plains states. “Flew through these dust storms last night, with the pilot flying entirely by instruments. It’s a terrible thing, and it’s going to bring up some (peculiar) legal cases. If Colorado blows over and lights on top of Kansas, it looks like Kansas ought to pay for the extra top soil. But Kansas can sue them for covering up their crops.” (March 28, 1935)

Whether that ash blowing onto Europe will add any value to their soil, I’ve got my doubts. Everyone is focused on the ash, ignoring all the carbon dioxide spewing into the air with it. If it keeps up for a year or two, the question Al Gore and the rest of us will have to answer is: Will all that CO2 cause global warming, or will the ash block the sun and cool us off?

I read a poll that said 66% of Americans are unhappy with the federal income tax system. That’s not unusual around April 15, but the fact is only 53% of us pay income taxes. So I guess there’s a bunch that claim their handout ought to be bigger. With all these unhappy taxpayers, we’re still only paying two-thirds of the cost of government. President Obama has admitted we’ll have deficits of a Trillion dollars a year for ten years, or until China runs out of cash. And he says he has no idea how he can cut costs to decrease the deficit.

A new tax is being tossed around, called a Value Added Tax. It’s a sales tax, and if the VAT is 10%, the Administration says it would collect…  now get this… a Trillion dollars a year. What a coincidence. But I don’t think it will work. If everything costs ten percent more, we’ll buy less, and make do. Instead of buying, we’ll grow it, raise it, build it ourselves or do without.

The President held a Nuclear Summit and asked for volunteers to give up their nuclear materials. He was hoping Iran and North Korea and Pakistan would offer to sell us all they got. But no, it was Canada, Mexico and Chile. I bet everyone along our northern border will sleep better tonight knowing the Canadians won’t nuke them.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“You can’t say civilization don’t advance. In every war they kill you in a new way.” DT #1063, Dec. 22, 1929

“Now hang onto your seats while you get this item of expense: Interest on the Public debt is $731 million. They keep jugging with millions and we owe billions. That’s where all the money goes that we pay in Taxes. Let’s sell off enough of this Country to somebody and pay off all National debts, then the taxes wouldn’t be nearly as much. The Democrats will agree to peddle Texas and Florida, and I am certain the Republicans will let Massachusetts and Rhode Island go.”  WA #312, Dec. 16, 1928

Will Rogers pinch hits, on taxes

COLUMBUS: Baseball season is starting as Tax season is closing. Since I’m still tangled up with my income tax return, I’m calling on a Pinch Hitter to take a turn at bat for Weekly Comments.

Now, if you’re in the half of the country that is paying no income taxes this year, and likely coming out ahead, then these comments will be more hilarious than if you’re in the half that makes the first half possible. Here’s Will Rogers with some major league quips on taxes.

Historic quotes:
This is income tax paying day. No two can agree on what is deductible. When it’s made out you don’t know if you are crook or martyr… By the way, did you charge off money given to the Democratic campaign? You could, it’s a legitimate charity, not organized but a charity nevertheless. (1929)

Everybody knows that one of our great ills today is the unequal distribution of wealth.  You are either at a banquet in this country, or you are at a hot dog stand.  There is no doubt that the ones with the money are about the only ones that could pay anything, but after all, these durn rich ones are the ones the rest of us got to live off of.  If the Government takes all their money in taxes it don’t leave any for the folks that work for them. (1932)

There’s no income tax in Russia, but there’s no income. (1935)

You can’t legitimately kick on income tax, for it’s on what you have made. But, look at land, farms, homes, stores, vacant lots. You pay year after year on them whether you make it or not. Every land or property owner in America would be tickled to death to pay 45 per cent of his profits, if he didn’t have to pay anything if he didn’t make it. (1932)

There is a tremendous movement on to get lower taxes on earned incomes. Then will come the real problem, “Who among us on salary are earning our income?” (1929)

You let a Politician return home from Washington and announce, “Boys we lowered your taxes. We had to borrow the money to do it, but we did it.” Say, they would elect him for life. (1926)

At the present income tax rate the government takes 55 cents of every dollar from any of the high-priced stars. You see that hires many a politician, and gives some of us a little license to holler how the government is run, even if it’s only a holler. (1933)

Presidents have been promising lower taxes since Washington crossed the Delaware by hand in a row boat.  But our taxes have gotten bigger and their boats have gotten larger until now the President crosses the Delaware in his private yacht. (1924)

The only way they will ever stop bootlegging is to make them pay an income tax. At present it is a tax-exempt industry. Income tax has stopped every other industry, so there is no reason why it won’t stop bootlegging. (1923)

I see by the papers that they are going to do away with all the nuisance taxes.  That means that a man can get a marriage license for nothing. (1924)

Now that brings us down to taxes… This money the government is throwing away, well, where’s it coming from?  Everybody says, “Where’s the money coming from we’re spending?” I don’t know, but just offhand, I’d say it’s coming from those that got it. (1935)

Will gets pain from Devils and another source

COLUMBUS: All I know is what I read in the newspaper, and I’m not the only one. President Obama got angry with John Deere when he read a newspaper report claiming the new health care bill would cost the company an extra $150,000,000. Caterpillar, AT&T and a bunch of other companies made similar announcements, adding up to Billions.

Well, the President can pretend it was news to him, but these folks had been hollering for months. I suspect the Democrats kept their ears stuffed full of cotton until the bill passed, and now they are shocked at what they are hearing. Take John Deere for example. Suppose half of the $150,000,000 gets passed down to the farmer in higher tractor and machinery prices. Then it gets added on to your food bill. Now who’s hollering? For Cat, it means your new road construction will cost more. AT&T will jack up phone service prices.

There was some good news for new jobs. Of course half of what we added was census takers. This jobs plan is working so well, the President may propose we take the Census every year.

Tiger Woods is ready to play golf again. It has a whole different meaning than it used to when he says he wants to “play a round.”

In basketball, “Hoosiers 2” plays Monday night in Indianapolis as little Butler takes on mighty Duke for the championship. Saturday night Butler knocked off Michigan State, then Duke won by 21 over my favorite, West Virginia. On Easter Eve, Almost Heaven was desecrated by the Devils.

I better quit joking about doctors and veterinarians. In the middle of this week I was struck by a pain, in my middle. This led to my first professional visit to an ER in more than 40 years. The doc who checked me out said, “It’s probably diverticulitis, but we’ll run you through a CAT scan to be sure.” For anybody who has not had this experience, it is somewhat like taking you car to the shop, and the first thing they do is connect it to a computer to pinpoint the problem. Well, the CAT scan took only 5 minutes, and the woman running it told me that machine scans 150 to 200 people every 24 hours. Mighty efficient. After looking over the internal images, the doctor came back in and said, “It’s a kidney infection, not diverticulitis.”

See, he was only off a couple of inches, but with help from that machine he pinpointed the problem and saved me from a few days of medical experimentation. These folks who complain about the increased cost of health care, and want to go back to the way it was 40 years ago, well, the CAT scan had not been invented yet. Neither had the MRI and a thousand drugs and other medical advancements. Before sacrificing any of those, I would rather give up the computer analyzer for my Ford.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

(While watching his first golf tournament, in Los Angeles) “These fellows was doing just what I had seen those others do on a Long Island golf course, just walking around monkeying. Here, I had seen golf all the time and didn’t know it. It is the only game in the world where practicing it and playing it is the same thing. Seeing a man walking around a golf course hitting a ball is like somebody handling a ukelele. You can’t tell whether they are playing it or just monkeying around… The main thing that struck me about the game was the amount of skill they had developed in getting near the hole, and how little they displayed getting into it.” WA #163, Jan. 24, 1926

Will dives into milk and meat debate

COLUMBUS: Politics takes a back seat to basketball this week. You’re gonna be hearing a lot about “Hoosiers” (the movie), as Butler takes on the big boys in their hometown, Indianapolis. If Butler gets by Michigan State they will be playing either Duke or the West Virginia Mountaineers for the NCAA championship. I have my own favorite among these Final Four, but I’ll save it till next week. Don’t want to influence your picks in the office pool.

Friday I was in Michigan State territory speaking to young dairy farmers in Lansing. These milk producers survived a tough year and are hanging on. They are counting on us to drink more milk and order extra cheese on our pizzas and hamburgers.

Their governor is no help. She proclaimed a No Meat Saturday, and it riled the farmers so much they turned around and declared the same Saturday as Michigan Meat Day. You might remember a few months ago Michigan capitulated to Wayne Pacelle of the mis-named Humane Society of the U.S. and put him in charge of farm animal care. He’s a vegetarian who wants to rid the whole country of meat.

The farmers won that Meat Battle. Michigan set a record for the most meat eaten in one day. You may wonder, why would dairy farmers be upset; they still have Kellogg’s Corn Flakes to pour milk on. Well, if the HSUS succeeds in banning meat, the dairy farmers will have as much trouble getting rid of old Holsteins as we do old horses.

I just read that a lot of farmers do not have health insurance, so you may wonder where they stand on this new health care law. They’re pretty independent and frugal, and if they get sick they go to the doctor and just pay for the visit and any prescriptions. And if they get really sick and need an operation, they call their veterinarian.

Not really. But I did say, in 1927, that “the best doctor in the world is the Veterinarian. He can’t ask his patients what is the matter. He’s got to just know.”

President Obama took a quick trip to Afghanistan to compliment our troops. They have a tough job and need all the support we can give them. And with the continuing arguments over the health care bill, he figured he was just as safe in Kabul as in Washington.

Historic quote from Will Rogers:

“A farmer at Claremore named Morris Haas hid $500 in bills in a barrel of bran and a cow ate it up. He has just been able to get $18 of it back, up to now.” DT #1740, Feb. 21, 1932

Health care bill does not add up

COLUMBUS: Tonight America witnessed history in the making. As Speaker Pelosi said, “Health care has now joined Social Security and Medicare as a human right.” She went on to say that this reform bill would save taxpayers over a hundred Billion dollars by 2020.

What she should have added was a promise to write a personal check in 2020 to cover any deficit in that prediction. If the economics of Health Care turn out as successful as Social Security and Medicare, she had better have a huge bank account.

President Obama and the Democratic leaders mean well. They are lawyers, not accountants. They know reading and writing, but not arithmetic. I hope I’m wrong, but their numbers just don’t add up. The President says this bill will create the “biggest surplus ever”, and that health costs will “go down 3000 percent.”

For better health care what we need is more doctors and nurses. What we get is 20,000 more IRS agents in Washington to make sure we all buy the right insurance policy. (The Capital architect has a spacious area picked out along the Mall for a 20-story building for them.)

We’ll get fewer doctors and nurses because their salaries are cut. The 5 million uninsured because of pre-existing conditions will be covered (that’s great!), and the other 300 million will pay more (no surprise). Funding for Medicare goes down, costs for Medicaid goes up.

You may wonder why I’m telling you all these details. Well, Speaker Pelosi published the 2000-page bill on Thursday and told everyone to read it by Sunday. And I know that between watching college basketball and filling out your brackets, no one had time to even get to page 10. Even Congress didn’t read it. Congressman Kucinich traded his vote for a plane ride. Mr. Stupak of Michigan, a fine God-fearing man, swapped his vote for a promise to not fund abortions on Sunday. Probably another two hundred got something in the deal so don’t be surprised if a new bridge or dam or airport shows up in your district.

See, I could have told you about basketball and who made it to the Sweet 16. But you already know that news, so my role this week is to fill you in on the shenanigans in Congress.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:
“A Senator [and a Congressman] learns to swap his vote at the same age a calf learns which end of his mother is the dining room.” DT #1123, March 2, 1930
“The trouble with the Democrats has been that they have been giving the people ‘What they thought they ought to have,’ instead of ‘what they wanted.’” Saturday Evening Post, March 30, 1929
“Us Democrats just seem to have an uncanny premonition of sizing up a question and guessing wrong on it. It almost makes you think sometimes it is done purposely.” Saturday Evening Post, Jan. 19, 1929

Will reports from Washington: economy booming

COLUMBUS: If you want to see a city on the move, go to Washington. Buildings are being built and renovated. Cars and buses pack the streets. No foreclosure signs, and seldom a vacant store. When the President looks up Pennsylvania Avenue all he sees is a booming economy. No wonder he thinks his stimulus plan is working.
Can’t be much unemployment. Around the Capitol it’s just crawling with traffic cops and security folks. If you can blow a whistle and say, “No, you can’t go there,” (in English), they’ll probably hire you. At the Department of Agriculture they checked visiting farmers to be sure they weren’t trying to sneak in a pitchfork or ax handle, even if they was wearing a 3-piece suit.
I didn’t get into the Capitol. They closed it on Wednesday for a big ceremony honoring civilian women pilots from World War II. I read in the newspaper that some of the men back then did not believe a woman could fly one of those Army airplanes. A plane would land, a woman would climb down out of it, and the guy on the ground would ask her, “Where’s the pilot?” Shucks, I could have told them about plenty of fine aviatrixes way before 1940, like Amelia Earhart. The women used to have air races, called them Power Puff Derbies.
An Ohio farmer got excited when he came across an old newspaper article where Nancy Pelosi said she wanted to “drain the swamp.” See, there is millions of acres of farm land in Ohio and other states that floods about every spring and stays wet. The government has said it should be called a “wetland” and leave it alone.  So he thought Speaker Pelosi had changed her mind and would let farmers put in more ditches and tile. But she was only talking about cleaning up Congress, mainly Republicans. She was surprised to find a few Democrats mired down in the mud, too.
Almost a hundred of us Ohio Farm Bureau members got to meet in the Longworth House Office Building (named for Nick Longworth, Speaker from 1926-31) with Mike Pence of Indiana and several Ohio Congressmen including Boehner, Tiberi, Jordan, Austria and Marcy Kaptur. John Boehner is the loyal opposition to the Democrats and Speaker Pelosi. He does not think the Health Care bill will pass. “The minute the Democrats can round up a majority for it, she will hold a vote. She’s been trying since Christmas, and is still short.” On the Estate Tax bill, Boehner says they will compromise and pass it. But Congressman Tiberi says he doesn’t think Congress can make it retroactive to January 1. “How can we tell a family that lost Grandpa in February, when the tax was zero, that we’ve changed our minds and now we want 45 percent?”
Social Security payments are now borrowed from China.  They used to come from payments by younger American workers, but those are short this year and they’ll have to borrow $29 Billion. A fellow who has been working for forty years is going to be thrilled to learn that all his Social Security money has been squandered and now he has to depend on the generosity of  China and India to loan us enough to cover him. Social Security was started in 1935 by Franklin Roosevelt, and since about 1970 it was run by Bernie Madoff. Personally, I think the best security for old age is to be nice to your grandchildren.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:
“Retroactive.  I like to use that word.  I just learned it.  Retroactive.  It means that you can go back and get something that you forgot to get at the time.  In other words they can turn around and go back and run over you after missing you the first time.” Radio, May 26, 1935

Weekly Comments: Will is returning to the old joke factory

COLUMBUS: I’m flying to Washington for three days to check in on the old joke factory. I’m with a hundred farmers calling on Congress and the Department of Agriculture.

In the old days farmers were asking Congress and the President for relief. And to some extent they got it. What they’re after today is relief, but it’s relief FROM the EPA and IRS.

The EPA wants them to stop stirring up dust. Now, farmers are against dust as much as anyone. Especially the women, because they’re usually the ones stuck with cleaning it up. Out in the country things are just naturally dustier than in town. Take roads. There’s nothing a farmer would like more than having a paved road everywhere he has to drive. Gravel and dirt roads kick up dust when it’s dry. If your streets were gravel instead of asphalt, you wouldn’t like the dust either. Spraying old engine oil on the roads can stop the dust, but EPA frowns on that, too.

The beef with the IRS is over the inheritance tax. In the old days that never bothered a poor farmer because he had nothing left to inherit. Today, there’s a few that have scraped together enough land that when the grim reaper arrives the tax man is right behind him. Giving up half the farm makes it tough for the heirs to keep on farming. Even with the whole farm, it ain’t easy.

Climate change is another thing that’s got farmers riled up. But with all the rain, floods and snow in the past couple of years, they’re not against changing it as much as they used to be. If the government could guarantee the climate would change for the better, they would be for it. Farmers aren’t convinced that adding a $5 tax on diesel fuel is going to assure them of good weather.

In New York, they are having a tough time hanging on to their Congressmen and Governors. No sooner does a man get in there than he is found out. Of course Charley Rangel has been in a long time and heads up the Ways and Means Committee. I said one time that’s the committee that is “supposed to find the Ways to divide up the Means.” Well, Charley has become an expert at finding the ways, but he don’t like to divide it with anybody.

Charley owns half an island in the Carribean, and New York wants their 10% share of any profits. He claims he don’t make nothing on it. In fact he says he is so poverty stricken the only way he can even get down there to check on his holdings is for some company to loan him an airplane.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“We cuss (Congress) and we joke about ‘em, but they are all good fellows at heart; and if they wasent in that, why, they would be doing something else against us that might be worse.” May 18, 1926

“They are voting in New York State whether to keep a Governor two years or four… I think a good, honest Governor should get four years, and the others life.” DT #405, Nov. 8, 1927

Weekly Comments: Health care bill may sink Democrats

COLUMBUS: President Obama moderated a meeting last week on health care, with Democrats and Republicans. It went on for 6 hours and was the second most watched daytime TV drama in recent days, behind the true confessions of Tiger Woods.

Americans are telling the president they want more jobs and a reduced deficit. The President says, “I hear you. We’re gonna change your health care.”

Speaker Pelosi says the health care bill will create thousands of new jobs. She didn’t say how many of those new jobs would be in Washington. I’m not an economist, but how can they cut health care costs by hiring more people? How about if they pay for more doctors by paying for fewer lawyers. Hire more nurses for rural areas by cutting bean counters in Washington. Reduce paperwork and increase medical research. Most people would like everyone to have a chance to buy insurance, but don’t want to lose their own.

Pelosi says her fellow Democrats should vote for health care reform even if it costs them reelection in November. President Obama agrees with her but neither one promised to resign if other Democrats happen to lose. See, they are willing to sink the ship if necessary, but do not plan to go down with it.

There’s some Toyota owners I need to apologize to. It seems the gas pedal problem is more than just a few drivers who never learned how to shift to neutral. Toyota engineers are working on a solution, and they’ll likely get it fixed way before Congress fixes health care.

Chile got hit with an earthquake 500 times more powerful than the one in Haiti, but with less damage. That don’t make it any easier on the ones that are suffering, so give generously.

The Winter Olympics ended tonight. I said last week that Canada had a better chance of getting a gold medal in curling than in hockey. Well, they got gold in both. The US got the most medals, just not the preferred color.

This will go down in history as the warmest Winter Olympics ever held. I was planning to write a joke, that now that everyone is leaving, Vancouver would be hit by a gigantic snow storm. But I checked the Weather Channel, and they predict a heat wave for the next ten days, temperatures in the fifties. So forget Washington DC, and New York City; Vancouver is the place to point to if you are a  proponent of global warming.
NBC televised the Olympics and they can feel proud of a marvelous job. But they expect to lose $250 Million. When you add the $40 million lost on Conan O’Brien don’t be surprised if they’re next in line for a government bailout.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“Spending when we didn’t have it puts us where we are today. Saving when we have it will get us back to where we was before we went cuckoo.” DT #1353, Nov. 24, 1930.