COLUMBUS, Ohio: “Will Rogers” will be speaking at an annual event of the American Farm Bureau Federation this week. I am including some history here from a hundred years ago.
On December 7, 1925, President Coolidge addressed the American Farm Bureau Convention in Chicago with over 5000 farmers. (In comparison, my speech Tuesday evening will be in Columbus to about 50 farmers.)
The convention was at the historic Sherman House. Will Rogers was there and took notes. He wrote a Weekly Article, dissecting the speech. You folks probably do something similar. You hear promises and phrases in a speech by a politician, then you interpret in your own mind what he or she said. Here are a few examples I plan to share.
President Coolidge said, ‘The future of farming looks exceedingly secure.’ Will’s response, “Of course it’s secure. In fact, it’s SECURED, mostly by 2 mortgages.”
He tried to console the farmers by telling them, ‘There’s lots of people worse off than the farmers.’ “Well, I don’t know who could be worse off unless it’s the fellow who holds the mortgages on the farm.”
Coolidge said, ‘I want you to know the government is with you.’ “The Government IS with them. The government owes 20 Billion and the farmer owes all he’s got.”
He reminded them about generous farm Loans. ‘We have loaned out over one billion dollars to 350,000 farmers.’ “In other words, we can’t help you make any money, but we can show you where you can owe some more.”
[This is from Weekly Article #158, Dec. 20, 1925]
Keep in mind, this was in the middle of the Roaring Twenties. The economy was growing. The stock market was setting new records. Women in town were dancing the Charleston and wore flapper skirts with hems above the knee!
In case you’re wondering, Will liked President Coolidge. And the President liked Will. He invited Will and Betty to the White House and they stayed overnight. You may know that Coolidge campaigned on “Economy.” And he was economical; for supper they served fish hash. And the next morning, breakfast was leftover fish hash.
Later, Will offered his own advice to farmers: “If you don’t raise anything you are fortunate. Because it costs you more to raise anything that you can sell it for, so the less you raise, the less you lose. And if you don’t raise anything, you’re ahead.” (WA #235, June 12, 1927)
With the ’26 election looming, the historic quotes below definitely apply.
Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“The Democrats have a lot of advantages over the Republicans. The Republicans have to stay in power and explain why they haven’t done what they promised to, while the Democrats can just set back and talk about what they WILL do if they get in. That’s why the Democrats can always make a better speech than the Republicans. Promises always sound better than explanations. The Republicans ran on their record, which was a brave thing to do. The Democrats ran on their promises, which was a natural thing to do.” (from a Weekly Article, maybe after the 1924 election)
“There is one thing you can bet on this year. No voter is going to do anything that a politician thinks he will do. The way most people feel they would like to vote against all of ‘em if it was possible.” DT #1797, Apr. 27, 1932