Hi, this is Sally Shattuck from Ashland, Kansas, and I've been reading Never Met a Man I Didn't Like, The Life and Writings of Will Rogers by Joseph H. Carter. This spring we are celebrating Route 66, the Will Rogers Highway, by learning about Will Rogers' life and work.
Reading this book, I have been amazed by how relevant Rogers' writings remain.
On the subject of education, Will Rogers said, “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.” Applying his trademark common sense, he observed, “There is nothing as stupid as an educated man if you get him off the thing he was educated in.“
Rogers' formal education ended after the 10th grade, but his self-education continued throughout his life. It was extensive, constantly reading, traveling, and engaging with some of the most innovative and celebrated people of his time.
I think of Will Rogers as a humorist, but in 1931, he was a war correspondent in Japan and China following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. He wrote, “China is trying to save its country. Japan is trying to save its investments. The League of Nations is trying to save face. Now somebody has got to lose.”
“The United States,” he wrote, “had yet to referee a fight successfully. We will join them and get it wrong. It's too good an opportunity to lose. America can hunt all over the world and not find a better fight to keep out of.”
Ten years before Pearl Harbor, Will Rogers wrote, “The Japanese take their war serious. They go in them to win.”
In 1932, he flew to Central America sending dispatches for his newspaper column from
Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, and then covered a war in Chile and moved on to Brazil. He was an observer at international conferences, offering his thoughts on Italy, the Soviet Union, and Germany. In one column, he compared Hitler to Al Capone.
Rogers also had strong views on taxes and wealth inequality, arguing there was plenty of money in America, but it was held by too few.
Reflecting his rural roots, he wrote, “the only relief you can give the farmers is through his taxes.”
He fiercely opposed property taxes, arguing they taxed the farmer whether he had a crop or not. “When will they quit taxing farmers' land regardless if it made anything? Or selling people's homes for taxes? Not until they get a sales tax on small necessities and large luxuries. Then a stiff inheritance tax on the fellow that saves and don't spend.that will get him either way.”
Written nearly 100 years ago, I feel as if I'm reading something straight from a podcast published yesterday.
This is Sally Shattuck from Ashland for the High Plains Public Radio's Radio Readers Book Club, BookBytes.
