The Mount Rushmore of Editorialists: Will Rogers

This is the fourth part in my series on the great American editorialists. Part three about Horace Greeley is here. Part two about Ben Franklin is here. Part one about H.L. Mencken is here.

Long before Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich wrote for the New York Times, there was Will Rogers.

(hat tip to Wikipedia for the pic)

Rogers had an exciting life before he ever became an editorialist. Although he was an avid reader, he dropped out of school after the 10th grade to become a cowboy. He went from cowboy in Argentina and South Africa, to circus performer back in the U.S., then on to Vaudeville, and even performing at the famed Ziegfeld Follies, then on to a movie career. He later went on to do radio shows, including his own.

In the midst of his incredible life, Rogers managed to fit in a short career as a New York Times columnist. While there is no doubt he would have been famous without writing, many of his memorable quotes come to us from his columns:

"This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer."

"This would be a great world to dance in if we didn't have to pay the fiddler." 

"This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried as much political bunk as we have and still survived shows we are a super nation."

"You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way."

From an article about the use of scopolamine as a truth serum: "See they conducted experiments on convicts ... I don't know on what grounds they reason a man in jail is a bigger liar than one out of jail ... The chances are telling the truth is what got him there ... It would be a big aid to humanity, but it will never be, for already the politicians are up in arms against it ... It would wreck the very foundation on which our political government is run ... If you ever injected truth into politics you'd have no politics … Humanity is not yet ready for either real truth or real harmony."

"I never met a man I didn’t like."

As I have defined editorialists, "insightful, sometimes witty, frequently pithy, prudent, and most of all perceptive", Rogers was all of these. He might have made a career out of playing the rube, but there was a pretty sharp guy behind that mask.