Post a Will Rogers quote:

[struggle4progress]

Well, we just got over “Be Kind to Animals Week.” So, now you can start again writing to your Congressman
Daily Telegrams, 1934

[Richardo]

1. My sig line is one of my favorites

:)

[HopeHoops]

2. Can you say "Republican asshole"? Sure, I knew ya could.

Wait, that's Fred Rogers. Never mind.

[struggle4progress]

3. Will was an FDR Dem

[HopeHoops]

5. I'm pretty sure Fred was a Dem as well.

At least his attitude and concern for children would indicate it.

[struggle4progress]

8. I don't know what Fred's politics were. No matter: he was a good guy

[HopeHoops]

9. I still tear up when I realize he's gone.

I grew up with him and so did my children.

[pokerfan]

4. ~

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

[struggle4progress]

6. MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., July 4 – We sure had a great Fourth, especially after we picked up our

papers and found that Congress had adjourned the night of the third.

That gave us a cause for having a fourth, but our enthusiasm was immediately dampened, for the Senate are to meet again Monday, so that means that prosperity will pick up only fifty per cent.

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as we do when the baby gets hold of a hammer. It’s just a question of how much damage he can do with it before you can take it away from him. Well, in eight- een months these babies have left a record of devastation.

Yours,

Will Rogers

<1930>

[Haole Girl]

7. "The best way out of a difficulty is through it." nt

[BOSSHOG]

10. No such thing as a stranger just a friend I haven't met yet

[BOSSHOG]

11. And my favorite quote

although not Will Rogers:

Whether you think you can or your can't, you're right

[BOSSHOG]

12. Dupe, sorry

[Bucky]

13. Will Rogers on Henry Ford

I spent a couple of minutes googling around trying to find some of his laudatory quotes on Mussolini. After his 1927 visit to Italy, he was pretty high on Benito, calling him a "smart wop" and such. That stuff doesn't seem to be too big on the internet. So here's Will Rogers on Hitler's other fair weather friend:

        The Democrats are the middle-of-the-road party, the Republicans are the straddle-of-the-road party, so I hereby nominate Mr. Henry Ford for president and christen the party the All-Over-the-Road Party.
        In the first place it's too bad he is so competent. That is the only thing that'll beat him.
        Mr. Ford's a good friend of mind and year ago he overlooked a suggestion that would have made him immortal. It was when he went over to stop the war. I wanted to take the girls we had in the Follies and let them wear the same costumes they wore in the show and march them down between the trenches. Believe me, the boys wouldn't been out before Christmas.

[struggle4progress]

15. I don't know what he thought about Mussolini in 1927, but here's a Daily Telegraph quote from 1929:

WILL ROGERS SEES DANGER IN MEETING MUSSOLINI

BEVERLY HILLS, Cal., July 1. – I sho would like to fly to Rome if it just wasn’t for one thing. I wouldn’t want Mussolini kissing me, I would be afraid he would bite me ...

His later quotes frequently call Mussolini a dictator

It's clear Will Rogers rather admired Henry Ford; he socialized with Ford and ribbed him in his columns. But his overall views may have been rather complicated. This is a Daily Telegraph from 1927:

WILL ROGERS REVIEWS A THANKSGIVING LIST

HOLLYWOOD, Cal., Nov. 23. – This is Thanksgiving. It was started by the Pilgrims, who would give thanks every time they killed an Indian and took more of his land. As years went by and they had all his land, they changed it into a day to give thanks for the bountiful harvest, when the boll-weevil and the protective tariff didn’t remove all cause for thanks.

So here is what the Republicans have given us the past year: A war in Nicaragua and China, and a rehearsal in Mexico, two floods and a coal strike, and pictures of the Black Hills.

And all we got in return is the promise of a new Ford car and lower taxes.

Yours,

Will Rogers

It is also clear that Rogers was aware of Ford's anti-semitism. Rogers' general view on American racism might be illuminated by this 1927 Daily Telegraph on pro-Klan Senator Heflin:

WILL ROGERS MAKES A PLEA TO HEFLIN’S CONSTITUENCY

MONTGOMERY, Ala., Feb. 18. – Senator Heflin of Alabama held up all Senate business yesterday for five hours. That’s a record for narrow views.

Tonight in his home capital I am pleading with Alabama to please not exterminate all Catholics, Republicans, Jews, negroes, Jim Reed, Al Smith, Wadsworth, Mellon and Coolidge and the Pope.

Of course, my plea will do no good, for Tom knows the intelligence of his constituency better than we do.

A Missionary Will

[gmoney]

14. "I'm not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat."

Rings very true today as well.