b'The pay matched the pace. In those final sixty-six months of his life, Will Rogers averaged a new movie feature every 90 days, wrote 2,612 daily syndicated columns, filed 285 lengthy newspaper articles, circumnavigated the globe twice, encircled the South American continent by commercial plane, reported on two political conventions, played numerous The (Untold) Story of Will Rogers polo matches, was a major radio commentator with a top Sunday night talk show and delivered after-dinner speeches largely for charitable events. Still, he spent afternoons roping calves with his children and staging cookouts with family and pals" (Carter, The Quotable Will Rogers, p. 38).COWBOY PHILOSOPHER, COWBOY PHILANTHROPIST, COWBOY PRINCE AND THE COWBOY PRESIDENT HENEVER WASBY HIS OWN CHOICE By 1920 Will Rogers was already a double "threat"he could do stage and films with apparent ease, so book and newspaper editors reckoned that if he could handle himself so well in the theatrical arts, he could also do as well, if not better, in print.So Rogers was invited by the New York Times to write a column for them at the pay rate of $120 a week and Rogers, already a master of the quip, the one-liner, the succinct observer, accepted with his first article published New Year\'s Eve 1923and would appear every Sunday until he died in 1935. More offers came in, andin October 1926 he introduced his daily telegram to America and the worldentitled Will Rogers Speaks which continued his observations of what was goingon in lifeand in the world.Even though Rogers never completed high school, he was much wiser in the ways of common sense than an average educated American was, and he was arguably as good if not better than any commentator in America was at that timeeven if his spelling was off.Here are just a dozen or so of his quips, quotes, observations, and views chosen at random starting with, of course, "I never met a man I didn\'t like." What this country needs is more working men and fewer politicians. The American people are generous and will forgive almost any weakness exceptfor stupidity. I see a great deal of talk from Washington about lowering the taxes. I hope they get em loweredenough so people can afford to pay \'em. Confidence will beat predictions any time. We shouldn\'t elect a President, we should electa magician. When newspapers knock a man a lot, there is sure to bea lot of good in him. Somebody is always telling us in the papers how to prevent war. There is only one way in the world to prevent war, and that is, for every nation to tend to its own business. You must judge a man\'s greatness by how he will be missed. A man who don\'t love a horse, there is something the matter wrong with him. Live your life so that whenever you lose, you are ahead. Be a politician, no training necessary. All I know I read in the papers. It\'s great to be great, but it is greater to be human.The last comment reflected the way Rogers himself lived. He had been fortunate enough to be born into a family that had been resilient despite the tragedies of Indian Removal and Civil War and had been personally lucky to find opportunities around every turn of life\'s corner. He was a compassionate man, and when he learned of the suffering of fellow Americans, whenever he was able to he spurned into action, either personally or with the help of his fellow actors and actresses. He went back on stage to raise funds for the families left homeless in the aforementioned Mississippi floods of 1927. Even more so, he was tireless in his efforts in conjunction with the Red Cross to raise funds and provide assistance to the millions suffering through the Great Depression going back on the road to entertain - and to succor his less fortunate fellow Americans. Deeds were what counted in Will\'s world, not words. To cite one particular incident on what was called the "Will Rogers Drought Relief Tour":"Will visited England, Arkansas, stopped at shacks of Negro tenant farmers, and motored through barren acres of farmlands to the drought section of Pine Bluff. The next day Will performed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area returning to his quarters at 3 o\'clock, ordering a lunch of chili with a Bermuda onion sliced into it. . .The first week of their tour included thirteen cities and raised some $82,000 for drought and unemployment sufferers" (Sterling & Sterling, Will Rogers a Photo-Biography, p. 185).No wonder why the folksy, easy-mannered Cowboy from the plains of Oklahoma wasso beloved by millions of his fellow Americans - beloved so much that by the time 1932 came along, his name was bantered about as a possible dark-horse Democrat candidatefor the presidency.Will was a Democrat to be sure, but he was an Oklahoma Democrat. Conservative, for the little guy and one who believed a strong America ensured a safe America and he had no problems honoring, humoring, or skewering fellow Democrats as he would Republicans. One of his favorite presidents was Calvin Coolidge! But there he was, at the 1932 continued on page 46ArizonaRealCountry.com February 2021 45'