Dr. Collins On Will Rogers' Legacy

Okie Rebels With A Cause, Part Seven

Hi Professor:

I was trying to comment on your item "Will Rogers, Radical" but the computer would not let me have enough space. Perhaps this will reach you.

Soon I will be donating quite a lot of material to UCO that can be used to study Will Rogers in his own handwriting and his own voice. And there is probably plenty there now to see him on film, in the newsreels, etc. He really should be studied more in classes. He had a lot to offer.

When I was working on my dissertation on "Will Rogers, Writer and Journalists" about 1964-5, my students kidded me about teaching "WR-101!" But I couldn't resist. He is such a breath of fresh air in the world of academics.

You will find a lot of different opinions about what WR said and meant. One of the worst comments --lies, actually--came from one book which called him an athiest. And the author--a good writer, but wrong in this case, used that statement to promote the book--it was repeated in headlines, etc., on the east coast.

Will Rogers was not an actual church member, far as we know. But he said more than once in more than one way, "I was never a non-believer." That's good enough for me! He helped raise money for several churches and for many individuals who were of different faiths--Jewish, protestant, etc. Not because of their religion, though, in most cases. He said however you want to worship, that's OK by him.

All of this is way, way too complicted to go into tonight. I am in the middle of moving. But please do some more research and give him credit where it's due. He can stand examination.

Once a few years ago one of our profs published a book that said Will never made the statement, "I never met a man I didn't like." Well, in a short time, I found six or seven places where Will put it in writing. And of course he said it many more times in speaking. And I believe he meant it.

(Will, Jr., and I used to argue this one! He knew his Dad could read about someone in the paper at the breakfast table, and holler about it. I argued that you could holler at your kids, too, or a friend. But that didn't mean you didn't like them!)

But what Will really meant, I believe, was that he never MET a man he didn't like. That means the same as not judging a man till you have walked all day in his moccasins. You don't "pre-judge" him. When you hear Will saying it on tape, he laughs when he says it, so he must have intended for the MET to be stressed and saw the joke in it. He said he was so proud of that saying, he wanted it carved on his tombstone so he could come back and sit on the fence and watch people reading it. . . . I had that done not long before I left the Memorial.

But don't sell him short on who he liked. He visited old John D. Rockefeller at his home in FLA. He said (I'm paraphrasing): "Isn't it too bad that old John D. with all the money in the world has to eat oat meal for breakfast!" John D. was famous for giving nickels to people. So Will--in front of the cameras--gave his friend John D. a dime! He liked the old man.

Will visited the Astors in NY, then wrote a funny column about tilting your soup bowl the right direction! And how the butler watched him. . . . He visited several presidents in the White House. And all the Congressmen wanted him to mention them in his columns--even it it was lambasting them.

The night before he sailed for Europe in 1926, he had dinner in NY with Mr. Ochs of the NY TIMES, Mr Kennedy (father of president K.), and other bigwigs. He was already doing a weekly column and had a contract to write some articles for SEP. Ochs asked Will if he would send him back a column once in a while if he came across something meaty. At that time, the TIMES didn't carry columns from those outside its own staff, but WR agreed.

That was the beginning of his Daily Telegram which he wrote from then till he was killed in 1935, and which appeared in over 400 newspapers--including the TIMES, the BOSTON GLOBE, etc. Everyone read it! And he had all the money from the columns sent directly to his wife, Betty. Her "household" money!

An irony that no one has been able to disprove: WR never registered and never voted. He said he wanted to stay neutral so he could blast the politicians from both sides! And he did.

When Hoover and Al Smith were battling it out--both were good friends of his over a long period of time--he left the country--went on a flying trip over the Andes....was angry when he got home and the election was not over! He thought all elections were on Nov 4--WR's birthday! Just because some of them were.

He didn't sweat the small stuff! But he didn't like his good friends fighting, either.

I was confused about his politics for some time, also. So were his kids and some of his friends. But I now know where he was coming from. His basic philosophy was based on "letting alone!" Let people do as they pleased as long as they were not hurting anyone else. But that didn't mean letting them starve.

There is a good book of his columns written while he was on a 5- or 7-state tour --of OK, TX, ARK, etc--during the depression to raise money to feed people. (Women's groups in each area sold tickets and distributed the money or the food from the money raised.) He had plenty to say. So did the papers of the day and his columns, too. Interesting stuff--and plenty academic for the classroom.

You will find an interesting comment from one of his columns along about then. . . He had been pestering the President to provide money to feed the hungry. You can't let them starve, he raved. But, he added, "I know you can't just give them money for doing nothing. They would never work again!" Again, that's paraphrased, but it shows you what the prevailing opinion was then . . . How wrong was he?

All I ask is that you spend some time studing Will Rogers' own writings. He will stand the test of time if you read him "whole."

Reba Neighbors Collins, Professor Emeritus, UCO

Dr. Reba N. Collins, Director Emeritus, Will Rogers Memorial