Illinois

Will Rogers had a lot to say about the politics and culture of Illinois and Chicago and he was a speaker at the Democratic Convention held in 1932 in Chicago (pictured).

“They say it’s wrong to buy votes, but you notice from the election returns that the fellows in Pennsylvania, and Illinois that bought the most, got elected. A bought vote is better than no votes at all. The counters can’t tell whether they are bought or just bargained for.” – Weekly Articles, November 4, 1926

“Chicago has reconciled itself to the killings now, and they don’t pay any attention to them at all. It takes rather an unusual one to get into the papers at all. The Army-Navy football game was brought clear out to Chicago so the Cadets and Middy Blouses could see machine guns working in actual warfare. Hostilities among the gunmen were called off during game as the shooting would detract from the Pickpockets work.” – Weekly Articles, 1926

“Speaking about what you read in the papers, we see where what the papers are pleased to call “Bloody Herrin,” the mining town in Illinois, has broke out again. Now, I played that section. There is several dandy, nice little hustling towns of from 5 to 10 thousand each, and we played Frankfort and also went down to Herrin, and we had a lot of their people up to our show, and I never was as surprised in my life. I had just got my impression of them from what I had read, and when I got there and met them they will stack up with any community in the country. There is not a lot of murderers and cut throats there. They are real people congenial, hospitable. But instead of being like a lot of communities, fuss and argue, call each other names, they just shoot it out if it’s necessary. I am mighty glad to have been in there and met them.” – Weekly Articles, 1926