Letter: A different Will Rogers had this to say

As we sift through the ashes of the corporation-dominated midterm elections, the words of the late humorist Will Rogers ring truer than ever. In 1938 he said, “You’ll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”

Steve Eastin
Burbank

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FOR THE RECORD: The 1938 quote attributed to Will Rogers is in fact a paraphrase of a quote by H.L. Mencken in the Chicago Tribune: “No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.” Will Rogers died in 1935.

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