by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel
One of the more famous anecdotes in U.S. Senate history dates from early 1914 when a protracted debate centered on unrest in the country during the progressive era.
Kansas Sen. Joseph Bristow had bellowed through a repetitive speech in which he said at least 10 times, “What this country needs…” finishing each line with a different prescription. The presiding officer, Vice President Thomas Marshall, leaned over the desk and quietly said to the assistant secretary, Henry Rose, “What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar.”
The quip became instantly famous in numerous newspapers and cigar companies deluged the VP’s office with hundreds of boxes, to prove there already were many good five-cent cigars. Marshall was always known for his wit and friends lamented that he wasn’t taken more seriously because of it. President Wilson’s closest advisor, Edward House, said, “Marshall was held too lightly. An unfriendly fairy godmother presented him with a keen sense of humor. Nothing is more fatal in politics.”
Ever since, the Bristow/Marshall line has been the cliché perhaps most overused in politics. America is heavily populated by “experts” who want to tell everyone “what this country needs,” or even “what the world needs.” We are surrounded, indeed inundated, by experts at every turn, people who know what others should be doing, and who seek to decide nearly every aspect of our lives, because they are the ones who know.
