Hurricane 2005

CLAREMORE (OK) — Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush have been called to head a worldwide relief effort for victims of Hurricane Katrina. In the opening days of the campaign, Clinton, in a National Public Radio broadcast, as he has many times, drew parallels of Will Rogers and his times. Rogers often led the way in humanitarian efforts including the 1927 Mississippi River flood referred to by Clinton. On April 27, there were two benefits on Broadway to aid flood victims. Will was at the then new Ziegfeld Theatre donated by Florenz Ziegfeld, with the entire receipts going to flood sufferers through the American Red Cross. According to the New York Times, the concerts were sell-outs and others followed. He appealed to states, in mass meetings and newspaper articles as forums to help raise money. Will was elected a life member of the Red Cross for aid in the flood. The following year he appeared before the House Flood Control Committee in support of plans under which the federal government assumed full responsibility of control of streams. He also gave a benefit performance in a New Orleans theatre. Herbert Hoover was Secretary of Commerce and was appointed chairman of the Mississippi Flood Committee by President Calvin Coolidge. A three month federal-state effort which raised $50 million in federal and private funds provided refugee camps and food and clothing for 325,000 homeless. In the process Hoover became a national figure and set the stage for his successful run for the presidency. That wasn’t Will’s first and certainly not his last effort to help the suffering. And he was well known for slipping a few dollars into a needy hand. During a Florida hurricane of 1926, Will Rogers took the lead in a benefit aboard the S.S. Leviathan, which netted the relief fund more than $40,000. In 1929 when 61 miners were killed in a McAlester explosion, he donated his own money and called on others to help. In 1930-31 he went on a speaking tour for help to the Midwest in the midst of a disastrous drought. Flying with Capt. F rank Hawks, he also made national broadcast pleas inspiring others to give. “Let’s help put ‘em on their feet, call it a day and all go home and tend to our own business,” he said. During the height of the Depression, he gave $25,000 to Public Health Nursing Service to enable chapters to maintain nursing work. It was after the Nicaragua earthquake that he flew down and inspected the Red Cross relief work and gave $5,000 of his won money as well as calling on others to give. The American Red Cross estimated through his personal appeals, Will raised at least a quarter of a million dollars for the Red Cross. (Editor’s note: When Oklahoma’s National Guard headed south to help in relief effort they took with them bottles of water labeled Will Rogers Spring Water.)