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What This Country Needs...

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Southern Planter

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is a good five cent cigar.

One day in 1913 in the senate chambers some blowhard was droning on and on in flowery Nineteenth Century rhetoric about what this country needs. After an hour Vice President Thomas Marshall leaned over to clerk Henry Rose, and in a flash of wit quipped "What this country needs is a good five cent cigar."

For what, then, is Thomas Marshall best known? His solid record as governor of an important midwestern state? His integrity? His service during the Wilson administration? No, his career and its accomplishments are largely forgotten. This, Calvin Davis writes, "is unfortunate, for even his speeches, which included his wittiest remarks, were essays of substance and ideas. His service as governor was distinguished. In his difficult role as Wilson's vice president, he made few mistakes and conducted himself with tact and grace." He is known, primarily through dictionaries of quotations, for a flash of wit, his remark about a five-cent cigar. "Literally millions of persons," Charles Thomas writes in 1939, "recall this quip, while scarcely thousands know that Marshall was ever a progressive governor of Indiana." (Thomas, p.174) He continues, "Many of Marshall's more serious-minded friends regret that his fame is being peretuated through successive generations by the witty sally of the moment. They would prefere to see emphasis placed on the statesmanship of a governor whose administration brought many constructive laws, and on the contributions of a vice-president who was dependable in time of need."

Look on the bright side, oh Ghost of Thomas Marshall, we are blessed with FX Smith's and Sons cigars, and taking the inflation calculator and punching in 1913 and five cents, you get the current price for their maduro cigar.
 
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