The Education of a Senator: Everett McKinley Dirksen

[...]he passes over with humor the very real threats to himself and his family as German-Americans during World War I, by attributing them chiefly to his mother's stubborn refusal to take down the honored picture of Kaiser Wilhelm II! A particular favorite was his meeting with a young man who believed that the economic crisis of the Great Depression could be resolved by the introduction of square coins. Changing the coinage, it seems, would force the owners and manufacturers of vending machines to hire massive numbers of new workers and thus reintroduce prosperity.