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ALB wrote:
The Socialist Standard of November 1909 quotes Morris as saying:
Quote:
The business of a statesman is to balance the greed and fears of the proprietary class against the necessities of the working class. This is a very sorry business, and leads to all kinds of trickery and evasion ; so that it is more than doubtful whether a statesman can be a moderately honest man.
It’s a good quote making a very valid and still relevant point, still usable today, but does anyone know where it comes from? It seems to be from a private letter he wrote about 1887 but would have to have been known publicly in 1909.
It appears to be a passage from a letter written in 1888 which formed part of a publication entitled Letters on Socialism and privately printed in 1894. The full quote appears below:-
Quote:
Under these conditions the business of a statesman is to balance the greed and fears of the proprietary class against the necessities and demands of the working class. This is a sorry business, and leads to all kinds of trickery and evasion; so it is more than doubtful whether a statesman can be a moderately honest man.
The entire letter can be found in The Good Society: A Book of Readings:-Steven Lukes, Anthony Arblaster