WHO RULES IN AMERICA ?

Hokitika Guardian, 12 October 1929, Page 3

WHO RULES IN AMERICA ?

“Our rulers to-dav consist of random collections of successful men and then wives. They are to be found in the inner circles of banks and corporations in the best clubs, in the dominant cliques of trade unions, among the political churchmen, the higher manipulating boshitjs, the leading professional Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Irish Germans, Jews, and the grand panjandrums of the secret societies. They give orders. They have to be consulted They can more or less effectively speak for and lead some part of the population. But none of them is seated on an assured throne, and all of them are for ever concerned as to how they may keep from being toppled off. They do not know how they hapen to be where they are, although they often explain what are the secrets of success. They have been educated to achieve success; few of them have been educated to exercise power, nor of handing it on to their sons. They live, therefore, from day to day, and they govern by ear. Their impromptu statements of policy may be obeyed, but nobody seriously regards them as having authority.”—Mr Walter Luppmann, in his “ A Preface to Morals.”