John Galsworthy Quotes
How to save the old that's worth saving, whether in landscape, houses, manners, institutions, or human types, is one of our greatest problems, and the one that we bother least about.
Galsworthy, John. The Forsyte Saga. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922, Preface.
Note that this is a tribal right and not an individual one. When whites first came to America, the Iroquois, were the most sophisticated Native Americans. They were actually a confederation of 5 different tribes each of which was composed if many clans. Although fierce warriors, they had agreed not to fight each other and to assist if any were attacked. They developed a strong agricultural base, to go with the fishing and hunting, and their confederation were very aggressive and sophisticated traders taking them far from their upstate New York “capitol.” Their governmental structure was quite sophisticated with an elaborate, formal, system of checks and balances, multi-cameral legislatures that recognized numbers of citizens, power and wealth, and even cultural traditions. They were literate, capitalistic and globalistic in that they wanted to trade with all. They had written laws, and women had a role that was unique in world history in that only women owned property in a matrilineal society. Further, it was only the Clan Mothers who voted for the 50 Sachems (~Senators)—but their selections had to be accepted by the people they represented. Ironically the descendants of the Iroquois who remained in New York became a very successful Native American group. In the 2000 census, the average Indian in New York State earned the same income as the average White with no Indian gambling money.
America was just emerging from the Great Depression and the economy was still very soft. This quotation is very interesting in that it shows how President Roosevelt tried virtually everything to strengthen the economy which had been devastated under President Hoover—even pushing up Thanksgiving to extend the Christmas shopping season for a week.
Like the Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera, he produced gigantic murals with historical and social themes. He actually included lynchings and KKK meetings and Mormon persecution in his works which offended many Missouri politicians, but then he was probably in a better position to do so than any artist in Missouri.
John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga (1906–1921) and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.
