Charles Edward Merriam Quotes

9 Sourced Quotes

It not infrequently happens that persons without any other special qualification than the drama of their lives are precipitated into important political positions.

Charles Edward Merriam
In speaking of natural rights, therefore, it is essential to remember that these alleged rights have no political force whatsoever, unless recognized and enforced by the state.

Charles Edward Merriam
The technical apparatus of modem organization is far more complicated, elaborate, and scientific than that of preceding generations.

Charles Edward Merriam
The development of American political theories has received surprisingly little attention from students of American history. Even the political ideas of the Revolutionary fathers and the tenets of such important schools as those represented by Jefferson and Adams have not been carefully analyzed or put in their proper perspective. The political theory of the controversies over slavery and the nature of the Union has generally been presented from the partisan point of view, while recent tendencies in political thought have received no adequate notice.

Charles Edward Merriam
It is not necessary to conclude that the managerial groups have assumed complete domination over the concerns in which they are found, although this may be the fact in various instances, but only to reckon with the undoubted truth that the managerial factor in public and private enterprise has taken on a far more significant role than before.

Charles Edward Merriam
In modern industry the managerial groups in many areas rise to a position more significant than that of the owners or the workers. Decision often rests largely in their hands, providing, of course, they are able to point to a generous measure of financial success in their particular enterprise. Wages to the workers, profits to the owners, prices and goods to the consumers—these are allocated in great measure by the managers of the concern and tolerated on the terms just stated.

Charles Edward Merriam
Rights are considered to have their source not in nature, but in law.

Charles Edward Merriam
We now know how to produce, how to fight, how to administer social affairs, public or private, on a massive scale; and no modern group is unmindful of the technical tools available for this purpose. Masses of men and women-millions of them-now know more about organization, its meaning and apparatus, than ever before in human history. Its cult is no longer secret or magic. What now appears is a reasonable expectancy by those concerned that under such and such conditions such and such an outcome will follow, in an organizational pattern, of which they are parts, and in which they share responsibility.

Charles Edward Merriam
It is denied that any limit can be set to governmental activity.

Charles Edward Merriam