Excerpt from Socialism: A Speech Delivered in Faneuil Hall, February 7th, 1903

State, when we are talking of its efficiency is not an imaginary being, but certain definite men, who happen at that time to have been ap pointed or elected to Office. A great deal of confused' thought arises from spelling State with a big S, and then thinking of it as an ideal body different from the human beings that live in it. Hence, it is the welfare of individuals that makes the welfare of the State and not the other way around. And if in any case the welfare Of the State differs from that of its citizens, we should always chose the latter. It might suit the Emperor Of Germany to have every one of his citizens a soldier under orders successfully conquering the world, and you might say that was for the welfare Of the German state - until you remembered that it would not be for the welfare of the German individual. And in the same way we are in danger Of thinking that the State is preter naturally wise and perfectly good until we remember that it is only just as wise as the men who made it and as good as the men who are running it.

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