In answer to Richard's questions, here are a few interesting paragraphs
that preceded the quote from JEFF and/or MUSS that I posted regarding
Pound's assessment of Mussolini's " deep 'concern' or will for the welfare
of Italy...organic, composed of the last ploughman and the last girl in the
olive-yards..."
    The brief parenthesis in the excerpt below, in which Pound's focus jumts
to his grandfather's railway days, leads me to believe that Pound was not  a
mere sychophant -- a "Mussolini groupie" as Wei puts it.  One might read the
following statements in light of the excerpt from Pound's letter to Hubert
Creekmore, which I posted a day or two ago.  Often Pound will refer to his
family when he wishes to establish his sincerity, his _bona fides_. Perhaps
this belief in the goodness of his ancestor is mere self-deception.  Wei
might be able to tell us whether Pound grand-père paid his workers a living
wage.
Tim Romano


    "Any thorough treatment of MUSSOLINI will
be in a measure an act of faith, it will depend on
what you _believe_ the man means, what you believe
that he wants to accomplish.
    I have never believed that my grandfather put a
bit of railway across Wisconsin simply or chiefly to
make money or even with the illusion that he would
make money, or make more money in that way than
in some other.
    I don't believe any estimate of Mussolini will be
valid unless it _starts_ from his passion  for construct-
ion. Treat him as _artifex_ and all the details fall into
place.  Take him as anything save the artist and you
will get muddled with contradictions. Or you will
waste a lot of time finding that he don't fit your
particular preconceptions or your particular theories.
    The Anglo-Saxon is particularly inept at under-
standing the Latin clarity of "Qui veut la fin veut
les moyens." Who wills the end wills the means.
    There is Lenin's calm estimate of all other
Russian parties: They are very clever, yes, they can
do EVERYTHING except act.
    If you don't believe that Jefferson  was actuated
by a (in the strict quaker sense) "concern" for the
good of the people, you will quibble, perhaps, over
details, perhaps over the same details that worried
his old friend John Adams."
    --EP
    JEFF and/or MUSS, ch VI.


> Assuming it is agreed that in Tim Romano's quotation Pound is at least
> purporting to show concern for the worker, was he (a) lying, (b) joking,
(c)
> deceiving himself, (d) showing off, (e) writing without thinking or (f)
some
> combination of all or some of these?
>
> And what about "The enormous tragedy of the dream in the peasant's bent
> shoulders"?
>
> Richard Edwards