Golden Rule

[Kathleen Miller]

The earliest use of that phrase we have (note: our database isn't complete
yet. It only goes back to the early 70's at the moment) is below. The
phrase occurs in 8 other articles as well.

September 30, 1981, CALIFORNIA PROPERTY TAX CUT STARTING TO HAVE BIG
       EFFECT. By ROBERT LINDSEY, Special to the New York Times

By depriving local government and public schools of the property tax,
historically their main
source of revenue, the proposition shifted enormous amounts of political
power from local
communities to the State Legislature in Sacramento. As Mr. Cory, the
Controller put it, ''He
who has the gold makes the rules.''

Kathleen E. Miller
Language Library
The New York Times


At 02:32 PM 5/17/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Beverley Flanigan asks whether anyone else has heard the formulation
>of The Golden Rule as "Those with the gold make the rules".
>
>Probably 10 years ago, during the uproar over the logging of old
>growth timber in the northwest, I saw, perhaps in the New York Times,
>perhaps in a Seattle newspaper -- I took a vacation trip to the
>northwest about that time -- a reference to a western land and timber
>speculator as being a man who lived by the Golden Rule: He who has
>the gold makes the rules.
>
>George A. Thompson