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CHAPTER III THE NEW
PROPAGANDISTS
WHO are the men who,
without our realizing it, give us our ideas, tell us whom to admire and
whom to despise, what to believe about the ownership of public utilities,
about the tariff, about the price of rubber, about the Dawes Plan, about
immigration; who tell us how our houses should be designed, what furniture
we should put into them, what menus we should serve on our table, what
kind of shirts we must wear, what sports we should indulge in, what plays
we should see, what charities we should support, what pictures we should
admire, what slang we should affect, what jokes we should laugh at? If we
set out to make a list of the men and women who, because of their position
in public life, might fairly be called the molders of public opinion, we
could quickly arrive at an extended list of persons mentioned in "Who's
Who." It would obviously include, the President of the United States and
the members of his Cabinet; the Senators and Representatives in Congress;
the Governors of our forty-eight states; the presidents of the chambers of
commerce in our hundred largest cities, the chairmen of j the boards of
directors of our hundred or more largest industrial corporations, the
president of many of the labor unions affiliated in the American
Federation of Labor, the national president of each of the national
professional and fraternal organizations, the president of each of the
racial or language societies in the country, the hundred leading newspaper
and magazine editors, the fifty most popular authors, the presidents of
the fifty leading charitable organizations, the twenty leading theatrical
or cinema producers, the hundred recognized leaders of fashion, the most
popular and influential clergymen in the hundred leading cities, the
presidents of our colleges and universities and the foremost members of
their faculties, the most powerful financiers in Wall Street, the most
noted amateurs of sport, and so on.
Such a list would
comprise several thousand persons. But it is well known that many of these
leaders are themselves led, sometimes by persons whose names are known to
few. Many a congressman, in framing his platform, follows the suggestions
of a district boss whom few persons outside the political machine have
ever heard of. Eloquent divines may have great influence in their
communities, but often take their doctrines from a higher ecclesiastical
authority. The presidents of chambers of commerce mold the thought of
local business men concerning public issues, but the opinions which they
promulgate are usually derived from some national authority. A
presidential candidate may: be "drafted" in response to "overwhelming
popular demand," but it is well known that his name may be decided upon by
half a dozen men sitting around a table in a hotel room. In some instances
the power of invisible wire-pullers is flagrant. The power of the
invisible cabinet which deliberated at the poker table in a certain little
green house in Washington has become a national legend. There was a period
in which the major policies of the national government were dictated by a
single man, Mark Hanna. A Simmons may, for a few years, succeed in
marshaling millions of men on a platform of intolerance and violence. Such
persons typify in the public mind the type of ruler associated with the
phrase invisible government. But we do not often stop to think that there
are dictators in other fields whose influence is just as decisive as that
of the politicians I have mentioned. An Irene Castle can establish the
fashion of short hair which dominates nine-tenths of the women who make
any pretense to being fashionable. Paris fashion leaders set the mode of
the short skirt, for wearing which, twenty years ago, any woman would
simply have been arrested and thrown into jail by the New York police, and
the entire women's clothing industry, capitalized at hundreds of millions
of dollars, must be reorganized to conform to their dictum. There are
invisible rulers who control the destinies -- of millions. It is not
generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most
influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the
scenes. Nor, what is still more important, the extent to which our
thoughts and habits are modified by authorities. In some departments of
our daily life, in which we imagine ourselves free agents, we are ruled by
dictators exercising great power. A man buying a suit of clothes imagines
that he is choosing, according to his taste and his personality, the kind
of garment which he prefers. In reality, lie may be obeying the orders of
an anonymous gentleman tailor in London. This personage is the silent
partner in a modest tailoring establishment, which is patronized by
gentlemen of fashion and princes of the blood. He suggests to British
noblemen and others a blue cloth instead of gray, two buttons instead of
three, or sleeves a quarter of an inch narrower than last season. The
distinguished customer approves of the idea. But how does this fact affect
John Smith of Topeka?
The gentleman tailor
is under contract with a certain large American firm, which manufactures
men's suits, to send them instantly the designs of the suits chosen by the
leaders of London fashion.
Upon receiving the designs, with
specifications as to color, weight and texture, the firm immediately
places an order with the cloth makers for several hundred thousand
dollars' worth of cloth. The suits made up according to the specifications
are then advertised as the latest fashion. The fashionable men in New
York, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia wear them. And the Topeka man,
recognizing this leadership, does the same.
Women are just as subject to the
commands of invisible government as are men. A silk manufacturer, seeking
a new market for its product, suggested to a large manufacturer of shoes
that women's shoes should be covered with silk to match their dresses. The
idea was adopted and systematically propagandized. A popular actress was
persuaded to wear the shoes. The fashion spread. The shoe firm was ready
with the supply to meet the created demand. And the silk company was ready
with the silk for more shoes.
The man who injected this idea into
the shoe industry was ruling women in one department of their social
lives. Different men rule us in the various departments of our lives.
There may be one power behind the throne in politics, another in the
manipulation of the Federal discount rate, and still another in the
dictation of next season's dances. If there were a national invisible
cabinet ruling our destinies {a thing which is not impossible to conceive
of) it would work through certain group leaders on Tuesday for one
purpose, and through an entirely different set on Wednesday for another.
The idea of invisible government is relative. There may be a handful of
men who control the educational methods of the great majority of our
schools. Yet from another standpoint, every parent is a group leader with
authority over his or her children.
The invisible government tends to
be concentrated in the hands of the few because of the expense of
manipulating the social machinery which controls the opinions and habits
of the masses. To advertise on a scale which will reach fifty million
persons is expensive. To reach and persuade the group leaders who dictate
the public's thoughts and actions is likewise expensive.
For this reason there is an increasing tendency to
concentrate the functions of propaganda in the hands of the propaganda
specialist. This specialist is more and more assuming a distinct place and
function in our national life. New activities call for new nomenclature.
The propagandist who specializes in interpreting enterprises and ideas to
the public, and in interpreting the public to promulgators of new
enterprises and ideas, has come to be known by the name of "public
relations counsel." The new profession of public relations has grown up
because of the increasing complexity of modern life and the consequent
necessity for making the actions of one part of the public understandable
to other sectors of the public. It is due, too, to the increasing
dependence of organized power of all sorts upon public opinion.
Governments, whether they are monarchical, constitutional, democratic or
communist, depend upon acquiescent public opinion for the success of their
efforts and, in fact, government is only government by virtue of public
acquiescence. Industries, public utilities, educational movements, indeed
all groups representing any concept or product, whether they are majority
or minority ideas, succeed only because of approving public opinion.
Public opinion is the unacknowledged partner in all broad efforts. The
public relations counsel, then, is the agent who, working with modern
media of communication and the group formations of society, brings an idea
to the consciousness of the public. But he is a great deal more than that.
He is concerned with courses of action, doctrines, systems and opinions,
and the securing of public support for them. He is also concerned with
tangible things such as manufactured and raw products. He is concerned
with public utilities, with large trade groups and associations
representing entire industries. He functions primarily as an adviser to
his client, very much as a lawyer does. A lawyer concentrates on the legal
aspects of his client's business. A counsel on public relations
concentrates on the public contacts of his client's business. Every phase
of his client's ideas, products or activities which may affect the public
or in which the public may have an interest is part of his function. For
instance, in the specific problems, of the manufacturer he examines the
product, the markets, the way in which the public reacts to the product,
the attitude of the employees to the public and towards the product, and
the cooperation of the distribution agencies.
The
counsel on public relations, after he has examined all these and other
factors, endeavors to shape the actions of his client so that they will
gain the interest, the approval and the acceptance of the public. The
means by which the public is apprised of the actions of his client are as
varied as the means of communication themselves, such as conversation,
letters, the stage, the motion picture, the radio, the lecture platform,
the magazine, the daily newspaper. The counsel on public relations is not
an advertising man but he advocates advertising where that is indicated.
Very often he is called in by an advertising agency to supplement its work
on behalf of a client. His work and that the advertising agency do not
conflict with or duplicate each other. His first efforts are, naturally,
devoted to analyzing his client's problems and making sure that what he
has to offer the public is something which the public accepts or can be
brought to accept. It is futile to attempt to sell an idea or to prepare
the ground for a product that is basically unsound. For example, an orphan
asylum is worried by a falling off in contributions and a puzzling
attitude of indifference or hostility on the part of the public. The
counsel on public relations may discover upon analysis that the public,
alive to modern sociological trends, subconsciously criticizes the
institution because it is not organized on the new "cottage plan." He will
advise modification of the client in this respect. Or a railroad may be
urged to put on a fast train for the sake of the prestige which it will
lend to the road's name, and hence to its stocks and bonds. If the corset
makers, for instance, wished to bring their product into fashion again, he
would unquestionably advise that the plan was impossible, since women have
definitely emancipated themselves from the old-style corset. Yet his
fashion advisers might report that women might be persuaded to adopt a
certain type of girdle which eliminated the unhealthful features of the
corset. His next effort is to analyze his public. He studies the groups
which must be reached, and the leaders through whom he may approach these
groups. Social groups, economic groups, geographical groups, age groups,
doctrinal groups, language groups, cultural groups, all these represent
the divisions through which, on behalf of his client, he may talk to the
public.
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Only after this
double analysis has been made and the results collated, has the time come
for the next step, the formulation of policies governing the general
practice, procedure and habits of the client in all. those aspects in
which he comes in contact with the public. And only when these policies
have been agreed upon is it time for the fourth step. The first
recognition of the distinct functions of the public relations counsel
arose, perhaps, in the early years of the present century as a result of
the insurance scandals coincident with the muck-raking of corporate
finance in the popular magazines. The interests thus attacked suddenly
realized that they were completely out of touch with the public they were
professing to serve, and required expert advice to show them how they
could understand the public and interpret themselves to it. The
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, prompted by the most fundamental
self-interest, initiated a conscious, directed effort to change the
attitude of the public toward insurance companies in general, and toward
itself in particular, to its profit and the public's benefit. It tried to
make a majority movement of itself by getting the public to buy its
policies. It reached the public at every point of its corporate and
separate existences. To communities it gave health surveys and expert
counsel. To individuals it gave health' creeds and advice. Even the
building in which the corporation was located was made a picturesque
landmark to see and remember, in other words to carry on the associative
process. And so this company came to have a broad general acceptance. The
number and amount of its policies grew constantly, as its broad contacts
with society increased. Within a decade, many large corporations were
employing public relations counsel under one title or another, for they
had come to recognize that they depended upon public good will for their
continued prosperity. It was no longer true that it was "none of the
public's business" how the affairs of a corporation were managed. They
were obliged to convince the public that they were conforming to its
demands as to honesty and fairness. Thus a corporation might discover that
its labor policy was causing public resentment, and might introduce a more
enlightened policy solely for the sake of general good will. Or a
department store, hunting for the cause diminishing sales, might discover
that its clerks had a reputation for bad manners, and initiate formal
instruction in courtesy and tact. The public relations expert may be known
as public relations director or counsel. Often he is called secretary or
vice-president or director. Sometimes he is known as cabinet officer or
commissioner. By whatever title he may be called, his function is well
defined and his
advice has definite bearing on the conduct of the group or
individual with whom he is working. Many persons still believe that the
public relations counsel is a propagandist and nothing else. But, on the
contrary, the stage at which many suppose he starts his activities may
actually be the stage at which he ends them. After the public and the
client are thoroughly analyzed and policies have been formulated, his work
may be finished. In other cases the work of the public relations counsel
must be continuous to be effective. For in many instances only by a
careful system of constant, thorough and frank information will the public
understand and appreciate the value of what a merchant, educator or
statesman is doing. The counsel on public relations must maintain constant
vigilance, because inadequate information, or false information from
unknown sources, may have results of enormous importance. A single false
rumor at a critical moment may drive down the price of a corporation's
stock, causing a loss of millions to stockholders. An air of secrecy or
mystery about a corporation's financial dealings may breed a general
suspicion capable of acting as an invisible drag on the company's whole
dealings with the public. The counsel on public relations must be in a
position to deal effectively with rumors and suspicions, attempting to
stop them at their source, counteracting them promptly with correct or
more complete information through channels which will be most effective,
or best of all establishing such relations of confidence in the concern's
integrity that rumors and suspicions will have no opportunity to take
root. His function may include the discovery of new markets, the existence
of which had been unsuspected.
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If we accept public
relations as a profession, we must also expect it to have both ideals and
ethics. The ideal of the profession is a pragmatic one. It is to make the
producer, whether that producer be a legislature making laws or a
manufacturer making a commercial product, understand what the public wants
and to make the public understand the objectives of the producer. In
relation to industry, the ideal of the profession is to eliminate the
waste and the friction that result when industry does things or makes
things which its public does not want, or when the public does not
understand what is being offered it. For example, the telephone companies
maintain extensive public relations departments to explain what they are
doing, so that energy may not be burned up in the friction of
misunderstanding. A detailed description, for example, of the immense and
scientific care which the company takes to choose clearly understandable
and distinguishable exchange names, helps the public to appreciate the
effort that is being made to give good service, and stimulates it to
cooperate by enunciating clearly. It aims to bring about an understanding
between educators and educated, between government and people, between
charitable institutions and contributors, between nation and nation. The
profession of public relations counsel is developing for itself an ethical
code which compares favorably with that governing the legal and medical
professions. In part, this code is forced upon the public relations
counsel by the very conditions of his work. While recognizing, just as the
lawyer does, that everyone has the right to present his case in its best
light, he nevertheless refuses a client whom he believes to be dishonest,
a product which he believes to be fraudulent, or a cause which he believes
to be antisocial. One reason for this is that, even though a special
pleader, he is not dissociated from the client in the public's mind.
Another reason is that while he is pleading before the court-the court of
public opinion-he is at the same time trying to affect that court's
judgments and actions. In law, the judge and jury hold the deciding
balance of power. In public opinion, the public relations counsel is judge
and jury, because through his pleading of a case the public may accede to
his opinion and judgment. He does not accept a client whose interests
conflict with those of another client. He does not accept a client whose
case he believes to be hopeless or whose product he believes to be
unmarketable. He should be candid in his dealings. It must be repeated
that his business is not to fool or hoodwink the public. If he were to get
such a reputation, his usefulness in his profession would be at an end.
When he is sending out propaganda material, it is clearly labeled as to
source. The editor knows from whom it comes and what its purpose is, and
accepts or rejects it on its merits as news.
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History of Banking Fraud:
The Coming Battle
By M. W. WALBERT
The Coming Battle
documents from Congressional records, newspaper reports and writings by
the founding fathers and others a chronology of events long forgotten that
shaped our fledgling nation from 1776 to 1899. Read about the manipulation
of our money and its supply, the intentional creation of recessions,
depressions and panics, manipulation of the stock markets, and the
demonetization of silver.
Secrets of the Federal Reserve
by Eustace Mullins
Eustace Mullins' carefully
researched and documented treatise picks up from Walbert's expose' of
control of the money supply and the economy and
brings it to the mid 1980's.
The
World Order
by Eustace Mullins
How control of the world's money has inexorably led to an ever tighter
grip on control of the world's people.
Uranium Wars by Leuren Moret
How control of the world's people has inexorably led to wider use of
depopulation methods which include spreading radioactivity in food,
water, air, and the human genome.
Taking Back Your Power
by Allen Aslan Heart
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Stop playing THEIR game. Take back
your power. Stop paying taxes that are not legal or lawful. Stop paying
bills you don't really owe. Stop using THEIR money. There ARE ways if you
open your mind and look for the gaps in their fences that keep the sheeple
in their pasture. Are you chattel or a real person? You are the one who
makes that choice.
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Dealing with a debt
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Debt Collection Puts on a
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As consumer loans hit an all-time
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© 2007, Allen Aslan Heart / White Eagle Soaring of the Little Shell Pembina Band,
a
Treaty
Tribe of the Ojibwe Nation
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