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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.
20 19
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.
22
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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.
mothers and child welfare.
A music club can broaden its sphere
and be of service to the community by cooperating with the local radio
station in arranging better musical programs. Fighting bad music can be as
militant a campaign and marshal as varied resources as any political
battle.
An art club can be active in
securing loan exhibitions for its city. It can also arrange traveling
exhibits of the art work of its members or show the art work of schools or
universities.
A literary club may step out of its
charmed circle of lectures and literary lions and take a definite part in
the educational life of the community. It can sponsor, for instance, a
competition in the public schools for the best essay on the history of the
city, or on the life of its most famous son.
Over and above the particular
object for which the woman's club may have been constituted, it commonly
stands ready to initiate or help any movement which has for its object a
distinct public good in the community. More important, it constitutes an
organized channel through which women can make themselves felt as a
definite part of public opinion.
Just as women supplement men in
private life, so they will supplement men in public life by concentrating
their organized efforts on those objects which men are likely to ignore.
There is a tremendous field for women as active protagonists of new ideas
and new methods of political and social housekeeping. When organized and
conscious of their power to influence their surroundings, women can use
their newly acquired freedom in a great many ways to mold the world into a
better place to live in.
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CHAPTER
VIII PROPAGANDA FOR EDUCATION EDUCATION is not securing its proper share
of public interest. The public school system, materially and financially,
is being adequately supported. There is marked eagerness for a college
education, and a vague aspiration for culture, expressed in innumerable
courses and lectures. The public is not cognizant of the real value of
education, and does not realize that education as a social force is not
receiving the kind of attention it has the right to expect in a democracy.
It is felt, for example, that education is entitled to more space in the
newspapers; that well informed discussion of education hardly exists; that
unless such an issue as the Gary School system is created, or outside of
an occasional discussion, such as that aroused over Harvard's decision to
establish a school of business, education does not attract the active
interest of the public. There are a number of reasons for this condition.
First of all, there is the fact that the educator has been trained to
stimulate to thought the individual students in his classroom, but has not
been trained as an educator at large of the public. In a democracy an
educator should, in addition to his academic duties, bear a definite and
wholesome relation to the general public. This public does not come within
the immediate scope of his academic duties. But in a sense he depends upon
it for his living, for the moral support, and the general cultural tone
upon which his work must be based. In the field of education, we find what
we have found in politics and other fields-that the evolution of the
practitioner of the profession has not kept pace with the social evolution
around him, and is out of gear with the instruments for the dissemination
of ideas in which modern society has developed. If this be true, then the
training of the educators in this respect should begin in the normal
schools, with the addition to their curricula of whatever is necessary to
broaden their viewpoint. The public cannot understand unless the teacher
understands the relationship between the general public and the academic
idea.
65
The normal school
should provide for the training of the educator to make him realize that
his is a two fold job: education as a teacher and education as a
propagandist. A second reason for the present remoteness of education from
the thoughts and interests of the public is to be found in the mental
attitude of the pedagogue --whether primary school teacher or college
professor-- toward the world outside the school. This is a difficult
psychological problem. The teacher finds himself in a world in which the
emphasis is put on those objective goals and those objective attainments
which are prized by our American society. He himself is but moderately or
poorly paid. Judging himself by the standards in common acceptance, he
cannot but feel a sense of inferiority because he finds himself
continually being compared, in the minds of his own pupils, with the
successful business man and the successful leader in the outside world.
Thus the educator becomes repressed and suppressed in our civilization. As
things stand, this condition cannot be changed from the outside unless the
general public alters its standards of achievement, which it is not likely
to do soon. Yet it can be changed by the teaching profession itself, if it
becomes conscious not only of its individualistic relation to the pupil,
but also of its social relation to the general public. The teaching
profession, as such, has the right to carry on a very definite propaganda
with a view to enlightening the public and asserting its intimate relation
to the society which it serves. In addition to conducting a propaganda on
behalf of its individual members, education must also raise the general
appreciation of the teaching profession. Unless the profession can raise
itself by its own bootstraps, it will fast lose the power of recruiting
outstanding talent for itself. Propaganda cannot change all that is at
present unsatisfactory in the educational situation. There are factors,
such as low pay and the lack of adequate provision for superannuated
teachers, which definitely affect the status of the profession. It is
possible, by means of an intelligent appeal predicated upon the actual
present composition of the public mind, to modify the general attitude
toward the teaching profession. Such a changed attitude will begin by
expressing itself in an insistence on the idea of more adequate salaries
for the profession. There are various ways in which academic organizations
in America handle their financial problems. One type of college or
university depends, for its monetary support, upon grants from the state
legislatures. Another depends upon private endowment. There are other
types of educational institutions, such as the sectarian, but the two
chief types include by far the greater number of our institutions of
higher learning.
66The
state university is supported by grants from the people of the state,
voted by the state legislature. In theory, the degree of
support which the
university receives is dependent upon the degree of acceptance accorded it
by the voters. The state university prospers according to the extent to
which it can sell itself to the people of the state. The state university
is therefore in an unfortunate position unless its president happens to be
a man of outstanding merit as a propagandist and a dramatizer of
educational issues. Yet if this is the case-if the university shapes its
whole policy toward gaining the support of the state legislature-its
educational function may suffer. It may be tempted to base its whole
appeal to the public on its public service, real or supposed, and permit
the education of its individual students to take care of itself. It may
attempt to educate the people of the state at the expense of its own
pupils. This may generate a number of evils, to the extent of making the
university a political instrument, a mere tool of the political group in
power. If the president dominates both the public and the professional
politician, this may lead to a situation in which the personality of the
president outweighs the true function of the institution.
The endowed college or university
has a problem quite as perplexing. The endowed college is dependent upon
the support, usually, of key men in industry whose social and economic
objectives are concrete and limited, and therefore often at variance with
the pursuit of abstract knowledge. The successful business man criticizes
the great universities for being too academic, but seldom for being too
practical. One might imagine that the key men who support our universities
would like them to specialize in schools of applied science, of practical
salesmanship or of industrial efficiency. And it may well be, in many
instances, that the demands which the potential endowers of our
universities make upon these institutions are flatly in contradiction to
the interests of scholarship and general culture.
We have, therefore, the anomalous
situation of the college seeking to carry on a propaganda in favor of
scholarship among people who are quite out of sympathy with the aims to
which they are asked to subscribe their money. Men who, by the commonly
accepted standards, are failures or very moderate successes in our
American world (the pedagogues) seek to convince the outstanding successes
(the business men) that they should give their money to ideals which they
do not pursue. Men who, through a sense of inferiority, despise money,
seek to win the good will of men who love money.
It seems possible that the future
status of the endowed college will depend upon a balancing of these
forces, both the academic and the endowed elements obtaining in effect due
consideration. The college must win public support. If the potential donor
is apathetic, enthusiastic public approval must be obtained to convince
him. If he seeks unduly to influence the educational policy of the
institution, public opinion must support the college in the continuance of
its proper functions. If either factor dominates unduly, we are likely to
find a demagoguery or a snobbishness aiming to please one group or the
other. There is still another potential solution of the problem. It is
possible that through an educational propaganda aiming to develop greater
social consciousness on the part of the people of the country, there may
be awakened in the minds of men of affairs, as a class, social
consciousness which will produce more minds 0f the type of Julius
Rosenwald, v. Everitt Macy, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the late Willard
Straight. Many colleges have already developed intelligent propaganda in
order to bring them into active and continuous relation with the general
public. A definite technique has been developed in their relation to the
community in the form of college news bureaus. These bureaus have formed
an intercollegiate association whose members meet once a year to discuss
their problems. These problems include the education of the alumnus and
his effect upon the general public and upon specific groups, the education
of the future student to the choice of the particular college, the
maintenance of an ”esprit
de corps”
so that the athletic prowess of the college will not be
placed first, the development of some familiarity with the research work
done in the college in order to attract the attention of those who may be
able to lend aid, the development of an understanding of the aims and the
work of the institution in order to attract special endowments for
specified purposes. Some seventy-five of these bureaus are now affiliated
with the American Association of College News Bureaus, including those of
Yale, Wellesley, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Western Reserve, Tufts and
California. A bi-monthly news letter is published, bringing to members the
news of their profession. The Association endeavors to uphold the ethical
standards of the profession and aims to work in harmony with the press.
68The
National Education Association and other societies are carrying on a
definite propaganda to promote the larger purposes of educational
endeavor. One of the aims of such propaganda is of
67
course
improvement in the prestige and material position of the teachers
themselves. An occasional McAndrew case calls the attention of the public
to the fact that in some schools the teacher is far from enjoying full
academic freedom, while in certain communities the choice of teachers is
based upon political or sectarian considerations rather than upon real
ability. If such issues were made, by means of propaganda, to become a
matter of public concern on a truly national scale, there would doubtless
be a general tendency to improvement.
The concrete problems of colleges
are more varied and puzzling than one might suppose. The pharmaceutical
college of a university is concerned because the drug store is no longer
merely a drug store, but primarily a soda fountain, a lunch counter, a
book-shop, a retailer of all sorts of general merchandise from society
stationery to spare radio parts. The college realizes the economic utility
of the lunch counter feature to the practicing druggist, yet it feels that
the ancient and honorable art of compounding specifics is being degraded.
Cornell University discovers that
endowments are rare. Why? Because the people think that the University is
a state institution and therefore publicly supported.
Many of our leading universities
rightly feel that the results of their scholarly researches should not
only be presented to libraries and learned publications, but should also,
where practicable and useful, be given to the public in the dramatic form
which the public can understand. Harvard is but one example.
"Not long ago," says Charles A.
Merrill in
Personality, "a certain
Harvard professor vaulted into the newspaper headlines. There were several
days when one could hardly pick up a paper in any of the larger cities
without finding his name bracketed with his achievement.
69
"The professor, who
was back from a trip to Yucatan in the interests of science, had solved
the mystery of the Venus calendar of the ancient Mayas. He had discovered
the key to the puzzle of how
the
Mayas kept tab on
the flight of time. Checking the Mayan record of celestial events against
the known astronomical facts, he had found a perfect correlation between
the time count of these Central American Indians and the true positions of
the planet Venus in the sixth century B.C. A civilization which flourished
in the Western Hemisphere twenty-five centuries ago was demonstrated to
have attained heights hitherto unappreciated by the modern world.
"How the professor's
discovery happened to be chronicled in the popular press is, also, in
retrospect, is a matter of interest. ...If left to his own devices, he
might never have appeared in print, except perhaps in some technical
publication, and his remarks there would have been no more intelligible to
the average man or woman than if they had been inscribed in Mayan
hieroglyphics.
"Popularization of this message
from antiquity was due to the initiative of a young man named James W. D.
Seymour. ...
"It may surprise and shock some
people," Mr. Merrill adds, "to be told that the oldest and most dignified
seats of learning in America now hire press agents, just as railroad
companies, fraternal organizations, moving picture producers and political
parties retain them. It is nevertheless a fact. ...
”...there is hardly a college or
university in the country which does not, with the approval of the
governing body and the faculty, maintain a publicity office, with a
director and a staff of assistants, for the purpose of establishing
friendly relations with the newspapers, and through the newspapers, with
the public. ...
"This enterprise breaks sharply
with tradition. In the older seats of learning it is a recent innovation.
It violates the fundamental article
in the creed of the old academic societies. Cloistered seclusion used to
be considered the first essential of scholarship. The college was anxious
to preserve its aloofness from the world. ...
"The colleges used to resent
outside interest in their affairs. They might, somewhat reluctantly and
contemptuously, admit reporters to their Commencement Day exercises, but
no further would they go. ...
"To-day, if a newspaper reporter
wants to interview a Harvard professor, he has merely to telephone the
Secretary for Information to the University. Officially, Harvard still
shies away from the title 'Director of Publicity.' Informally, however,
the secretary with the long title is the publicity man. He is an important
official to-day at Harvard."
It may be a
new idea that the president of a university will concern himself with the
kind of mental picture his institution produces on the public mind. Yet it
is part of the president's work to see that his university takes its
proper place in the community and therefore also in the community mind,
and produces the results desired, both in a cultural and in a financial
sense.
70If
his institution does not produce the mental picture which it should, one
of two things may be wrong: Either the media of
communication with
the public may be wrong or unbalanced; or his institution may be at fault.
The public is getting an oblique impression of the university, in which
case the impression should be modified; or it may be that the public is
getting a correct impression, in which case, very possibly, the work of
the university itself should be modified. For both possibilities lie
within the province of the public relations counsel.
Columbia University recently
instituted a Casa
ltaliana, which was
solemnly inaugurated in the presence of representatives of the Italian
government, to emphasize its high standing in Latin studies and the
Romance languages. Years ago Harvard founded the Germanic Museum, which
was ceremoniously opened by Prince Henry of Prussia.
Many colleges maintain extension
courses which bring their work to the knowledge of a broad public. It is
of course proper that such courses should be made known to the general
public. But, to take another example, if they have been badly planned,
from the point of view of public relations, if they are unduly scholastic
and detached, their effect may be the opposite of favorable. In such a
case, it is not the work of the public relations counsel to urge that the
courses be made better known, but to urge that they first be modified to
conform to the impression which the college wishes to create, where that
is compatible with the university's scholastic ideals.
Again, it may be the general
opinion that the work of a certain institution is 80 per cent postgraduate
research, an opinion which may tend to alienate public interest. This
opinion may be true or it may be false. If it is false, it should be
corrected by high-spotting undergraduate activities.
If, on the other hand, it is true
that 80 per cent of the work is postgraduate research, the most should be
made of that fact. It should be the concern of the president to make known
the discoveries which are of possible public interest. A university
expedition into Biblical lands may be uninteresting as a purely scholastic
undertaking, but if it contributes light on some Biblical assertion it
will immediately arouse the interest of large masses of the population.
The zoological department may be hunting for some strange bacillus which
has no known relation to any human disease, but the fact that it is
chasing bacilli is in itself capable of dramatic presentation to the
public.
Many
universities now gladly lend members of their faculties to assist in
investigations of public interest. Thus Cornell lent Professor Wilcox to
aid the government in the preparation of the national census. Professor
Irving Fisher of Yale has been called in to advise on currency matters. In
the ethical sense, propaganda bears the same relation to education as to
business or politics. It may be abused. It may be used to over advertise
an institution and to create in the public mind artificial values. There
can be no absolute guarantee against its misuse.
72 71
CHAPTER
IX PROPAGANDA IN SOCIAL SERVICE THE public relations counsel is necessary
to social work. And since social service, by its very nature, can continue
only by means of the voluntary support of the wealthy, it is obliged to
use propaganda continually. The leaders in social service were among the
first consciously to utilize propaganda in its modern sense. The great
enemy of any attempt to change men's habits is inertia. Civilization is
limited by inertia. Our attitude toward social relations, toward
economics, toward national and international politics, continues past
attitudes and strengthens them under the force of tradition. Comstock
drops his mantle of proselytizing morality on the willing shoulders of a
Sumner; Penrose drops his mantle on Butler; Carnegie his on Schwab, and so
ad infinitum. Opposing this traditional acceptance of existing ideas is an
active public opinion that has been directed consciously into movements
against inertia. Public opinion was made or changed formerly by tribal
chiefs, by kings, by religious leaders. Today the privilege of attempting
to sway public opinion is everyone's. It is one of the manifestations of
democracy that anyone may try to convince others and to assume leadership
on behalf of his own thesis. New ideas, new precedents, are continually
striving for a place in the scheme of things. The social settlement, the
organized campaigns against tuberculosis and cancer, the various research
activities aiming directly at the elimination of social diseases and
maladjustments-a multitude of altruistic activities which could be
catalogued only in a book of many pages-have need of knowledge of the
public mind and mass psychology if they are to achieve their aims. The
literature on social service publicity is so extensive, and the underlying
principles so fundamental, that only one example is necessary here to
illustrate the technique of social service propaganda. A social service
organization undertook to fight lynching, Jim Crowism and the civil
discriminations against the Negro below the Mason and Dixon line. The
National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People had the
fight in hand. As a matter of technique they decided to dramatize the
year's campaign in an annual convention which would concentrate attention
on the problem.
73
Should it be held in
the North, South, West or East? Since the purpose was to affect the entire
country, the association was advised to hold it in the South. For, said
the propagandist, a point of view on a southern question, emanating from a
southern center, would have greater authority than the same point of view
issuing from any other locality, particularly when that point of view was
at odds with the traditional southern point of view. Atlanta was chosen.
The third step was to surround the conference with people who were
stereotypes for ideas that carried weight all over the country. The
support of leaders of diversified groups was sought. Telegrams and letters
were dispatched to leaders of religious, political, social and educational
groups, asking for their point of view on the purpose of the conference.
But in addition to these group leaders of national standing it was
particularly important from the technical standpoint to secure the
opinions of group leaders of the South, even from Atlanta itself, to
emphasize the purposes of the conference to the entire public. There was
one group in Atlanta which could be approached. A group of ministers had
been bold enough to come out for a greater interracial amity. This group
was approached and agreed to cooperate in the conference. The event ran
off as scheduled. The program itself followed the general scheme. Negroes
and white men from the South, on the same platform, expressed the same
point of view. A dramatic element was spot-lighted here and there. A
national leader from Massachusetts agreed in principle and in practice
with a Baptist preacher from the South. If the radio had been in effect,
the whole country might have heard and been moved by the speeches and the
principles expressed. But the public read the words and the ideas in the
press of the country. For the event had been created of such important
component parts as to awaken interest throughout the country and to gain
support for its ideas even in the South. The editorials in the southern
press, reflecting the public opinion of their communities, showed that the
subject had become one of interest to the editors because of the
participation by southern leaders. The event naturally gave the
Association itself substantial weapons with which to appeal to an
increasingly wider circle. Further publicity was attained by mailing
reports, letters, and other propaganda to selected groups of the public.
74As
for the practical results, the immediate one was a change in the minds of
many southern editors who realized that the question
at issue was not
only an emotional one, but also a discussable one; and this point of view
was immediately reflected to their readers. Further results are hard to
measure with a slide-rule. The conference had its definite effect in
building up the racial consciousness and solidarity of the Negroes. The
decline in lynching is very probably a result of this and other efforts of
the Association.
Many churches have made paid
advertising and organized propaganda part of their regular activities.
They have developed church advertising committees, which make use of the
newspaper and the billboard, as well as of the pamphlet. Many
denominations maintain their own periodicals. The Methodist Board of
Publication and Information systematically gives announcements and
releases to the press and the magazines.
But in a broader sense the very
activities of social service are propaganda activities. A campaign for the
preservation of the teeth seeks to alter people's habits in the direction
of more frequent brushing of teeth. A campaign for better parks seeks to
alter people's opinion in regard to the desirability of taxing themselves
for the purchase of park facilities. A campaign against tuberculosis is an
attempt to convince everybody that tuberculosis can be cured, that persons
with certain symptoms should immediately go to the doctor, and the like. A
campaign to lower the infant mortality rate is an effort to alter the
habits of mothers in regard to feeding, bathing and caring for their
babies. Social service, in fact, is identical with propaganda in many
cases.
Even those aspects of social
service which are governmental and administrative, rather than charitable
and spontaneous, depend on wise propaganda for their effectiveness.
Professor Harry Elmer Barnes, in his book, "The Evolution of Modern
penology in Pennsylvania," states that improvements in penological
administration in that state are hampered by political influences. The
legislature must be persuaded to permit the utilization of the best
methods of scientific penology, and for this there is necessary the
development of an enlightened public opinion. "Until such a situation has
been brought about," Mr. Barnes states, "progress in penology is doomed to
be sporadic, local, and generally ineffective. The solution of prison
problems, then, seems to be fundamentally a problem of conscientious and
scientific publicity." Social progress is simply the progressive education
and enlightenment of the public mind in regard to its immediate and
distant social problems.
CHAPTER X
ART AND SCIENCE
IN the education of the American
public toward greater art appreciation, propaganda plays an important
part. When art galleries seek to launch the canvases of an artist they
should create public acceptance for his works. To increase public
appreciation a deliberate propagandizing effort must be made.
In art as in politics the minority
rules, but it can rule only by going out to meet the public on its own
ground, by understanding the anatomy of public opinion and utilizing it.
In applied and commercial art,
propaganda makes greater opportunities for the artist than ever before.
This arises from the fact that mass production reaches an impasse when it
competes on a price basis only. It must, therefore, in a large number of
fields create a field of competition based on esthetic values. Business of
many types capitalizes the esthetic sense to increase markets and profits.
Which is only another way of saying that the artist has the opportunity of
collaborating with industry in such a way as to improve the public taste,
injecting beautiful instead of ugly motifs into the articles of common
use, and, furthermore, securing recognition and money for himself.
Propaganda can play a part in
pointing out what is and, what is not beautiful, and business can
definitely help in this way to raise the level of American culture. In
this process propaganda will naturally make use of the authority of group
leaders whose taste and opinion are recognized.
The public must be interested by
means of associational values and dramatic incidents. New inspiration,
which to the artist may be a very technical and abstract kind of beauty,
must be made vital to the public by association with values which it
recognizes and responds to.
For instance, in the manufacture of
American silk, markets are developed by going to Paris for inspiration.
Paris can give American silk a stamp of authority which will aid it to
achieve definite position in the United States. The French Minister of
Fine Arts may be induced to lend his authority to the process.
The following clipping from the New
York Times
of February 16, 1925, tells the
story:
"Copyright,
1925, by THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY-Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
76 75
"PARIS)
Feb. 15.-For the first time in history, American art materials are to be
exhibited in the
Decorative Arts Section of the Louvre Museum. 'The exposition opening on
May 26th with the Minister of Fine Arts, Paul Leon, acting as patron, will
include silks from Cheney Brothers, South Manchester and New York, the
designs of which were based on the inspiration of Edgar Brandt, famous
French iron worker, the modern Bellini, who makes wonderful art works from
iron. "M. Brandt designed and made the monumental iron doors of the Verdun
war memorial. He has been asked to assist and participate in this
exposition, which will show France the accomplishments of American
industrial art. 'Thirty designs inspired by Edgar Brandt's work are
embodied in 2,500 yards of printed silks, tinsels and cut velvets in a
hundred colors. ... "These prints ferronnieres' are the first textiles to
show the influence of the modern master, M. Brandt. The silken fabrics
possess a striking composition, showing characteristic Brandt motifs which
were embodied in the tracery of large designs by the Cheney artists who
succeeded in translating the iron into silk, a task which might appear
almost impossible. The strength and brilliancy of the original design is
enhanced by the beauty and warmth of color.” The result of this ceremony
was that prominent department stores in New York, Chicago and other cities
asked to have this exhibition. They tried to mold the public taste in
conformity with the idea which had the approval of Paris. The silks of
Cheney Brothers-a commercial product produced in quantity-gained a place
in public esteem by being associated with the work of a recognized artist
and with a great art museum. The same can be said of almost any commercial
product susceptible of beautiful design. There are few products in daily
use, whether furniture, clothes, lamps, posters, commercial labels, book
jackets, pocketbooks or bathtubs which are not subject to the laws of good
taste.
77
In America, whole
departments of production are being changed through propaganda to fill an
economic as well as an esthetic need. Manufacture is being modified to
conform to the economic need to satisfy the public demand for more beauty.
A piano manufacturer recently engaged artists to design modernist pianos.
This was not done because there existed a widespread demand for modernist
pianos. Indeed, the manufacturer probably expected to sell few. But in
order to draw attention to pianos one must have something more than a
piano. People at tea parties will not talk about pianos; but they may talk
about the new modernist piano. When Secretary Hoover, three years ago, was
asked to appoint a commission to the Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts,
he did so. As Associate Commissioner I assisted in the organizing of the
group of important business leaders in the industrial art field who went
to Paris as delegates to visit and report on the Exposition. The
propaganda carried on for the aims and purposes of the Commission
undoubtedly had a widespread effect on the attitude of Americans towards
art in industry; it was only a few years later that the modern art
movement penetrated all fields of industry. Department stores took it up.
R. H. Macy & Company held an Art-in-Trades Exposition, in which the
Metropolitan Museum of Art collaborated as adviser. Lord & Taylor
sponsored a Modern Arts Exposition, with foreign exhibitors. These stores,
coming closely in touch with the life of the people, performed a
propagandizing function in bringing to the people the best in art as it
related to these industries. The Museum at the same time was alive to the
importance of making contact with the public mind, by utilizing the
department store to increase art appreciation. Of all art institutions the
museum suffers most from the lack of effective propaganda. Most
present-day museums have the reputation of being morgues or sanctuaries,
whereas they should be leaders and teachers in the esthetic life of the
community. They have little vital relation to life. The treasures of
beauty in a museum need to be interpreted to the public, and this requires
a propagandist. The housewife in a Bronx apartment doubtless feels little
interest in an ancient Greek vase in the Metropolitan Museum. Yet an
artist working with a pottery firm may adapt the design of this vase to a
set of china and this china, priced low through quantity production, may
find its way to that Bronx apartment, developing unconsciously, through
its fine line and color, an appreciation of beauty.
78Some
American museums feel this responsibility. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
of New York rightly prides itself on its million and a quarter of visitors
in the year 1926; on its efforts to dramatize and make visual the
civilizations which its various departments reveal; on its special
lectures, its story hours, its loan collections of prints and photographs
and lantern slides, its facilities
offered to
commercial firms in the field of applied art, on the outside lecturers who
are invited to lecture in its auditorium and on the lectures given by its
staff to outside organizations; and on the free chamber concerts given in
the museum under the direction of David Mannes, which tend to dramatize
the museum as a home of beauty. Yet that is not the whole of the problem.
It is not merely a question of making people come to the museum. It is
also a question of making the museum, and the beauty which it houses, go
to the people. The museum's accomplishments should not be evaluated merely
in terms of the number of visitors. Its function is not merely to receive
visitors, but to project itself and what it stands for in the community
which it serves. The museum can stand in its community for a definite
esthetic standard which can, by the help of intelligent propaganda,
permeate the daily lives of all its neighbors. Why should not a museum
establish a museum council of art, to establish standards in home
decoration, in architecture, and in commercial production? or a research
board for applied arts? Why should not the museum, instead of merely
preserving the art treasures which it possesses, quicken their meaning in
terms which the general public understands? A recent annual report of an
art museum in one of the large cities of the United States, says: “An
underlying characteristic of an Art Museum like ours must be its attitude
of conservatism, for after all its first duty is to treasure the great
achievements of men in the arts and sciences.” Is that true? Is not
another important duty to interpret the models of beauty which it
possesses? If the duty of the museum is to be active it must study how
best to make its message intelligible to the community which it serves. It
must boldly assume esthetic leadership. As in art, so in science, both
pure and applied. Pure science was once guarded and fostered by learned
societies and scientific associations. Now pure science finds support and
encouragement also in industry. Many of the laboratories in which abstract
research is being pursued are now connected with some large corporation,
which is quite willing to devote hundreds of thousands of dollars to
scientific study, for the sake of one golden invention or discovery which
may emerge from it.
80
79
Big business of
course gains heavily when the invention emerges. But at that very moment
it assumes the responsibility of placing the new invention at the service
of the public. It assumes also the responsibility of interpreting its
meaning to the public. The industrial interests can furnish to the
schools, the colleges and the postgraduate university courses the exact
truth concerning the scientific progress of our age. They not only can do
so; they are under obligation to do so. Propaganda as an instrument of
commercial competition has opened opportunities to the inventor and given
great stimulus to the research scientist. In the last five or ten years,
the successes of some of the larger corporations have been so outstanding
that the whole field of science has received a tremendous impetus. The
American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the Western Electric Company,
the General Electric Company, the Westinghouse Electric Company and others
have realized the importance of scientific research. They have also
understood that their ideas must be made intelligible to the public to be
fully successful. Television, broadcasting, loud speakers are utilized as
propaganda aids. Propaganda assists in marketing new inventions.
Propaganda, by repeatedly interpreting new scientific ideas and inventions
to the public, has made the public more receptive. Propaganda is
accustoming the public to change and progress.
CHAPTER XI
THE MECHANICS OF PROPAGANDA
THE media by which special pleaders
transmit their messages to the public through propaganda include all the
means by which people to-day transmit their ideas to one another. There is
no means of human communication which may not also be a means of
deliberate propaganda, because propaganda is simply the establishing of
reciprocal understanding between an individual and a group.
The important point to the
propagandist is that the relative value of the various instruments of
propaganda, and their relation to the masses, are constantly changing. If
he is to get full reach for his message he must take advantage of these
shifts of value the instant they occur. Fifty years ago, the public
meeting was a propaganda instrument par excellence. To-day it is difficult
to get more than a handful of people to attend a public meeting unless
extraordinary attractions are part of the program. The automobile takes
them away from home, the radio keeps them in the home, the successive
daily editions of the newspaper bring information to them in office or
subway, and also they are sick of the ballyhoo of the rally.
Instead there are numerous other
media of communication, some new, others old but so transformed that they
have become virtually new. The newspaper, of course, remains always a
primary medium for the transmission of opinions and ideas-in other words,
for propaganda.
It was not many years ago that
newspaper editors resented what they called "the use of the news columns
for propaganda purposes." Some editors would even kill a good story if
they imagined its publication might benefit anyone. This point of view is
now largely abandoned. To-day the leading editorial offices take the view
that the real criterion governing the publication or non-publication of
matter which comes to the desk is its news value. The newspaper cannot
assume, nor is it its function to assume, the responsibility of
guaranteeing that what it publishes will not work out to somebody's
interest. There is hardly a single item in any daily paper, the
publication of which does not, or might not, profit or injure somebody.
That is the nature of news. What the newspaper does strive for is that the
news which it publishes shall be accurate, and (since it must select from
the mass of news material available) that it shall be of interest and
importance to large groups of its readers.
In its editorial columns the
newspaper is a personality, commenting upon things and events from its
individual point of view. But in its news columns the typical modern
American newspaper attempts to reproduce, with due regard to news
interest, the outstanding events and opinions of the day.
It does not ask whether a given
item is propaganda or not. What is important is that it be news. And in
the selection of news the editor is usually entirely independent. In the
New York Times-to
take an outstanding
example-news is printed because of its news value and for no other reason.
The Times
editors determine with complete
independence what is and what is not news. They brook no censorship. They
are not influenced by any external pressure nor swayed by any values of
expediency or opportunism. The conscientious editor on every newspaper
realizes that his obligation to the public is news. The fact of its
accomplishment makes it news.
If the public relations counsel can
breathe the breath of life into an idea and make it take its place among
other ideas and events, it will receive the public attention it merits.
There can be no question of his "contaminating news at its source." He
creates some of the day's events, which must compete in the editorial
office with other events. Often the events which he creates may be
specially acceptable to a newspaper's public and he may create them with
that public in mind.
If important things of life to-day
consist of transatlantic radiophone talks arranged by commercial telephone
companies; if they consist of inventions that will be commercially
advantageous to the men who market them; if they consist of Henry Fords
with epoch-making cars-then all this is news. The so-called flow of
propaganda into the newspaper offices of the country may, simply at the
editor's discretion, find its way to the waste basket.
The source of
the news offered to the editor should always be clearly stated and the
facts accurately presented.
82The
situation of the magazines at the present moment, from the propagandist's
point of view, is different from that of the daily newspapers. The average
magazine assumes no obligation, as the newspaper does, to reflect the
current news. It selects its material deliberately, in accordance with a
continuous policy. It is not, like the newspaper, an organ of public
opinion, but tends rather to become a propagandist organ, propagandizing
for a particular idea, whether it be good housekeeping, or smart apparel,
or beauty in home decoration, or debunking public opinion, or general
enlightenment or
81
liberalism or amusement. One magazine may aim to sell health; another,
English gardens; another, fashionable men's wear; another, Nietzschean
philosophy. In all departments in which the various magazines specialize,
the public relations counsel may play an important part. For he may,
because of his client's interest, assist them to create the events which
further their propaganda. A bank, in order to emphasize the importance of
its women's department, may arrange to supply a leading women's magazine
with a series of articles and advice on investments written by the woman
expert in charge of this department. The women's magazine in turn will
utilize this new feature as a means of building additional prestige and
circulation. The lecture, once a powerful means of influencing public
opinion, has changed its value. The lecture itself may be only a symbol, a
ceremony; its importance, for propaganda purposes, lies in the fact that
it was delivered. Professor So-and-So, expounding an epoch-making
invention, may speak to five hundred persons, or only fifty. His lecture,
if it is important, will be broadcast; reports of it will appear in the
newspapers; discussion will be stimulated. The real value of the lecture,
from the propaganda point of view, is in its repercussion to the general
public. The radio is at present one of the most important tools of the
propagandist. Its future development is uncertain. It may compete with the
newspaper as an advertising medium. Its ability to reach millions of
persons simultaneously naturally appeals to the advertiser. And since the
average advertiser has a limited appropriation for advertising, money
spent on the radio will tend to be withdrawn from the newspaper. To what
extent is the publisher alive to this new phenomenon? It is bound to come
close to American journalism and publishing. Newspapers have recognized
the advertising potentialities of the companies that manufacture radio
apparatus, and of radio stores, large and small; and newspapers have
accorded to the radio in their news and feature columns an importance
relative to the increasing attention given by the public to radio. At the
same time, certain newspapers have bought radio stations and linked them
up with their news and entertainment distribution facilities, supplying
these two features over the air to the public.
83
It is possible that
newspaper chains will sell schedules of advertising space on the air and
on paper. Newspaper chains will possibly contract with advertisers for
circulation on paper and over the air. There are, at present, publishers
who sell space in the air and in their columns, but they regard the two as
separate ventures. Large groups, political, racial, sectarian, economic or
professional, are tending to control stations to propagandize their points
of view. Or is it conceivable that America may adopt the English licensing
system under which the listener, instead of the advertiser, pays? Whether
the present system is changed, the advertiser -and propagandist-must
necessarily adapt himself to it. Whether, in the future, air space will be
sold openly as such, or whether the message will reach the public in the
form of straight entertainment and news, or as special programs for
particular groups, the propagandist must be prepared to meet the
conditions and utilize them. The American motion picture is the greatest
unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world to-day. It is a great
distributor for ideas and opinions. The motion picture can standardize the
ideas and habits of a nation. Because pictures are made to meet market
demands, they reflect, emphasize and even exaggerate broad popular
tendencies, rather than stimulate new ideas and opinions. The motion
picture avails itself only of ideas and facts which are in vogue. As the
newspaper seeks to purvey news, it seeks to purvey entertainment. Another
instrument of propaganda is the personality. Has the device of the
exploited personality been pushed too far? President Coolidge
photo-graphed on his vacation in full Indian regalia in company with
full-blooded chiefs, was the climax of a greatly over-reported vacation.
Obviously a public personality can be made absurd by misuse of the very
mechanism which helped create it. Yet the vivid dramatization of
personality will always remain one of the functions of the public
relations counsel. The public instinctively demands a personality to
typify a conspicuous corporation or enterprise. There is a story that a
great financier discharged a partner because he had divorced his wife.
“But what,” asked the partner, “have my private affairs to do with the
banking business?” “If you are not capable of managing your own wife,” was
the reply, “the people will certainly believe that you are not capable of
managing their money.” The propagandist must treat personality as he would
treat any other objective fact within his province.
84
A personality may
create circumstances, as Lindbergh treated good will between the United
States and Mexico. Events may create a personality, as the Cuban War
created the political figure of Roosevelt. It is often difficult to say
which creates the other. Once a public figure has decided what ends he
wishes to achieve, he must regard himself objectively and present an
outward picture of himself which is consistent with his. real character
and his aims.
There are a multitude of other
avenues of approach to the public mind, some old, some new as television.
No attempt will be made to discuss each one separately. The school may
disseminate information concerning scientific facts. The fact that a
commercial concern may eventually profit from a widespread understanding
of its activities because of this does not condemn the dissemination of
such information, provided that the subject merits study on the part of
the students. If a baking corporation contributes pictures and charts to a
school to show how bread is made, these propaganda activities, if they are
accurate and candid, are in no way reprehensible, provided the school
authorities accept or reject such offers carefully on their educational
merits.
It may be that a new product will
be announced to the public by means of a motion picture of a parade taking
place a thousand miles away. Or the manufacturer of a new jitney airplane
may personally appear and speak in a million homes through radio and
television. The man who would most effectively transmit his message to the
public must be alert to make use of all the means of propaganda.
Undoubtedly the public is becoming
aware of the methods which are being used to mold its opinions and habits.
If the public is better informed about the processes of its own life, it
will be so much the more receptive to reasonable appeals to its own
interests. No matter how sophisticated, how cynical the public may become
about publicity methods, it must respond to the basic appeals, because it
will always need food, crave amusement, long for beauty, respond to
leadership.
If the public becomes more
intelligent in its commercial demands, commercial firms will meet the new
standards. If it becomes weary of the bid methods used to persuade it to
accept a given idea or commodity, its leaders will present their appeals
more intelligently.
Propaganda will never die out.
Intelligent men must realize that propaganda is the modern instrument by
which they can fight for productive ends and help to bring order out of
chaos.
THE END
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
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.
Our experienced
debt elimination service professionals have been
helping people with debt elimination,
tax freedom, and
credit repair for over
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click here.
This
Real Debt Elimination
information is
for the purpose of education and broadening horizons ONLY.
See
Real Debt Elimination links
© 2007, Allen Aslan Heart / White Eagle Soaring of the Little Shell Pembina Band,
a
Treaty
Tribe of the Ojibwe Nation
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