Edward Bernays, een neef van Sigmund Freud, wordt ook wel de vader van de propaganda genoemd. Hij schreef zelfs een boek met die naam. Bernays leerde zowel overheden als bedrijven om via propaganda hun doelen te bereiken. Eén van zijn belangrijkste prestaties was een campagne om vrouwen aan het roken te krijgen. De Lucky Strike werd zelfs een icoon van het feminisme. Overigens was er nauwelijks tegenkanting van de artsenverenigingen van die tijd, integendeel. Bernays was ook een tijdlang de adviseur van William Paley, Amerikaans zakenman en oprichter van CBS.

Reden genoeg dus om zijn twee boeken even onder de loep te houden. Vooraleer we eraan beginnen, nog deze video van Brad Zerbo, over de onschatbare rol die Bernays heeft gepeeld:

 

• Propaganda, aldus Bernays, de bewuste manipulatie van de gewoonen en opvattingen van de massa, is een belangrijk element in een democratische samenleving. Diegene die propanda bedrijven vormen een "onzichtbare overheid": 
  The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. Our invisible governors are,in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.
  It is not usually realized how necessary these invisible governors are tothe orderly functioning of our group life. In theory, every citizen mayvote for whom he pleases. Our Constitution does not envisage politicalparties as part of the mechanism of government, and its framers seemnot to have pictured to themselves the existence in our national politicsof anything like the modern political machine. But the American voterssoon found that without organization and direction their individualvotes, cast, perhaps, for dozens of hundreds of candidates, wouldproduce nothing but confusion. Invisible government, in the shape ofrudimentary political parties, arose almost overnight. Ever since then we have agreed, for the sake of simplicity and practicality, that party machines should narrow down the field of choice to two candidates, or at most three or four.
• In een democratie moet de keuze dan ook beperk worden, anders is er alleen maar verwarring. Bij voorkeur tot twee kandidaten, maximaal drie of vier. Een goed functionerende democratie vereist dus een inperking van de keuzevrijheid (maar is het dan nog wel een democratie?
  We (wie is we?) have voluntarily (oh ja?) agreed to let an invisible government sift the data and high-spot the outstanding issue so that our field of choice shall be narrowed to practical proportions.
• Propagana moet ook onze keuzes op de markt "begeleiden" want ook anders is er enkel maar verwarring (de hoogmoed waarmee neergekeken wordt op burger en consument is werkelijk adembenemend, maar helaas realiteit):
  In theory, everybody buys the best and cheapest commodities off eredhim on the market. In practice, if everyone went around pricing, and chemically tasting before purchasing, the dozens of soaps or fabrics or brands of bread which are for sale, economic life would be hopelessly jammed. To avoid such confusion, society consents to have its choice narrowed to ideas and objects brought to it attention through propaganda of all kinds.
• Onze keuzes worden idealiter voor ons gemaakt door onze bestuurders, maar aangezien we niet die weg zijn opgegaan, maar die van "open competitie", kunnen we niet anders dan die competitie in te perken via propaganda:
  It might be better to have, instead of propaganda and special pleading,committees of wise men who would choose our rulers, dictate ourconduct, private and public, and decide upon the best types of clothes for us to wear and the best kinds of food for us to eat. But we havechosen the opposite method, that of open competition. We must fi nd away to make free competition function with reasonable smoothness. Toachieve this society has consented to permit free competition to beorganized by leadership and propaganda. Some of the phenomena ofthis process are criticized—the manipulation of news, the infl ation ofpersonality, and the general ballyhoo by which politicians andcommercial products and social ideas are brought to the consciousnessof the masses. The instruments by which public opinion is organized and focused may be misused. But such organization and focusing arenecessary to orderly life.
• Propaganda moet ook de verschillen tussen verschillende groepen zo veel als mogelijk verkleinen en vervangen door gemeenschappelijke doelen (klimaatverandering iemand?):
  When the Constitution was adopted, the unit of organization was thevillage community, which produced the greater part of its ownnecessary commodities and generated its group ideas and opinions bypersonal contact and discussion among its citizens. But today, becauseideas can be instantaneously transmitted to any distance and to anynumber of people, this geographical integration has beensupplemented by many other kinds of grouping, so that persons having the same ideas and interests may be associated and regimented forcommon action even though they live thousands of miles apart.
• Bernays gaf de globalisten met andere woorden de pap in de mond. Bernays had het over de V.S. maar natuurlijk kan dat ook op globale schaal worden toegepast:
  Today, however, a reaction has set in. The minority has discovered apowerful help in infl uencing majorities. It has been found possible so tomold the mind of the masses that they will throw their newly gainedstrength in the desired direction. In the present structure of society, thispractice is inevitable. Whatever of social importance is done today,whether in politics, fi nance, manufacture, agriculture, charity, education,or other fi elds, must be done with the help of propaganda. Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.
• Propaganda moet natuurlijk ook gebruikt worden om een geloof of doctrine op te dringen aan de gehele bevolking:
  But instead of a mind,universal literacy has given him rubber stamps, rubber stamps inkedwith advertising slogans, with editorials, with published scientifi c data,with the trivialities of the tabloids and the platitudes of history, but quite innocent of original thought. Each man’s rubber stamps are the duplicates of millions of others, so that when those millions are exposed to the same stimuli, all received identical imprints. It may seem an exaggeration to say that the American public gets most of its ideas in this wholesale fashion. The mechanism by which ideas are disseminatedon a large scale is propaganda, in the broad sense of an organizedeffort to spread a particular belief or doctrine.
  The extent to which propaganda shapes the progress of aff airs about usmay surprise even well informed persons. Nevertheless, it is only necessary to look under the surface of the newspaper for a hint as topropaganda’s authority over public opinion. Page one of the New YorkTimes on the day these paragraphs are written contains eight important news stories. Four of them, or one-half, are propaganda. The casual reader accepts them as accounts of spontaneous happenings. But are they? Here are the headlines which announce them: “TWELVE NATIONSWARN CHINA REAL REFORM MUST COME BEFORE THEY GIVE RELIEF,”“PRITCHETT REPORTS ZIONISM WILL FAIL,” “REALTY MEN DEMAND ATRANSIT INQUIRY,” “OUR LIVING STANDARD HIGHEST IN HISTORY,SAYS HOOVER REPORT.”
  Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to infl uence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group.
• Zowel vrouwen als mannen zijn even gevoelig voor propaganda (vandaag de dag, zou je kunnen argumenten, zelfs meer, vooral jonge vrouwen):
  Women are just as subject to the commands of invisible government as men. A silk manufacturer, seeking a new market for its product,suggested to a large manufacturer of shoes that women’s shoes shouldbe covered with silk to match their dresses. The idea was adopted andsystematically propagandized. A popular actress was persuaded to wearthe shoes. The fashion spread. The shoe firm was ready with the supply to meet thee 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.
  Diff erent men rule us in the various departments of our lives. There maybe one power behind the throne in politics, another in themanipulations of the Federal discount rate, and still another in thedictation of next season’s dances. If there were a national invisiblecabinet ruling our destinies (a thing which is not impossible to conceiveof), it would work through certain group leaders on Tuesday for onepurpose, and through an entirely diff erent set on Wednesday foranother. The idea of invisible government is relative. There may be ahandful of men who control the educational methods of the greatmajority of our schools. Yet from another standpoint, every parent is agroup leader with authority over his or her children. The invisiblegovernment tends to be concentrated in the hands of the few becauseof the expense of manipulating the social machinery which controls theopinions and habits of the masses. To advertise on a scale which willreach fi fty million persons is expensive. To reach and persuade thegroup leaders who dictate the public’s thoughts and actions is likewiseexpensive.
• Het bedrijfsleven is volledig afhankelijk van de publieke opinie en dus van propaganda:
  Even in a basic sense, business is becoming dependent on public opinion. With the increasing volume and wider diff usion of wealth in America, thousands of persons now invest in industrial stocks. Newstock or bond flotations, upon which an expanding business mustdepend for its success, can be eff ected only if the concern hasunderstood how to gain the confi dence and good will of the genera lpublic. Business must express itself and its entire corporate existence sothat the public will understand and accept it. It must dramatize itspersonality and interpret its objectives in every particular in which itcomes into contact with the community (or the nation) of which it is apart. An oil corporation which truly understands its many-sided relationto the public, will off er that public not only good oil but a sound labor policy. A bank will seek to show not only that its management is soundand conservative, but also that its offi cers are honorable both in theirpublic and in their private life. A store specializing in fashionable men’s clothing will express in its architecture the authenticity of the goods it offers. A bakery will seek to impress the public with the hygienic careobserved in its manufacturing process, not only by wrapping its loavesin dust-proof paper and throwing its factory open to public inspection,but also by the cleanliness and attractiveness of its delivery wagons. A construction fi rm will take care that the public knows not only that itsbuildings are durable and safe, but also that its employees, when injured at work, are compensated. At whatever point a businessenterprise impinges on the public consciousness, it must seek to give its public relations the particular character which will conform to the objectives which it is pursuing.
  The public is not an amorphous mass which can be molded at will, ordictated to. Both business and the public have their own personalities which must somehow be brought into friendly agreement. Confl ict and suspicion are injurious to both. Modern business must study on whatterms the partnership can be made amicable and mutually benefi cial. Itmust explain itself, its aims, its objectives, to the public in terms whichthe public can understand and is willing to accept.
• Bernays had zelfs zijn marxistische kant met de opmerking dat de grote ondernemingen alleen maar groter willen worden (accumulatie van kapitaal). Dus ze komen met steeds meer mensen in contact dus PR wordt alsmaar belangrijker:
  The tendency of big business is to get bigger. Through mergers andmonopolies it is constantly increasing the number of persons with whom it is in direct contact. All this has intensifi ed and multiplied the public relationships of business. The responsibilities are of many kinds.There is a responsibility to the stockholders—numbering perhaps fi vepersons or fi ve hundred thousand—who have entrusted their money tothe concern and have the right to know how the money is being used. Aconcern which is fully aware of its responsibility toward its stockholders,will furnish them with frequent letters urging them to use the productin which their money is invested, and use their infl uence to promote itssale. It has a responsibility toward the dealer which it may express byinviting him, at its expense, to visit the home factory. It has a responsibility toward the industry as a whole which should restrain it from making exaggerated and unfair selling claims. It has a responsibility toward the retailer, and will see to it that its salesmenexpress the quality of the product which they have to sell. There is aresponsibility toward the consumer, who is pressed by a clean and wellmanaged factory, open to his inspection. And the general public, apartfrom its function as a potential consumer, is infl uenced in its attitudetoward the concern by what it knows of that concern’s fi nancialdealings, its labor policy, even by the livableness of the houses in whichits employees dwell. There is no detail too trivial to infl uence the publicin a favorable or unfavorable sense. The personality of the president may be a matter of importance, for he perhaps dramatizes the whole concern to the public mind. It may be very important to what charities he contributes, in what civic societies he holds office. If he is a leader in his industry, the public may demand that he be a leader in his community.
• Bernays dan ook kan als de grondlegger worden beschouwd voor het idee van de "sociale verantwoordelijkheid van de ondernemer" en van de ondernemer als filantroop. Later omgevormd in concepten zoals "stakeholder capitalism" (World Economic Forum, Blackrock) en "inclusive capitalism" (Paus Fransciscus, Lynn Forsester de Rothschild en het grootkapitaal). Doel: publieke opinie warm te maken voor het grootkapitaal en voor Big Business (want ze menen het toch oh zo goed met ons, terwijl ze intussen doorgaan met hun kapitaalaccumulatie in hun handen):
  Public opinion is no longer inclined to be unfavorable to the large business merger. It resents the censorship of business by the Federal Trade Commission. It has broken down the anti-trust laws where it thinks they hinder economic development. It backs great trusts andmergers which it excoriated a decade ago. The government now permits large aggregations of producing and distributing units, as evidenced bymergers among railroads and other public utilities, becauserepresentative government refl ects public opinion. Public opinion itself fosters the growth of mammoth industrial enterprises. In the opinion of millions of small investors, mergers and trusts are friendly giants andnot ogres, because of the economies, mainly due to quantityproduction, which they have eff ected, and can pass on to the consumer.This result has been, to a great extent, obtained by a deliberate use ofpropaganda in its broadest sense. It was obtained not only by modifying the opinion of the public, as the governments modifi ed and marshaled the opinion of their publics during the war, but often by modifying the business concern itself. A cement company may work with roadcommissions gratuitously to maintain testing laboratories in order toensure the best-quality roads to the public. A gas company maintains afree school of cookery. But it would be rash and unreasonable to take itfor granted that because public opinion has come over to the side of bigbusiness, it will always remain there. Only recently, Professor W. Z.Ripley of Harvard University, one of the foremost national authoritieson business organization and practice, exposed certain aspects of big business which tended to undermine public confi dence in largecorporations. He pointed out that the stockholder’s supposed voting power is often illusory; that annual financial statements are sometimes so brief and summary that to the man in the street they are downright misleading; that the extension of the system of non-voting shares oftenplaces the eff ective control of corporations and their finances in the hands of a small clique of stockholders; and that some corporationsrefuse to give out suffi cient information to permit the public to know the true condition of the concern. Furthermore, no matter howfavorable disposed the public be toward big business in general, theutilities are always fair game for public discontent and need to maintaingood will with the greatest care and watchfulness. These and othercorporations of a semi-public character will always have to face ademand for government or municipal ownership if such attacks as thoseof Professor Ripley are continued and are, in the public’s opinion,justifi ed, unless conditions are changed and care is taken to maintainthe contact with the public at all points of their corporate existence.
• Propaganda kan ook gebruikt worden om ook ethische problemen met reclamevoering op te lossen:
  Propaganda is potent in meeting unethical or unfair advertising.Eff ective advertising has become more costly than ever before. Yearsago, when the country was smaller and there was no tremendousadvertising machinery, it was comparatively easy to get country-widerecognition for a product. A corps of traveling salesmen might persuadethe retailers, with a few cigars and a repertory of funny stories, todisplay and recommend their article on a nationwide scale. Today, asmall industry is swamped unless it can fi nd appropriate and relativelyinexpensive means of making known the special virtues of its product,while larger industries have sought to overcome the diffi culty bycooperative advertising, in which associations of industries competewith other associations. Mass advertising has produced new kinds ofcompetition. Competition between rival products in the same line is, ofcourse, as old as economic life itself. In recent years much has been saidof the new competition, we have discussed it in a previous chapter,between one group of products and another. Stone competes againstwood for building; linoleum against carpets; oranges against apples; tinagainst asbestos for roofi ng. This type of competition has beenhumorously illustrated by Mr. O. H. Cheney, Vice President of the American Exchange and Irving Trust Company of New York, in aspeech before the Chicago Business Forum. “Do you represent themillinery trades?” said Mr. Cheney. “The man at your side may serve thefur industry, and by promoting the style of big fur collars on women’scoats he is ruining the hat business by forcing women to wear small andinexpensive hats. You may be interested in the ankles of the fair sex—Imean, you may represent the silk hosiery industry. You have two braverivals who are ready to fi ght to the death—to spend millions in the fi ght—for the glory of those ankles—the leather industry, which has suff eredfrom the low-show vogue, and the fabrics manufacturers, who yearn forthe good old days when skirts were skirts.
• Amusement is ook business, en ook zij hebben propaganda perfect leren te gebruiken:
  Amusement, too, is a business—one of the largest in America. It was theamusement business—fi rst the circus and the medicine show, then thetheater—which taught the rudiments of advertising to industry and commerce. The latter adopted the ballyhoo of the show business. But under the stress of practical experience it adapted and refines these crude advertising methods to the precise ends it sought to obtain. The theater has, in its turn, learned from business, and has refined its publicity methods to the point where the old stentorian methods are in the discard.
  The modern publicity director of a theater syndicate or a motion picturetrust is a business man, responsible for the security of tens or hundredsof millions of dollars of invested capital. He cannot aff ord to be a stuntartist or a freelance adventurer in publicity. He must know his publicaccurately and modify its thoughts and actions by means of themethods which the amusement world has learned from its old pupil, big business. As public knowledge increases and public taste improves,business must be ready to meet them halfway. Modern business musthave its fi nger continuously on the public pulse. It must understand thechanges in the public mind and be prepared to interpret itself fairly andeloquently to changing opinion.
• Politici, helaas, liepen nog achter in de tijd van Bernays. Gelukkig is ook dat veranderd.
  Unfortunately, the methods of our contemporary politicians, in dealingwith the public, are as archaic and ineff ective as the advertisingmethods of business in 1900 would be today. While politics was the fi rstimportant department of American life to use propaganda on a largescale, it has been the slowest in modifying its propaganda methods tomeet the changed conditions of the public mind. American business fi rstlearned from politics the methods of appealing to the broad public. Butit continually improved those methods in the course of its competitivestruggle, while politics clung to the old formulas.
• En wat de rol van het onderwijs in dit alles?
  Education is not securing its proper share of public interest. The publicschool system, materially and fi nancially, is being adequately supported.There is marked eagerness for a college education, and a vagueaspiration for culture, expressed in innumerable courses and lectures.The public is not cognizant of the real value of education, and does notrealize that education as a social force is not receiving the kind ofattention it has the right to expect in a democracy. It is felt, forexample, that education is entitled to more space in the newspapers;that well informed discussion of education hardly exists; that unlesssuch an issue as the Gary School system is created, or outside of anoccasional discussion, such as that aroused over Harvard’s decision toestablish a school of business, education does not attract the activeinterest 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 tostimulate to thought the individual students in his classroom, but hasnot been trained as an educator at large of the public.
  There is still another potential solution of the problem. It is possiblethrough an education propaganda aiming to develop greater socialconsciousness on the part of the people of the country, there may beawakened in the minds of men of aff airs, as a class, social consciousnesswhich will produce more minds of the type of Julius Rosenwald, V.Everitt Macy, John D. Rockefeller Jr., the late Willard Straight. Manycolleges have already developed intelligent propaganda in order tobring them into active and continuous relation with the general public.A defi nite technique has been developed in their relation to thecommunity in the form of college news bureaus. These bureaus have formed an intercollegiate association whose members meet once a yearto discuss their problems. These problems include the education of thealumnus and his eff ect upon the general public and upon specifi cgroups, the education of the future student to the choice of theparticular college, the maintenance of an esprit de corps so that theathletic prowess of the college will not be placed fi rst, the developmentof some familiarity with the research work done in the college in orderto attract the attention of those who may be able to lend aid, thedevelopment of an understanding of the aims and the work of theinstitution in order to attract special endowments for specifi edpurposes. Some seventy-fi ve of these bureaus are now affi liated withthe American Association of College News Bureaus, including those ofYale, Wellesley, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Western Reserve, Tufts, andCalifornia. A bimonthly news letter is published, bringing to membersthe news of their profession. The Association endeavors to uphold theethical standards of the profession and aims to work in harmony withthe press. The National Education Association and other societies arecarrying on a defi nite propaganda to promote the larger purposes ofeducation endeavor. One of the aims of such propaganda is of courseimprovement in the prestige and material position of the teachersthemselves. An occasional McAndrew case calls the attention of thepublic to the fact that in some schools the teacher is far from enjoyingfull academic freedom, while in certain communities the choice ofteachers is based upon political or sectarian considerations rather thanupon real ability. If such issues were made, by means of propaganda, tobecome a matter of public concern on a truly national scale, therewould doubtless be a general tendency to improvement.
  Social progress is simply the progressive education and enlightenmentof the public mind in regard to its immediate and distant socialproblems.
• En dan is er natuurlijk ook nog kunst en Wetenschap:
  As in art, so in science, both pure and applied. Pure science was onceguarded and fostered by learned societies and scientifi c associations.Now pure science fi nds 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 scientifi c study, for the sakeof one golden invention or discovery which may emerge from it. Bigbusiness of course gains heavily when the invention emerges. But atthat very moment it assumes the responsibility of placing the newinvention at the service of the public. It assumes also the responsibilityof interpreting its meaning to the public. The industrial interests canfurnish to the schools, the colleges, and the postgraduate universitycourses the exact truth concerning the scientifi c progress of our age.They not only can do so; they are under obligation to do so. Propagandaas an instrument of commercial competition has opened opportunitiesto the inventor and given great stimulus to the research scientist. In thelast fi ve or ten years, the successes of some of the larger corporationshave been so outstanding that they whole fi eld of science has received atremendous impetus. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company,the Western Electric Company, the General Electric Company, theWestinghouse Electric Company and others have realized theimportance of scientifi c research. They have also understood that theirideas 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, byrepeatedly interpreting new scientifi c ideas and inventions to the public,has made the public more receptive. Propaganda is accustoming thepublic to change and progress.

Tot zover Propaganda. Enkele stukken nog uit Crystallizing Public Opinion:

An illustration which embodies most of the technical and psychological points of interest in the preceding incidents may be found in Lithuania’scampaign in this country in 1919, for popular sympathy and offi cialrecognition. Lithuania was of considerable political importance in thereorganization of Europe, but it was a country little known orunderstood by the American public. An added diffi culty was the factthat the independence of Lithuania would interfere seriously with theplans which France had for the establishment of a strong Poland. Therewere excellent historical, ethnic and economic reasons why, if Lithuaniabroke off from Russia, it should be allowed to stand on its own feet. Onthe other hand there were powerful political infl uences which wereagainst such a result. The American attitude on the question ofLithuanian independence, it was felt, would play an important part. Thequestion was how to arouse popular and offi cial interest in Lithuania’saspirations. A Lithuanian National Council was organized, composed ofprominent American-Lithuanians, and a Lithuanian Information Bureau established to act as a clearing house for news about Lithuania and forspecial pleading on behalf of Lithuania’s ambitions. The public relations counsel who was retained to direct this work recognized that the fi rstproblem to be solved was America’s indiff erence to and ignorance aboutLithuania and its desires. He had an exhaustive study made of everyconceivable aspect of the problem of Lithuania from its remote andrecent history and ethnic origins to its present-day marriage customsand its popular recreations. He divided his material into its variouscategories, based primarily on the public to which it would probablymake its appeal. For the amateur ethnologist he provided interestingand accurate data of the racial origins of Lithuania. To the student oflanguages he appealed with authentic and well written studies of thedevelopment of the Lithuanian language from its origins in the Sanskrit.He told the “sporting fan” about Lithuanian sports and told Americanwomen about Lithuanian clothes. He told the jeweler about amber and provided the music lover with concerts of Lithuanian music. To thesenators, he gave facts about Lithuania which would give them basis forfavorable action. To the members of the House of Representatives hedid likewise. He refl ected to those communities whose crystallizedopinion would be helpful in guiding other opinions, facts which gavethem basis for conclusions favorable to Lithuania. A series of eventswhich would carry with them the desired implications were planned andexecuted. Mass meetings were held in diff erent cities; petitions weredrawn, signed and presented; pilgrims made calls upon Senate andHouse of Representatives Committees. All the avenues of approach tothe public were utilized to capitalize the public interest and bring publicaction. 

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company devotes eff ort tostudying its public relations problems, not only to increase its volume of business, but also to create a cooperative spirit between itself and the public. The work of the telephone company’s operators, statistics, calls,lineage, installations are given to the public in various forms. During the war and for a period afterwards its main problem was that of satisfyingthe public that its service was necessarily below standard because of thepeculiar national conditions. The public, in response to the eff orts of thecompany, which were analogous to a gracious personal apology,accepted more or less irksome conditions as a matter of course. Had thecompany not cared about the public, the public would undoubtedly have been unpleasantly insistent upon a maintenance of the pre-warstandards of service.
Note:

The mental equipment of the average individual consists of a mass ofjudgments on most of the subjects which touch his daily physical ormental life. These judgments are the tools of his daily being and yetthey are his judgments, not on a basis of research and logical deduction,but for the most part dogmatic expressions accepted on the authorityof his parents, his teachers, his church, and of his social, his economicand other leaders. 

Harvard University, likewise, appreciating the power of public opinionover its own activities, has recently appointed a counsel on publicrelations to make its aims clear to the public. The institutions whichmake public opinion conform to the demands of the public. The publicresponds to an equally large degree to these institutions. Such fi ghts asthat made by Collier’s Weekly for pure food control show this. TheSafety First movement, by its use of every form of appeal, from posterto circular, from lecture to law enforcement, from motion pictures to“safety weeks,” is bringing about a gradual change in the attitude of asafety-deserving public towards the taking of unnecessary risks. TheRockefeller Foundation, confronted with the serious problem of thehookworm in the South and in other localities, has brought about achange in the habits of large sections of rural populations by analysis,investigation, applied medical principles, and public education. Themoulder of public opinion must enlist the established point of view. Thisis true of the press as well as of other forces. Mr. Mencken mixescynicism and truth when he declares that the chief diffi culty confrontinga newspaper which tries to carry out independent and thoughtfulpolicies “does not lie in the direction of the board of directors, but in thedirection of the public which buys the paper.”* The New York Tribune, asan example of editorial bravery, points out in an advertisementpublished May 23, 1922, that though “news knows no order in themaking” and though “a newspaper must carry the news, both pleasantand unpleasant,” nevertheless, it is the duty of any newspaper to realizethat there is a possibility of selective action, and that “in times of stressand bleak despair a newspaper has a hard and fast duty to perform inkeeping up the morale of the community.” Indeed, the instances arefrequent and accessible to the recollection of any reader in which newspapers have consciously maintained a point of view toward whichthe public is either hostile or cold.