By
EDWARD L. BERNAYS
1928
CONTENTS
I. ORGANIZING CHAOS .................................................. 9
II. THE NEW PROPAGANDA............................................ 19
III. THE NEW PROPAGANDISTS .... 32
IV. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC RELATIONS 47
V. BUSINESS AND THE PUBLIC .... 62
VI. PROPAGANDA AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP 92
VII. WOMEN'S ACTIVITIES AND PROPAGANDA 115
VIII. PROPAGANDA FOR EDUCATION . . 121
IX. PROPAGANDA IN SOCIAL SERVICE . . 135
X. ART AND SCIENCE..................................................... 141
XI. THE MECHANICS OF PROPAGANDA . . 150
CHAPTER I
ORGANIZING CHAOS
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 are 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.
They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership,
their ability to supply needed ideas and by their
key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude
one chooses to take toward this condition, it
remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily
lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business,
in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are
9
Propaganda
dominated by the relatively small number of persons
a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty
millionwho understand the mental processes and
social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the
wires which control the public mind, who harness old
social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide
the world.
It is not usually realized how necessary these invisible
governors are to the orderly functioning of
our group life. In theory, every citizen may vote
for whom he pleases. Our Constitution does not
envisage political parties as part of the mechanism
of government, and its framers seem not to have
pictured to themselves the existence in our national
politics of anything like the modern political machine.
But the American voters soon found that
without organization and direction their individual
votes, cast, perhaps, for dozens or hundreds of candidates,
would produce nothing but confusion. Invisible
government, in the shape of rudimentary
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 theory, every citizen makes up his mind on
public questions and matters of private conduct. In
practice, if all men had to study for themselves the
abstruse economic, political, and ethical data involved
10
Organizing Chaos
in every question, they would find it impossible to
come to a conclusion about anything. We have
voluntarily agreed to let an invisible government
sift the data and high-spot the outstanding issues so
that our field of choice shall be narrowed to practical
proportions. From our leaders and the media they
use to reach the public, we accept the evidence and
the demarcation of issues bearing upon public questions;
from some ethical teacher, be it a minister, a
favorite essayist, or merely prevailing opinion, we
accept a standardized code of social conduct to which
we conform most of the time.
In theory, everybody buys the best and cheapest
commodities offered him on the market. In practice,
if every one went around pricing, and chemically
testing before purchasing, the dozens of soaps or
fabrics or brands of bread which are for sale, economic
life would become hopelessly jammed. To
avoid such confusion, society consents to have its
choice narrowed to ideas and objects brought to its
attention through propaganda of all kinds. There
is consequently a vast and continuous effort going on
to capture our minds in the interest of some policy or
commodity or idea.
It might be better to have, instead of propaganda
and special pleading, committees of wise men who
would choose our rulers, dictate our conduct, private
and public, and decide upon the best types of clothes
for us to wear and the best kinds of food for us to
11
Propaganda
eat. But we have chosen the opposite method, that
of open competition. We must find a way to make
free competition function with reasonable smoothness.
To achieve this society has consented to permit
free competition to be organized by leadership and
propaganda.
Some of the phenomena of this process are criticized
the manipulation of news, the inflation of
personality, and the general ballyhoo by which politicians
and commercial products and social ideas are
brought to the consciousness of the masses. The instruments
by which public opinion is organized and
focused may be misused. But such organization and
focusing are necessary to orderly life.
As civilization has become more complex, and as
the need for invisible government has been increasingly
demonstrated, the technical means have been
invented and developed by which opinion may be
regimented.
With the printing press and the newspaper, the
railroad, the telephone, telegraph, radio and airplanes,
ideas can be spread rapidly and even instantaneously
over the whole of America.
H. G. Wells senses the vast potentialities of these
inventions when he writes in the New York Times:
"Modern means of communicationthe power
afforded by print, telephone, wireless and so forth,
of rapidly putting through directive strategic or technical
conceptions to a great number of cooperating
12
Organizing Chaos
centers, of getting quick replies and effective discussion
have opened up a new world of political processes.
Ideas and phrases can now be given an
effectiveness greater than the effectiveness of any
personality and stronger than any sectional interest.
The common design can be documented and sustained
against perversion and betrayal. It can be elaborated
and developed steadily and widely without personal,
local and sectional misunderstanding."
What Mr. Wells says of political processes is
equally true of commercial and social processes and
all manifestations of mass activity. The groupings
and affiliations of society to-day are no longer subject
to "local and sectional" limitations. When the Constitution
was adopted, the unit of organization was
the village community, which produced the greater
part of its own necessary commodities and generated
its group ideas and opinions by personal contact and
discussion directly among its citizens. But to-day,
because ideas can be instantaneously transmitted to
any distance and to any number of people, this geographical
integration has been supplemented by many
other kinds of grouping, so that persons having the
same ideas and interests may be associated and regimented
for common action even though they live
thousands of miles apart.
It is extremely difficult to realize how many and
diverse are these cleavages in our society. They may
be social, political, economic, racial, religious or eth-
13
Propaganda
ical, with hundreds of subdivisions of each. In the
World Almanac, for example, the following groups
are listed under the A's:
The League to Abolish Capital Punishment; Association
to Abolish War; American Institute of
Accountants; Actors' Equity Association; Actuarial
Association of America; International Advertising
Association; National Aeronautic Association; Albany
Institute of History and Art; Amen Corner;
American Academy in Rome; American Antiquarian
Society; League for American Citizenship; American
Federation of Labor; Amorc (Rosicrucian Order);
Andiron Club; American-Irish Historical
Association; Anti-Cigarette League; Anti-Profanity
League; Archeological Association of America; National
Archery Association; Arion Singing Society;
American Astronomical Association; Ayrshire Breeders'
Association; Aztec Club of 1847. There are
many more under the "A" section of this very
limited list.
The American Newspaper Annual and Directory
for 1928 lists 22,128 periodical publications in
America. I have selected at random the N's published
in Chicago. They are:
Narod (Bohemian daily newspaper); Narod-Polski
(Polish monthly); N.A.R.D. (pharmaceutical);
National Corporation Reporter; National Culinary
Progress (for hotel chefs); National Dog Journal;
National Drug Clerk; National Engineer; National
14
Organizing Chaos
Grocer; National Hotel Reporter; National Income
Tax Magazine; National Jeweler; National Journal
of Chiropractic; National Live Stock Producer;
National Miller; National Nut News; National
Poultry, Butter and Egg Bulletin; National Provisioner
(for meat packers); National Real Estate
Journal; National Retail Clothier; National Retail
Lumber Dealer; National Safety News; National
Spiritualist; National Underwriter; The Nation's
Health; Naujienos (Lithuanian daily newspaper);
New Comer (Republican weekly for Italians);
Daily News; The New World (Catholic weekly);
North American Banker; North American Veterinarian.
The circulation of some of these publications is
astonishing. The National Live Stock Producer has
a sworn circulation of 155,978; The National Engineer,
of 20,328; The New World, an estimated
circulation of 67,000. The greater number of the
periodicals listedchosen at random from among
22,128have a circulation in excess of 10,000.
The diversity of these publications is evident at a
glance. Yet they can only faintly suggest the multitude
of cleavages which exist in our society, and
along which flow information and opinion carrying
authority to the individual groups.
Here are the conventions scheduled for Cleveland,
Ohio, recorded in a single recent issue of "World
15
Propaganda
Cenvention Dates"a fraction of the 5,500 conventions
and rallies scheduled.
The Employing Photo-Engravers' Association of
America; The Outdoor Writers' Association; the
Knights of St. John; the Walther League; The National
Knitted Outerwear Association; The Knights
of St. Joseph; The Royal Order of Sphinx; The
Mortgage Bankers' Association; The International
Association of Public Employment Officials; The
Kiwanis Clubs of Ohio; The American Photo-Engravers'
Association; The Cleveland Auto Manufacturers
Show; The American Society of Heating and
Ventilating Engineers.
Other conventions to be held in 1928 were those
of:
The Association of Limb Manufacturers' Associations;
The National Circus Fans' Association of
America; The American Naturopathic Association;
The American Trap Shooting Association; The
Texas Folklore Association; The Hotel Greeters;
The Fox Breeders' Association; The Insecticide and
Disinfectant Association; The National Association
of Egg Case and Egg Case Filler Manufacturers;
The American Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages;
and The National Pickle Packers' Association, not to
mention the Terrapin Derbymost of them with
banquets and orations attached.
If all these thousands of formal organizations and
institutions could be listed (and no complete list has
16
Organizing Chaos
ever been made), they would still represent but a
part of those existing less formally but leading
vigorous lives. Ideas are sifted and opinions stereotyped
in the neighborhood bridge club. Leaders
assert their authority through community drives and
amateur theatricals. Thousands of women may unconsciously
belong to a sorority which follows the
fashions set by a single society leader.
"Life" satirically expresses this idea in the reply
which it represents an American as giving to the
Britisher who praises this country for having no
upper and lower classes or castes:
"Yeah, all we have is the Four Hundred, the
White-Collar Men, Bootleggers, Wall Street Barons,
Criminals, the D.A.R., the K.K.K., the Colonial
Dames, the Masons, Kiwanis and Rotarians, the K.
of C, the Elks, the Censors, the Cognoscenti, the
Morons, Heroes like Lindy, the W.C.T.U., Politicians,
Menckenites, the Booboisie, Immigrants,
Broadcasters, andthe Rich and Poor."
Yet it must be remembered that these thousands
of groups interlace. John Jones, besides being a
Rotarian, is member of a church, of a fraternal order,
of a political party, of a charitable organization, of
a professional association, of a local chamber of
commerce, of a league for or against prohibition or
of a society for or against lowering the tariff, and of
a golf club. The opinions which he receives as a
17
Propaganda
Rotarian, he will tend to disseminate in the other
groups in which he may have influence.
This invisible, intertwining structure of groupings
and associations is the mechanism by which democracy
has organized its group mind and simplified its
mass thinking. To deplore the existence of such a
mechanism is to ask for a society such as never was
and never will be. To admit that it easts, but expect
that it shall not be used, is unreasonable.
Emil Ludwig represents Napoleon as "ever on
the watch for indications of public opinion; always
listening to the voice of the people, a voice which
defies calculation. 'Do you know,' he said in those
days, 'what amazes me more than all else? The
impotence of force to organize anything.'"
It is the purpose of this book to explain the structure
of the mechanism which controls the public
mind, and to tell how it is manipulated by the special
pleader who seeks to create public acceptance for a
particular idea or commodity. It will attempt at the
same time to find the due place in the modern democratic
scheme for this new propaganda and to suggest
its gradually evolving code of ethics and practice.
18
CHAPTER II
THE NEW PROPAGANDA
IN the days when kings were kings, Louis XIV
made his modest remark, "L'Etat c'est moi." He
was nearly right.
But times have changed. The steam engine, the
multiple press, and the public school, that trio of the
industrial revolution, have taken the power away
from kings and given it to the people. The people
actually gained power which the king lost For
economic power tends to draw after it political
power; and the history of the industrial revolution
shows how that power passed from the king and the
aristocracy to the bourgeoisie. Universal suffrage
and universal schooling reinforced this tendency, and
at last even the bourgeoisie stood in fear of the common
people. For the masses promised to become
king.
To-day, however, a reaction has set in. The minority
has discovered a powerful help in influencing
majorities. It has been found possible so to mold
the mind of the masses that they will throw
their newly gained strength in the desired direction.
In the present structure of society, this practice is
inevitable. Whatever of social importance is done
19
Propaganda
to-day, whether in politics, finance, manufacture, agriculture,
charity, education, or other fields, must be
done with the help of propaganda. Propaganda is
the executive arm of the invisible government
Universal literacy was supposed to educate the
common man to control his environment. Once
he could read and write he would have a mind fit to
rule. So ran the democratic doctrine. But instead
of a mind, universal literacy has given him rubber
stamps, rubber stamps inked with advertising slogans,
with editorials, with published scientific 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 receive 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 disseminated on a
large scale is propaganda, in the broad sense of
an organized effort to spread a particular belief or
doctrine.
I am aware that the word "propaganda" carries to
many minds an unpleasant connotation. Yet whether,
in any instance, propaganda is good or bad depends
upon the merit of the cause urged, and the correctness
of the information published.
In itself, the word "propaganda" has certain technical
meanings which, like most things in this world,
20
The New Propaganda
are "neither good nor bad but custom makes them
so." I find the word defined in Funk and Wagnalls'
Dictionary in four ways:
"1. A society of cardinals, the overseers of foreign
missions; also the College of the Propaganda at
Rome founded by Pope Urban VIII in 1627 for the
education of missionary priests; Sacred College de
Propaganda Fide.
"2. Hence, any institution or scheme for propagating
a doctrine or system.
"3. Effort directed systematically toward the
gaining of public support for an opinion or a course
of action.
"4. The principles advanced by a propaganda."
The Scientific American, in a recent issue, pleads
for the restoration to respectable usage of that "fine
old word 'propaganda.'"
"There is no word in the English language," it
says, "whose meaning has been so sadly distorted as
the word 'propaganda.' The change took place
mainly during the late war when the term took on a
decidedly sinister complexion.
"If you turn to the Standard Dictionary, you will
find that the word was applied to a congregation or
society of cardinals for the care and oversight of
foreign missions which was instituted at Rome in
the year 1627. It was applied also to the College of
the Propaganda at Rome that was founded by Pope
Urban VIII, for the education of the missionary
21
Propaganda
priests. Hence, in later years the word came to be
applied to any institution or scheme for propagating
a doctrine or system.
"Judged by this definition, we can see that in its
true sense propaganda is a perfectly legitimate form
of human activity. Any society, whether it be social,
religious or political, which is possessed of certain
beliefs, and sets out to make them known, either by
the spoken or written words, is practicing propaganda.
"Truth is mighty and must prevail, and if any
body of men believe that they have discovered a
valuable truth, it is not merely their privilege but
their duty to disseminate that truth. If they realize,
as they quickly must, that this spreading of the truth
can be done upon a large scale and effectively only
by organized effort, they will make use of the press
and the platform as the best means to give it wide
circulation. Propaganda becomes vicious and reprehensive
only when its authors consciously and deliberately
disseminate what they know to be lies, or
when they aim at effects which they know to be prejudicial
to the common good.
" 'Propaganda' in its proper meaning is a perfectly
wholesome word, of honest parentage, and with an
honorable history. The fact that it should to-day be
carrying a sinister meaning merely shows how much
of the child remains in the average adult. A group
of citizens writes and talks in favor of a certain
22
The New Propaganda
course of action in some debatable question, believing
that it is promoting the best interest of the community.
Propaganda? Not a bit of it. Just a plain
forceful statement of truth. But let another group
of citizens express opposing views, and they are
promptly labeled with the sinister name of propaganda.
. . .
" 'What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the
gander,' says a wise old proverb. Let us make haste
to put this fine old word back where it belongs, and
restore its dignified significance for the use of our
children and our children's children."
The extent to which propaganda shapes the progress
of affairs about us may surprise even well informed
persons. Nevertheless, it is only necessary
to look under the surface of the newspaper for a
hint as to propaganda's authority over public opinion.
Page one of the New York Times 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 NATIONS
WARN CHINA REAL REFORM MUST COME BEFORE
THEY GIVE RELIEF," "PRITCHETT REPORTS ZIONISM
WILL FAIL," "REALTY MEN DEMAND A TRANSIT INQUIRY,"
and "OUR LIVING STANDARD HIGHEST IN
HISTORY, SAYS HOOVER REPORT."
Take them in order: the article on China explains
23
Propaganda
the joint report of the Commission on Extraterritoriality
in China, presenting an exposition of the
Powers' stand in the Chinese muddle. What it says
is less important than what it is. It was "made public
by the State Department to-day" with the purpose
of presenting to the American public a picture of the
State Department's position. Its source gives it authority,
and the American public tends to accept and
support the State Department view.
The report of Dr. Pritchett, a trustee of the Carnegie
Foundation for International Peace, is an attempt
to find the facts about this Jewish colony in
the midst of a restless Arab world. When Dr.
Pritchett's survey convinced him that in the long run
Zionism would "bring more bitterness and more unhappiness
both for the Jew and for the Arab," this
point of view was broadcast with all the authority
of the Carnegie Foundation, so that the public would
hear and believe. The statement by the president of
the Real Estate Board of New York, and Secretary
Hoover's report, are similar attempts to influence
the public toward an opinion.
These examples are not given to create the impression
that there is anything sinister about propaganda.
They are set down rather to illustrate how conscious
direction is given to events, and how the men behind
these events influence public opinion. As such they
are examples of modern propaganda. At this point
we may attempt to define propaganda.
24
The New Propaganda
Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort
to create or shape events to influence the relations
of the public to an enterprise, idea or group.
This practice of creating circumstances and of
creating pictures in the minds of millions of persons
is very common. Virtually no important undertaking
is now carried on without it, whether that enterprise
be building a cathedral, endowing a university, marketing
a moving picture, floating a large bond issue,
or electing a president. Sometimes the effect on the
public is created by a professional propagandist,
sometimes by an amateur deputed for the job. The
important thing is that it is universal and continuous;
and in its sum total it is regimenting the public mind
every bit as much as an army regiments the bodies of
its soldiers.
So vast are the numbers of minds which can be
regimented, and so tenacious are they when regimented,
that a group at times offers an irresistible
pressure before which legislators, editors, and teachers
are helpless. The group will cling to its stereotype,
as Walter Lippmann calls it, making of those
supposedly powerful beings, the leaders of public
opinion, mere bits of driftwood in the surf. When
an Imperial Wizard, sensing what is perhaps hunger
for an ideal, offers a picture of a nation all Nordic
and nationalistic, the common man of the older
American stock, feeling himself elbowed out of his
rightful position and prosperity by the newer immi-
25
Propaganda
grant stocks, grasps the picture which fits in so neatly
with his prejudices, and makes it his own. He buys
the sheet and pillow-case costume, and bands with
his fellows by the thousand into a huge group
powerful enough to swing state elections and to
throw a ponderous monkey wrench into a national
convention.
In our present social organization approval of the
public is essential to any large undertaking. Hence
a laudable movement may be lost unless it impresses
itself on the public mind. Charity, as well as business,
and politics and literature, for that matter, have
had to adopt propaganda, for the public must be
regimented into giving money just as it must be regimented
into tuberculosis prophylaxis. The Near
East Relief, the Association for the Improvement of
the Condition of the Poor of New York, and all
the rest, have to work on public opinion just as
though they had tubes of tooth paste to sell. We
are proud of our diminishing infant death rateand
that too is the work of propaganda.
Propaganda does exist on all sides of us, and it
does change our mental pictures of the world. Even
if this be unduly pessimisticand that remains to
be provedthe opinion reflects a tendency that is
undoubtedly real. In fact, its use is growing as
its efficiency in gaining public support is recognized.
This then, evidently indicates the fact that any
one with sufficient influence can lead sections of the
26
The New Propaganda
public at least for a time and for a given purpose.
Formerly the rulers were the leaders. They laid
out the course of history, by the simple process of
doing what they wanted. And if nowadays the
successors of the rulers, those whose position or
ability gives them power, can no longer do what
they want without the approval of the masses,
they find in propaganda a tool which is increasingly
powerful in gaining that approval. Therefore, propaganda
is here to stay.
It was, of course, the astounding success of propaganda
during the war that opened the eyes of
the intelligent few in all departments of life to
the possibilities of regimenting the public mind.
The American government and numerous patriotic
agencies developed a technique which, to most persons
accustomed to bidding for public acceptance, was
new. They not only appealed to the individual by
means of every approachvisual, graphic, and auditory
to support the national endeavor, but they also
secured the cooperation of the key men in every group
persons whose mere word carried authority to hundreds
or thousands or hundreds of thousands of
followers. They thus automatically gained the support
of fraternal, religious, commercial, patriotic,
social and local groups whose members took their
opinions from their accustomed leaders and spokesmen,
or from the periodical publications which they
were accustomed to read and believe. At the same
27
Propaganda
time, the manipulators of patriotic opinion made use
of the mental cliches and the emotional habits of the
public to produce mass reactions against the alleged
atrocities, the terror and the tyranny of the enemy.
It was only natural, after the war ended, that intelligent
persons should ask themselves whether it was
not possible to apply a similar technique to the problems
of peace.
As a matter of fact, the practice of propaganda
since the war has assumed very different forms from
those prevalent twenty years ago. This new technique
may fairly be called the new propaganda.
It takes account not merely of the individual, nor
even of the mass mind alone, but also and especially
of the anatomy of society, with its interlocking group
formations and loyalties. It sees the individual
not only as a cell in the social organism but as a cell
organized into the social unit. Touch a nerve at a
sensitive spot and you get an automatic response
from certain specific members of the organism.
Business offers graphic examples of the effect that
may be produced upon the public by interested
groups, such as textile manufacturers losing their
markets. This problem arose, not long ago, when the
velvet manufacturers were facing ruin because their
product had long been out of fashion. Analysis
showed that it was impossible to revive a velvet fashion
within America. Anatomical hunt for the vital
spot! Paris! Obviously! But yes and no. Paris is
28
The New Propaganda
the home of fashion. Lyons is the home of silk. The
attack had to be made at the source. It was determined
to substitute purpose for chance and to utilize
the regular sources for fashion distribution and to
influence the public from these sources. A velvet
fashion service, openly supported by the manufacturers,
was organized. Its first function was to establish
contact with the Lyons manufactories and
the Paris couturiers to discover what they were doing,
to encourage them to act on behalf of velvet, and to
help in the proper exploitation of their wares. An
intelligent Parisian was enlisted in the work. He visited
Lanvin and Worth, Agnes and Patou, and others
and induced them to use velvet in their gowns and
hats. It was he who arranged for the distinguished
Countess This or Duchess That to wear the hat or the
gown. And as for the presentation of the idea to the
public, the American buyer or the American woman
of fashion was simply shown the velvet creations in
the atelier of the dressmaker or the milliner. She
bought the velvet because she liked it and because
it was in fashion.
The editors of the American magazines and fashion
reporters of the American newspapers, likewise
subjected to the actual (although created) circumstance,
reflected it in their news, which, in turn,
subjected the buyer and the consumer here to the
same influences. The result was that what was at
first a trickle of velvet became a flood. A demand
29
Propaganda
was slowly, but deliberately, created in Paris and
America. A big department store, aiming to be a
style leader, advertised velvet gowns and hats on the
authority of the French couturiers, and quoted original
cables received from them. The echo of the
new style note was heard from hundreds of department
stores throughout the country which wanted to
be style leaders too. Bulletins followed despatches.
The mail followed the cables. And the American
woman traveler appeared before the ship news photographers
in velvet gown and hat.
The created circumstances had their effect. "Fickle
fashion has veered to velvet," was one newspaper
comment. And the industry in the United States
again kept thousands busy.
The new propaganda, having regard to the constitution
of society as a whole, not infrequently serves
to focus and realize the desires of the masses. A
desire for a specific reform, however widespread,
cannot be translated into action until it is made articulate,
and until it has exerted sufficient pressure upon
the proper law-making bodies. Millions of housewives
may feel that manufactured foods deleterious
to health should be prohibited. But there
is little chance that their individual desires will be
translated into effective legal form unless their halfexpressed
demand can be organized, made vocal,
and concentrated upon the state legislature or upon
the Federal Congress in some mode which will pro-
30
The New Propaganda
duce the results they desire. Whether they realize
it or not, they call upon propaganda to organize and
effectuate their demand.
But clearly it is the intelligent minorities which
need to make use of propaganda continuously and
systematically. In the active proselytizing minorities
in whom selfish interests and public interests
coincide lie the progress and development of America.
Only through the active energy of the intelligent
few can the public at large become aware of and act
upon new ideas.
Small groups of persons can, and do, make the
rest of us think what they please about a given subject.
But there are usually proponents and opponents
of every propaganda, both of whom are equally
eager to convince the majority.
31
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 fortyeight
states; the presidents of the chambers of commerce
in our hundred largest cities, the chairmen of
the boards of directors of our hundred or more
32
The New Propagandists
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
33
Propaganda
"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 wirepullers
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.
34
The New Propagandists
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, he 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.
35
Propaganda
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
36
The New Propagandists
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 gw 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
37
Propaganda
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 coun-
38
The New Propagandists
sel 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 of 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
39
Propaganda
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
40
The New Propagandists
which, on behalf of his client, he may talk to the
public.
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
41
Propaganda
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 of 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
42
The New Propagandists
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
43
Propaganda
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.
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
44
The New Propagandists
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 every one 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 courtthe court
of public opinionhe 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
45
Propaganda
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.
46
CHAPTER IV
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
THE systematic study of mass psychology revealed
to students the potentialities of invisible government
of society by manipulation of the motives
which actuate man in the group. Trotter and Le
Bon, who approached the subject in a scientific manner,
and Graham Wallas, Walter Lippmann and
others who continued with searching studies of the
group mind, established that the group has mental
characteristics distinct from those of the individual,
and is motivated by impulses and emotions which
cannot be explained on the basis of what we know
of individual psychology. So the question naturally
arose: If we understand the mechanism and motives
of the group mind, is it not possible to control and
regiment the masses according to our will without
their knowing it?
The recent practice of propaganda has proved that
it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within
certain limits. Mass psychology is as yet far from
being an exact science and the mysteries of human
motivation are by no means all revealed. But at
least theory and practice have combined with sufficient
success to permit us to know that in certain
47
Propaganda
cases we can effect some change in public opinion
with a fair degree of accuracy by operating a certain
mechanism, just as the motorist can regulate the
speed of his car by manipulating the flow of gasoline.
Propaganda is not a science in the laboratory
sense, but it is no longer entirely the empirical affair
that it was before the advent of the study of mass
psychology. It is now scientific in the sense that it
seeks to base its operations upon definite knowledge
drawn from direct observation of the group mind,
and upon the application of principles which have
been demonstrated to be consistent and relatively
constant
The modern propagandist studies systematically
and objectively the material with which he is working
in the spirit of the laboratory. If the matter in
hand is a nation-wide sales campaign, he studies the
field by means of a clipping service, or of a corps of
scouts, or by personal study at a crucial spot He
determines, for example, which features of a product
are losing their public appeal, and in what new direction
the public taste is veering. He will not fail to
investigate to what extent it is the wife who has the
final word in the choice of her husband's car, or of
his suits and shirts.
Scientific accuracy of results is not to be expected,
because many of the elements of the situation must
always be beyond his control. He may know with a
fair degree of certainty that under favorable cir-
48
The Psychology of Public Relations
cumstances an international flight will produce a
spirit of good will, making possible even the consummation
of political programs. But he cannot be
sure that some unexpected event will not overshadow
this flight in the public interest, or that some other
aviator may not do something more spectacular the
day before. Even in his restricted field of public
psychology there must always be a wide margin of
error. Propaganda, like economics and sociology,
can never be an exact science for the reason that its
subject-matter, like theirs, deals with human beings.
If you can influence the leaders, either with or
without their conscious cooperation, you automatically
influence the group which they sway. But men
do not need to be actually gathered together in a
public meeting or in a street riot, to be subject to the
influences of mass psychology. Because man is by
nature gregarious he feels himself to be member of
a herd, even when he is alone in his room with the
curtains drawn. His mind retains the patterns which
have been stamped on it by the group influences.
A man sits in his office deciding what stocks to buy.
He imagines, no doubt, that he is planning his purchases
according to his own judgment. In actual
fact his judgment is a melange of impressions
stamped on his mind by outside influences which unconsciously
control his thought. He buys a certain
railroad stock because it was in the headlines yesterday
and hence is the one which comes most promi-
49
Propaganda
nently to his mind; because he has a pleasant
recollection of a good dinner on one of its fast
trains; because it has a liberal labor policy, a reputation
for honesty; because he has been told that
J. P. Morgan owns some of its shares.
Trotter and Le Bon concluded that the group
mind does not think in the strict sense of the word.
In place of thoughts it has impulses, habits and emotions.
In making up its mind its first impulse is
usually to follow the example of a trusted leader.
This is one of the most firmly established principles
of mass psychology. It operates in establishing the
rising or diminishing prestige of a summer resort, in
causing a run on a bank, or a panic on the stock exchange,
in creating a best seller, or a box-office
success.
But when the example of the leader is not at hand
and the herd must think for itself, it does so by
means of cliches, pat words or images which stand
for a whole group of ideas or experiences. Not
many years ago, it was only necessary to tag a political
candidate with the word interests to stampede
millions of people into voting against him, because
anything associated with "the interests" seemed necessarily
corrupt. Recently the word Bolshevik
has performed a similar service for persons who
wished to frighten the public away from a line of
action.
By playing upon an old cliche, or manipulating a
50
The Psychology of Public Relations
new one, the propagandist can sometimes swing a
whole mass of group emotions. In Great Britain,
during the war, the evacuation hospitals came in for
a considerable amount of criticism because of the
summary way in which they handled their wounded.
It was assumed by the public that a hospital gives
prolonged and conscientious attention to its patients.
When the name was changed to evacuation posts
the critical reaction vanished. No one expected more
than an adequate emergency treatment from an institution
so named. The cliche hospital was indelibly
associated in the public mind with a certain picture.
To persuade the public to discriminate between one
type of hospital and another, to dissociate the cliche
from the picture it evoked, would have been an impossible
task. Instead, a new cliche automatically
conditioned the public emotion toward these hospitals.
Men are rarely aware of the real reasons which
motivate their actions. A man may believe that he
buys a motor car because, after careful study of the
technical features of all makes on the market, he
has concluded that this is the best. He is almost
certainly fooling himself. He bought it, perhaps,
because a friend whose financial acumen he respects
bought one last week; or because his neighbors believed
he was not able to afford a car of that class;
or because its colors are those of his college fraternity.
51
Propaganda
It is chiefly the psychologists of the school of
Freud who have pointed out that many of man's
thoughts and actions are compensatory substitutes
for desires which he has been obliged to suppress.
A thing may be desired not for its intrinsic worth
or usefulness, but because he has unconsciously come
to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for
which he is ashamed to admit to himself. A man
buying a car may think he wants it for purposes of
locomotion, whereas the fact may be that he would
really prefer not to be burdened with it, and would
rather walk for the sake of his health. He may
really want it because it is a symbol of social position,
an evidence of his success in business, or a means of
pleasing his wife.
This general principle, that men are very largely
actuated bv motives which they conceal from themselves,
is as true of mass as of individual psychology.
It is evident that the successful propagandist must
understand the true motives and not be content to
accept the reasons which men give for what they do.
It is not sufficient to understand only the mechanical
structure of society, the groupings and
cleavages and loyalties. An engineer may know all
about the cylinders and pistons of a locomotive, but
unless he knows how steam behaves under pressure
he cannot make his engine run. Human desires
are the steam which makes the social machine work.
Only by understanding them can the propagandist
52
The Psychology of Public Relations
control that vast, loose-jointed mechanism which is
modern society.
The old propagandist based his work on the mechanistic
reaction psychology then in vogue in our
colleges. This assumed that the human mind was
merely an individual machine, a system of nerves
and nerve centers, reacting with mechanical regularity
to stimuli, like a helpless, will-less automaton. It
was the special pleader's function to provide the
stimulus which would cause the desired reaction in
the individual purchaser.
It was one of the doctrines of the reaction psychology
that a certain stimulus often repeated would
create a habit, or that the mere reiteration of an idea
would create a conviction. Suppose the old type of
salesmanship, acting for a meat packer, was seeking to
increase the sale of bacon. It would reiterate innumerable
times in full-page advertisements: "Eat
more bacon. Eat bacon because it is cheap, because
it is good, because it gives you reserve energy."
The newer salesmanship, understanding the group
structure of society and the principles of mass psychology,
would first ask: "Who is it that influences
the eating habits of the public?" The answer, obviously,
is: "The physicians." The new salesman
will then suggest to physicians to say publicly that
it is wholesome to eat bacon. He knows as a mathematical
certainty, that large numbers of persons will
follow the advice of their doctors, because he under-
53
Propaganda
stands the psychological relation of dependence of
men upon their physicians.
The old-fashioned propagandist, using almost exclusively
the appeal of the printed word, tried to
persuade the individual reader to buy a definite
article, immediately. This approach is exemplified
in a type of advertisement which used to be considered
ideal from the point of view of directness
and effectiveness:
"YOU (perhaps with a finger pointing at the
reader) buy O'Leary's rubber heelsNOW."
The advertiser sought by means of reiteration and
emphasis directed upon the individual, to break down
or penetrate sales resistance. Although the appeal
was aimed at fifty million persons, it was aimed at
each as an individual.
The new salesmanship has found it possible, by
dealing with men in the mass through their group
formations, to set up psychological and emotional
currents which will work for him. Instead of assaulting
sales resistance by direct attack, he is interested
in removing sales resistance. He creates
circumstances which will swing emotional currents
so as to make for purchaser demand.
If, for instance, I want to sell pianos, it is not sufficient
to blanket the country with a direct appeal,
such as:
"YOU buy a Mozart piano now. It is cheap.
The best artists use it. It will last for years."
54
The Psychology of Public Relations
The claims may all be true, but they are in direct
conflict with the claims of other piano manufacturers,
and in indirect competition with the claims
of a radio or a motor car, each competing for the
consumer's dollar.
What are the true reasons why the purchaser is
planning to spend his money on a new car instead of
on a new piano? Because he has decided that he
wants the commodity called locomotion more than
he wants the commodity called music? Not altogether.
He buys a car, because it is at the moment
the group custom to buy cars.
The modern propagandist therefore sets to work
to create circumstances which will modify that custom.
He appeals perhaps to the home instinct which
is fundamental. He will endeavor to develop public
acceptance of the idea of a music room in the home.
This he may do, for example, by organizing an exhibition
of period music rooms designed by well
known decorators who themselves exert an influence
on the buying groups. He enhances the effectiveness
and prestige of these rooms by putting in them rare
and valuable tapestries. Then, in order to create
dramatic interest in the exhibit, he stages an event
or ceremony. To this ceremony key people, persons
known to influence the buying habits of the public,
such as a famous violinist, a popular artist, and a
society leader, are invited. These key persons affect
other groups, lifting the idea of the music room to a
55
Propaganda
place in the public consciousness which it did not
have before. The juxtaposition of these leaders,
and the idea which they are dramatizing, are then
projected to the wider public through various publicity
channels. Meanwhile, influential architects
have been persuaded to make the music room an
integral architectural part of their plans with perhaps
a specially charming niche in one corner for
the piano. Less influential architects will as a matte
