CRYSTALLIZING
PUBLIC OPINION
EDWARD L. BERNAYS
[Illustration]
LIVERIGHT PUBLISHING CORPORATION
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
_Copyright, 1923, by_
BONI AND LIVERIGHT, INC.
LIVERIGHT PUBLISHING CORPORATION
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO MY WIFE
DORIS E. FLEISCHMAN
PREFACE TO NEW EDITION
In the ten years that have elapsed since this book was written, events
of profound importance have taken place. During this period, many of
the principles set forth in the book have been put to the test and have
been proven true.
The book, for instance, emphasized ten years ago that industrial
organizations dealing with the public must take public opinion into
consideration in the conduct of their affairs. We have seen cases in
the past decade where the public has actually stepped in and publicly
supervised industries which refused to recognize this truth.
The field of public relations counsel has developed tremendously
in this period. But the broad basic principles, as originally set
forth, are as valid today as they were then, when the profession was
a comparatively new one. It seems appropriate that this new edition,
for which the publishers have asked me to write a new foreword, should
appear at a time when the new partnership of government, labor and
industry has brought public relations and its problems to the fore.
The old group relationships that make up our society have undergone and
are undergoing marked changes. The peaceful harmonizing of all the new
conflicting points of view will be dependent, to a great extent, upon
an understanding and application by leaders of public relations and its
technique.
In the future, each industry will have to act with increasing
understanding in its relationship to government, to other industries,
to labor, to stockholders and to the public. Each industry must be
cognizant of new conditions and modify its conduct to conform to them
if it is to maintain the good-will of those upon whom it depends for
its very life.
This principle applies not only to industry; it applies to every kind
of organization and institution that uses special pleading, whether it
be for profit or for any other cause.
The new social and economic structure in which we live today demands
this new approach to the public. Public relations has come to play an
important part in our life.
It is hoped that this book may lead to a greater recognition and
application of sound public relations principles.
E. L. B.
_January, 1934_
FOREWORD
In writing this book I have tried to set down the broad principles
that govern the new profession of public relations counsel. These
principles I have on the one hand substantiated by the findings of
psychologists, sociologists, and newspapermen--Ray Stannard Baker,
W. G. Bleyer, Richard Washburn Child, Elmer Davis, John L. Given, Will
Irwin, Francis E. Leupp, Walter Lippmann, William MacDougall, Everett
Dean Martin, H. L. Mencken, Rollo Ogden, Charles J. Rosebault, William
Trotter, Oswald Garrison Villard, and others to whom I owe a debt of
gratitude for their clear analyses of the public’s mind and habits;
and on the other hand, I have illustrated these principles by a number
of specific examples which serve to bear them out. I have quoted from
the men listed here, because the ground covered by them is part of the
field of activity of the public relations counsel. The actual cases
which I have cited were selected because they explain the application
of the theories to practice. Most of the illustrative material is drawn
from my personal experience; a few examples from my observation of
events. I have preferred to cite facts known to the general public,
in order that I might explain graphically a profession that has little
precedent, and whose few formulated rules have necessarily a limitless
number and variety of applications.
This profession in a few years has developed from the status of circus
agent stunts to what is obviously an important position in the conduct
of the world’s affairs.
If I shall, by this survey of the field, stimulate a scientific
attitude towards the study of public relations, I shall feel that this
book has fulfilled my purpose in writing it.
E. L. B.
December, 1923.
CONTENTS
PART I--SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE SCOPE OF THE PUBLIC RELATIONS COUNSEL 11
II THE PUBLIC RELATIONS COUNSEL; THE INCREASED AND
INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF THE PROFESSION 34
III THE FUNCTION OF A SPECIAL PLEADER 50
PART II--THE GROUP AND HERD
I WHAT CONSTITUTES PUBLIC OPINION? 61
II IS PUBLIC OPINION STUBBORN OR MALLEABLE? 69
III THE INTERACTION OF PUBLIC OPINION WITH THE FORCES THAT
HELP TO MAKE IT 77
IV THE POWER OF INTERACTING FORCES THAT GO TO MAKE UP PUBLIC
OPINION 87
V AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PUBLIC MOTIVATION
IS NECESSARY TO THE WORK OF THE PUBLIC RELATIONS COUNSEL
98
VI THE GROUP AND HERD ARE THE BASIC MECHANISMS OF PUBLIC
CHANGE 111
VII THE APPLICATION OF THESE PRINCIPLES 118
PART III--TECHNIQUE AND METHOD
I THE PUBLIC CAN BE REACHED ONLY THROUGH ESTABLISHED
MEDIUMS OF COMMUNICATION 125
II THE INTERLAPPING GROUP FORMATIONS OF SOCIETY, THE
CONTINUOUS SHIFTING OF GROUPS, CHANGING CONDITIONS AND
THE FLEXIBILITY OF HUMAN NATURE ARE ALL AIDS TO THE
COUNSEL ON PUBLIC RELATIONS 139
III AN OUTLINE OF METHODS PRACTICABLE IN MODIFYING THE POINT
OF VIEW OF A GROUP 166
PART IV--ETHICAL RELATIONS
I A CONSIDERATION OF THE PRESS AND OTHER MEDIUMS OF
COMMUNICATION IN THEIR RELATION TO THE PUBLIC RELATIONS
COUNSEL 177
II HIS OBLIGATIONS TO THE PUBLIC AS A SPECIAL PLEADER 208
PART I
SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS
CRYSTALLIZING PUBLIC OPINION
CHAPTER I
THE SCOPE OF THE PUBLIC RELATIONS COUNSEL
A new phrase has come into the language--counsel on public relations.
What does it mean?
As a matter of fact, the actual phrase is completely understood by
only a few, and those only the people intimately associated with the
work itself. But despite this, the activities of the public relations
counsel affect the daily life of the entire population in one form or
another.
Because of the recent extraordinary growth of the profession of public
relations counsel and the lack of available information concerning
it, an air of mystery has surrounded its scope and functions. To the
average person, this profession is still unexplained, both in its
operation and actual accomplishment. Perhaps the most definite picture
is that of a man who somehow or other produces that vaguely defined
evil, “propaganda,” which spreads an impression that colors the mind
of the public concerning actresses, governments, railroads. And yet,
as will be pointed out shortly, there is probably no single profession
which within the last ten years has extended its field of usefulness
more remarkably and touched upon intimate and important aspects of the
everyday life of the world more significantly than the profession of
public relations counsel.
There is not even any one name by which the new profession is
characterized by others. To some the public relations counsel is known
by the term “propagandist.” Others still call him press agent or
publicity man. Writing even within the last few years, John L. Given,
the author of an excellent textbook on journalism, does not mention the
public relations counsel. He limits his reference to the old-time press
agent. Many organizations simply do not bother about an individual name
and assign to an existing officer the duties of the public relations
counsel. One bank’s vice-president is its recognized public relations
counsel. Some dismiss the subject or condemn the entire profession
generally and all its members individually.
Slight examination into the grounds for this disapproval readily
reveals that it is based on nothing more substantial than vague
impressions.
Indeed, it is probably true that the very men who are themselves
engaged in the profession are as little ready or able to define their
work as is the general public itself. Undoubtedly this is due, in
some measure, to the fact that the profession is a new one. Much more
important than that, however, is the fact that most human activities
are based on experience rather than analysis.
Judge Cardozo of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York finds
the same absence of functional definition in the judicial mind. “The
work of deciding cases,” he says, “goes on every day in hundreds of
courts throughout the land. Any judge, one might suppose, would find
it easy to describe the process which he had followed a thousand times
and more. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Let some intelligent
layman ask him to explain. He will not go very far before taking refuge
in the excuse that the language of craftsmen is unintelligible to those
untutored in the craft. Such an excuse may cover with a semblance
of respectability an otherwise ignominious retreat. It will hardly
serve to still the prick of curiosity and conscience. In moments of
introspection, when there is no longer a necessity of putting off with
a show of wisdom the uninitiated interlocutor, the troublesome problem
will recur and press for a solution: What is it that I do when I decide
a case?”[1]
From my own records and from current history still fresh in the public
mind, I have selected a few instances which only in a limited measure
give some idea of the variety of the public relations counsel’s work
and of the type of problem which he attempts to solve.
These examples show him in his position as one who directs and
supervises the activities of his clients wherever they impinge upon
the daily life of the public. He interprets the client to the public,
which he is enabled to do in part because he interprets the public to
the client. His advice is given on all occasions on which his client
appears before the public, whether it be in concrete form or as an
idea. His advice is given not only on actions which take place, but
also on the use of mediums which bring these actions to the public it
is desired to reach, no matter whether these mediums be the printed,
the spoken or the visualized word--that is, advertising, lectures, the
stage, the pulpit, the newspaper, the photograph, the wireless, the
mail or any other form of thought communication.
A nationally famous New York hotel found that its business was falling
off at an alarming rate because of a rumor that it was shortly going
to close and that the site upon which it was located would be occupied
by a department store. Few things are more mysterious than the origins
of rumors, or the credence which they manage to obtain. Reservations at
this hotel for weeks and months ahead were being canceled by persons
who had heard the rumor and accepted it implicitly.
The problem of meeting this rumor (which like many rumors had no
foundation in fact) was not only a difficult but a serious one. Mere
denial, of course, no matter how vigorous or how widely disseminated,
would accomplish little.
The mere statement of the problem made it clear to the public relations
counsel who was retained by the hotel that the only way to overcome the
rumor was to give the public some positive evidence of the intention of
the hotel to remain in business. It happened that the _maître d’hôtel_
was about as well known as the hotel itself. His contract was about to
expire. The public relations counsel suggested a very simple device.
“Renew his engagement immediately for a term of years,” he said. “Then
make public announcement of the fact. Nobody who hears of the renewal
or the amount of money involved will believe for a moment that you
intend to go out of business.” The _maître d’hôtel_ was called in and
offered a five-year engagement. His salary was one which many bank
presidents might envy. Public announcement of his engagement was made.
The _maître d’hôtel_ was himself something of a national figure. The
salary stipulated was not without popular interest from both points of
view. The story was one which immediately interested the newspapers.
A national press service took up the story and sent it out to all its
subscribers. The cancellation of reservations stopped and the rumor
disappeared.
A nationally known magazine was ambitious to increase its prestige
among a more influential group of advertisers. It had never made any
effort to reach this public except through its own direct circulation.
The consultant who was retained by the magazine quickly discovered that
much valuable editorial material appearing in the magazine was allowed
to go to waste. Features of interest to thousands of potential readers
were never called to their attention unless they happened accidentally
to be readers of the magazine.
The public relations counsel showed how to extend the field of their
appeal. He chose for his first work an extremely interesting article
by a well-known physician, written about the interesting thesis that
“the pace that kills” is the slow, deadly, dull routine pace and not
the pace of life under high pressure, based on work which interests
and excites. The consultant arranged to have the thesis of the article
made the basis of an inquiry among business and professional men
throughout the country by another physician associated with a medical
journal. Hundreds of members of “the quality public,” as they are known
to advertisers, had their attention focused on the article, and the
magazine which the consultant was engaged in counseling on its public
relations.
The answers from these leading men of the country were collated,
analyzed, and the resulting abstract furnished gratuitously to
newspapers, magazines and class journals, which published them widely.
Organizations of business and professional men reprinted the symposium
by the thousands and distributed it free of charge, doing so because
the material contained in the symposium was of great interest. A
distinguished visitor from abroad, Lord Leverhulme, became interested
in the question while in this country and made the magazine and
the article the basis of an address before a large and influential
conference in England. Nationally and internationally the magazine
was called to the attention of a public which had, up to that time,
considered it perhaps a publication of no serious social significance.
Still working with the same magazine, the publicity consultant advised
it how to widen its influence with another public on quite a different
issue. He took as his subject an article by Sir Philip Gibbs, “The
Madonna of the Hungry Child,” dealing with the famine situation in
Europe and the necessity for its prompt alleviation. The article was
brought to the attention of Herbert Hoover. Mr. Hoover was so impressed
by the article that he sent the magazine a letter of commendation for
publishing it. He also sent a copy of the article to members of his
relief committees throughout the country. The latter, in turn, used
the article to obtain support and contributions for relief work. Thus,
while an important humanitarian project was being materially assisted,
the magazine in question was adding to its own influence and standing.
Now, the interesting thing about this work is that whereas the public
relations counsel added nothing to the contents of the magazine, which
had for years been publishing material of this nature, he did make its
importance felt and appreciated.
A large packing house was faced with the problem of increasing the
sale of its particular brand of bacon. It already dominated the
market in its field; the problem was therefore one of increasing
the consumption of bacon generally, for its dominance of the market
would naturally continue. The public relations counsel, realizing that
hearty breakfasts were dietetically sound, suggested that a physician
undertake a survey to make this medical truth articulate. He realized
that the demand for bacon as a breakfast food would naturally be
increased by the wide dissemination of this truth. This is exactly what
happened.
A hair-net company had to solve the problem created by the increasing
vogue of bobbed hair. Bobbed hair was eliminating the use of the
hair-net. The public relations counsel, after investigation, advised
that the opinions of club women as leaders of the women of the country
should be made articulate on the question. Their expressed opinion,
he believed, would definitely modify the bobbed hair vogue. A leading
artist was interested in the subject and undertook a survey among the
club women leaders of the country. The resultant responses confirmed
the public relations counsel’s judgment. The opinions of these women
were given to the public and helped to arouse what had evidently been
a latent opinion on the question. Long hair was made socially more
acceptable than bobbed hair and the vogue for the latter was thereby
partially checked.
A real estate corporation on Long Island was interested in selling
coöperative apartments to a high-class clientele. In order to do this,
it realized that it had to impress upon the public the fact that this
community, within easy reach of Manhattan, was socially, economically,
artistically and morally desirable. On the advice of its public
relations counsel, instead of merely proclaiming itself as such a
community, it proved its contentions dramatically by making itself an
active center for all kinds of community manifestations.
When it opened its first post office, for instance, it made this local
event nationally interesting. The opening was a formal one. National
figures became interested in what might have been merely a local event.
The reverses which the Italians suffered on the Piave in 1918 were
dangerous to Italian and Allied morale. One of the results was the
awakening of a distrust among Italians as to the sincerity of American
promises of military, financial and moral support for the Italian cause.
It became imperative vividly to dramatize for Italy the reality of
American coöperation. As one of the means to this end the Committee
on Public Information decided that the naming of a recently completed
American ship should be made the occasion for a demonstration of
friendship which could be reflected in every possible way to the
Italians.
Prominent Italians in America were invited by the public relations
counsel to participate in the launching of the _Piave_. Motion and
still pictures were taken of the event. The news of the launching and
of its significance to Americans was telegraphed to Italian newspapers.
At the same time a message from Italian-Americans was transmitted
to Italy expressing their confidence in America’s assistance of
the Italian cause. Enrico Caruso, Gatti-Casazza, director of the
Metropolitan Opera, and others highly regarded by their countrymen in
Italy, sent inspiriting telegrams which had a decided effect in raising
Italian morale, so far as it depended upon assurance of American
coöperation. Other means employed to disseminate information of this
event had the same effect.
The next incident that I have selected is one which conforms more
closely than some of the others to the popular conception of the work
of the public relations counsel. In the spring and summer of 1919 the
problem of fitting ex-service men into the ordinary life of America
was serious and difficult. Thousands of men just back from abroad were
having a trying time finding work. After their experience in the war it
was not surprising that they should be extremely ready to feel bitter
against the Government and against those Americans who for one reason
or another had not been in any branch of the service during the war.
The War Department under Colonel Arthur Woods, assistant to the
Secretary of War, instituted a nation-wide campaign to assist those
men to obtain employment, and more than that, to manifest to them as
concretely as it could that the Government continued its interest in
their welfare. The incident to which I refer occurred during this
campaign.
In July of 1919 there was such a shortage of labor in Kansas that it
was feared a large proportion of the wheat crop could not possibly be
harvested. The activities of the War Department in the reëmployment of
ex-service men had already received wide publicity, and the Chamber
of Commerce of Kansas City appealed directly to the War Department
at Washington, after its own efforts in many other directions had
failed, for a supply of men who would assist in the harvesting of the
wheat crop. The public relations counsel prepared a statement of this
opportunity for employment in Kansas and distributed it to the public
through the newspapers throughout the country. The Associated Press
sent the statement over its wires as a news dispatch. Within four days
the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce wired to the War Department that
enough labor had been secured to harvest the wheat crop, and asked
the War Department to announce that fact as publicly as it had first
announced the need for labor.
By contrast with this last instance, and as an illustration of a type
of work less well understood by the public, I cite another incident
from the same campaign for the reëstablishment of ex-service men to
normal economic and social relations. The problem of reëmployment was,
of course, the crux of the difficulty. Various measures were adopted
to obtain the coöperation of business men in extending employment
opportunities to ex-members of the Army, Navy and Marines. One of these
devices appealed to the personal and local pride of American business
men, and stressed their obligation of honor to reëmploy their former
employees upon release from Government service.
A citation was prepared, signed by the Secretary of War, the Secretary
of the Navy and the Assistant to the Secretary of War for display in
the stores and factories of employers who assured the War and Navy
Departments that they would reëmploy their ex-service men. Simultaneous
display of these citations was arranged for Bastile Day, July 14, 1919,
by members of the Fifth Avenue Association.
The Fifth Avenue Association of New York City, an influential group
of business men, was perhaps the first to coöperate as a body in this
important campaign for the reëmployment of ex-service men. Concerted
action on a subject which was as much in the public mind as the
reëmployment of ex-service men was particularly interesting. The story
of what these leaders in American business had undertaken to do went
out to the country by mail, by word of mouth, by newspaper comment.
Their example was potent in obtaining the coöperation of business men
throughout the land. An appeal based on this action and capitalizing
it was sent to thousands of individual business men and employers
throughout the country. It was effective.
An illustration which embodies most of the technical and psychological
points of interest in the preceding incidents may be found in
Lithuania’s campaign in this country in 1919, for popular sympathy
and official recognition. Lithuania was of considerable political
importance in the reorganization of Europe, but it was a country little
known or understood by the American public. An added difficulty was the
fact that the independence of Lithuania would interfere seriously with
the plans which France had for the establishment of a strong Poland.
There were excellent historical, ethnic and economic reasons why, if
Lithuania broke off from Russia, it should be allowed to stand on its
own feet. On the other hand there were powerful political influences
which were against such a result. The American attitude on the question
of Lithuanian independence, it was felt, would play an important
part. The question was how to arouse popular and official interest in
Lithuania’s aspirations.
A Lithuanian National Council was organized, composed of prominent
American-Lithuanians, and a Lithuanian Information Bureau established
to act as a clearing house for news about Lithuania and for special
pleading on behalf of Lithuania’s ambitions. The public relations
counsel who was retained to direct this work recognized that the first
problem to be solved was America’s indifference to and ignorance about
Lithuania and its desires.
He had an exhaustive study made of every conceivable aspect of
the problem of Lithuania from its remote and recent history and
ethnic origins to its present-day marriage customs and its popular
recreations. He divided his material into its various categories, based
primarily on the public to which it would probably make its appeal.
For the amateur ethnologist he provided interesting and accurate data
of the racial origins of Lithuania. To the student of languages he
appealed with authentic and well written studies of the development of
the Lithuanian language from its origins in the Sanskrit. He told the
“sporting fan” about Lithuanian sports and told American women about
Lithuanian clothes. He told the jeweler about amber and provided the
music lover with concerts of Lithuanian music.
To the senators, he gave facts about Lithuania which would give
them basis for favorable action. To the members of the House of
Representatives he did likewise. He reflected to those communities
whose crystallized opinion would be helpful in guiding other opinions,
facts which gave them basis for conclusions favorable to Lithuania.
A series of events which would carry with them the desired implications
were planned and executed. Mass meetings were held in different cities;
petitions were drawn, signed and presented; pilgrims made calls upon
Senate and House of Representatives Committees. All the avenues of
approach to the public were utilized to capitalize the public interest
and bring public action. The mails carried statements of Lithuania’s
position to individuals who might be interested. The lecture platform
resounded to Lithuania’s appeal. Newspaper advertising was bought and
paid for. The radio carried the message of speakers to the public.
Motion pictures reached the patrons of moving picture houses.
Little by little and phase by phase, the public, the press and
Government officials acquired a knowledge of the customs, the character
and the problems of Lithuania, the small Baltic nation that was seeking
freedom.
When the Lithuanian Information Bureau went before the press
associations to correct inaccurate or misleading Polish news about the
Lithuanian situation, it came there as representative of a group which
had figured largely in the American news for a number of weeks, as a
result of the advice and activities of its public relations counsel.
In the same way, when delegations of Americans, interested in the
Lithuanian problem, appeared before members of Congress or officials
of the State Department, they came there as spokesmen for a country
which was no longer unknown. They represented a group which could no
longer be entirely ignored. Somebody described this campaign, once it
had achieved recognition for the Baltic republic, as the campaign of
“advertising a nation to freedom.”
What happened with Roumania is another instance. Roumania wanted to
plead its case before the American people. It wanted to tell Americans
that it was an ancient and established country. The original technique
was the issuance of treatises, historically correct and ethnologically
accurate. Their facts were for the large part ignored. The public
relations counsel, called in on the case of Roumania, advised them to
make these studies into interesting stories of news value. The public
read these stories with avidity and Roumania became part of America’s
popular knowledge with consequent valuable results for Roumania.
The hotels of New York City discovered that there was a falling off of
business and profits. Fewer visitors came to New York. Fewer travelers
passed through New York on their way to Europe. The public relations
counsel who was consulted and asked to remedy the situation, made an
extensive analysis. He talked to visitors. He queried men and women
who represented groups, sections and opinions of main cities and
towns throughout the country. He examined American literature--books,
magazines, newspapers, and classified attacks made on New York and New
York citizens. He found that the chief cause for lack of interest in
New York was the belief that New York was “cold and inhospitable.”
He found animosity and bitterness against New York’s apparent
indifference to strangers was keeping away a growing number of
travelers. To counteract this damaging wave of resentment, he called
together the leading groups, industrial, social and civic, of New
York, and formed the Welcome Stranger Committee. The friendly and
hospitable aims of this committee, broadcasted to the nation, helped
to reëstablish New York’s good repute. Congratulatory editorials were
printed in the rural and city journals of the country.
Again, in analyzing the restaurant service of a prominent hotel, he
discovers that its menu is built on the desires of the average eater
and that a large group of people with children desire special foods
for them. He may then advise his client to institute a children’s diet
service.
This was done specifically with the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which
instituted special menus for children. This move, which excited wide
comment, was economically and dietetically sound.
In its campaign to educate the public on the importance of early radium
treatments for incipient cancer, the United States Radium Corporation
founded the First National Radium Bank, in order to create and
crystallize the impression that radium is and should be available to
all physicians who treat cancer sufferers.
An inter-city radio company planned to open a wireless service between
the three cities of New York, Detroit and Cleveland. This company might
merely have opened its service and waited for the public to send its
messages, but the president of the organization realized astutely that
to succeed in any measure at all he must have immediate public support.
He called in a public relations counsel, who advised an elaborate
inauguration ceremony, in which the mayors of the three cities thus
for the first time connected, would officiate. The mayor of each city
officially received and sent the first messages issued on commercial
inter-city radio waves. These openings excited wide interest, not only
in the three cities directly concerned, but throughout the entire
country.
Shortly after the World War, the King and Queen of the Belgians visited
America. One of the many desired results of this visit was that it
should be made apparent that America, with all the foreign elements
represented in its body, was unified in its support of King Albert
and his country. To present a graphic picture of the affection which
the national elements here had for the Belgian monarch, a performance
was staged at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, at which
the many nationalist groups were represented and gave voice to their
approval. The story of the Metropolitan Opera House performance was
spread in the news columns and by photographs in the press throughout
the world. It was evident to all who saw the pictures or read the story
that this king had really stirred the affectionate interest of the
national elements that make up America.
An interesting illustration of the broad field of work of the public
relations counsel to-day is noted in the efforts which were exerted to
secure wide commendation and support among Americans for the League
of Nations. Obviously a small group of persons, banded together for
the sole purpose of furthering the appeal of the League, would have no
powerful effect. In order to secure a certain homogeneity among the
members of groups who individually had widely varied interests and
affiliations, it was decided to form a non-partisan committee for the
League of Nations.
The public relations consultant, having assisted in the formation of
this committee, called a meeting of women representing Democratic,
Republican, radical, reactionary, club, society, professional and
industrial groups, and suggested that they make a united appeal for
national support of the League of Nations. This meeting accurately and
dramatically reflected disinterested and unified support of the League.
The public relations counsel made articulate what would otherwise have
remained a strong passive sentiment. The still insistent demand for
the League of Nations is undoubtedly due in part to efforts of this
nature.
Cases as diverse as the following are the daily work of the public
relations counsel. One client is advised to give up a Rolls-Royce car
and to buy a Ford, because the public has definite concepts of what
ownership of each represents--another man may be given the contrary
advice. One client is advised to withdraw the hat-check privilege,
because it causes unfavorable public comment. Another is advised to
change the façade of his building to conform to a certain public taste.
One client is advised to announce changes of price policy to the public
by telegraph, another by circular, another by advertising. One client
is advised to publish a Bible, another a book of French Renaissance
tales.
One department store is advised to use prices in its advertising,
another store not to mention them.
A client is advised to make his labor policy, the hygienic aspect of
his factory, his own personality, part of his sales campaign.
Another client is advised to exhibit his wares in a museum and school.
Still another is urged to found a scholarship in his subject at a
leading university.
Further incidents could be given here, illustrating different aspects
of the ordinary daily functions of the public relations counsel--how,
for example, the production of “Damaged Goods” in America became
the basis of the first notably successful move in this country for
overcoming the prudish refusal to appreciate and face the place of
sex in human life; or how, more recently, the desire of some great
corporations to increase their business was, through the advice of
Ivy Lee, their public relations counsel, made the basis of popular
education on the importance of brass and copper to civilization. Enough
has been cited, however, to show how little the average member of the
public knows of the real work of the public relations counsel, and
how that work impinges upon the daily life of the public in an almost
infinite number of ways.
Popular misunderstanding of the work of the public relations counsel is
easily comprehensible because of the short period of his development.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that he has become in recent years too
important a figure in American life for this ignorance to be safely or
profitably continued.
CHAPTER II
THE PUBLIC RELATIONS COUNSEL; THE INCREASED AND INCREASING IMPORTANCE
OF THE PROFESSION
The rise of the modern public relations counsel is based on the need
for and the value of his services. Perhaps the most significant
social, political and industrial fact about the present century is
the increased attention which is paid to public opinion, not only by
individuals, groups or movements that are dependent on public support
for their success, but also by men and organizations which until very
recently stood aloof from the general public and were able to say, “The
public be damned.”
The public to-day demands information and expects also to be accepted
as judge and jury in matters that have a wide public import. The
public, whether it invests its money in subway or railroad tickets,
in hotel rooms or restaurant fare, in silk or soap, is a highly
sophisticated body. It asks questions, and if the answer in word or
action is not forthcoming or satisfactory, it turns to other sources
for information or relief.
The willingness to spend thousands of dollars in obtaining
professional advice on how best to present one’s views or products to a
public is based on this fact.
On every side of American life, whether political, industrial, social,
religious or scientific, the increasing pressure of public judgment has
made itself felt. Generally speaking, the relationship and interaction
of the public and any movement is rather obvious. The charitable
society which depends upon voluntary contributions for its support
has a clear and direct interest in being favorably represented before
the public. In the same way, the great corporation which is in danger
of having its profits taxed away or its sales fall off or its freedom
impeded by legislative action must have recourse to the public to
combat successfully these menaces. Behind these obvious phenomena,
however, lie three recent tendencies of fundamental importance; first,
the tendency of small organizations to aggregate into groups of such
size and importance that the public tends to regard them as semi-public
services; second, the increased readiness of the public, due to the
spread of literacy and democratic forms of government, to feel that it
is entitled to its voice in the conduct of these large aggregations,
political, capitalist or labor, or whatever they may be; third, the
keen competition for public favor due to modern methods of “selling.”
An example of the first tendency--that is, the tendency toward an
increased public interest in industrial activity, because of the
increasing social importance of industrial aggregations--may be found
in an article on “The Critic and the Law” by Richard Washburn Child,
published in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for May, 1906.
Mr. Child discusses in that article the right of the critic to say
uncomplimentary things about matters of public interest. He points
out the legal basis for the right to criticize plays and novels. Then
he adds, “A vastly more important and interesting theory, and one
which must arise from the present state and tendency of industrial
conditions, is whether the acts of men in commercial activity may
ever become so prominent and so far reaching in their effect that
they compel a universal public interest and that public comment is
impliedly invited by reason of their conspicuous and semi-public
nature. It may be said that at no time have private industries become
of such startling interest to the community at large as at present
in the United States.” How far present-day tendencies have borne out
Mr. Child’s expectation of a growing and accepted public interest in
important industrial enterprises, the reader can judge for himself.
With regard to the second tendency--the increased readiness of the
public to expect information about and to be heard on matters of
political and social interest--Ray Stannard Baker’s description of
the American journalist at the Peace Conference of Versailles gives
an excellent picture. Mr. Baker tells what a shock American newspaper
men gave Old World diplomats because at the Paris conference they
“had come, not begging, but demanding. They sat at every doorway,”
says Mr. Baker. “They looked over every shoulder. They wanted every
resolution and report and wanted it immediately. I shall never forget
the delegation of American newspaper men, led by John Nevin, I saw
come striding through that Holy of Holies, the French Foreign Office,
demanding that they be admitted to the first general session of the
Peace Conference. They horrified the upholders of the old methods, they
desperately offended the ancient conventions, they were as rough and
direct as democracy itself.”
And I shall never forget the same feeling brought home to me, when
Herbert Bayard Swope of the _New York World_, in the press room at
the Crillon Hotel in Paris, led the discussion of the newspaper
representatives who forced the conference to regard public opinion and
admit newspaper men, and give out communiques daily.
That the pressure of the public for admittance to the mysteries of
foreign affairs is being felt by the nations of the world may be seen
from the following dispatch published in the _New York Herald_ under
the date line of the _New York Herald_ Bureau, Paris, January 17,
1922: “The success of Lord Riddell in getting publicity for British
opinion during the Washington conference, while the French viewpoint
was not stressed, may result in the appointment by the Poincaré
Government of a real propaganda agent to meet the foreign newspaper
men. The _Eclair_ to-day calls on the new premier to ‘find his own
Lord Riddell in the French diplomatic and parliamentary world, who can
give the world the French interpretation.’” Walter Lippmann of the
_New York World_ in his volume “Public Opinion” declares that “the
significant revolution of modern times is not industrial or economic
or political, but the revolution which is taking place in the art of
creating consent among the governed.” He goes on: “Within the life of
the new generation now in control of affairs, persuasion has become a
self-conscious art and a regular organ of popular government. None of
us begins to understand the consequences, but it is no daring prophecy
to say that the knowledge of how to create consent will alter every
political premise. Under the impact of propaganda, not necessarily
in the sinister meaning of the word alone, the only constants of our
thinking have become variables. It is no longer possible, for example,
to believe in the cardinal dogma of democracy, that the knowledge
needed for the management of human affairs comes up spontaneously from
the human heart. Where we act on that theory we expose ourselves to
self-deception and to forms of persuasion that we cannot verify. It has
been demonstrated that we cannot rely upon intuition, conscience, or
the accidents of casual opinion if we are to deal with the world beyond
our reach.”[2]
In domestic affairs the importance of public opinion not only in
political decisions but in the daily industrial life of the nation may
be seen from numerous incidents. In the _New York Times_ of Friday,
May 20, 1922, I find almost a column article with the heading “Hoover
Prescribes Publicity for Coal.” Among the improvements in the coal
industry generally, which Mr. Hoover, according to the dispatch,
anticipates from widespread, accurate and informative publicity about
the industry itself, are the stimulation of industrial consumers
to more regular demands, the ability to forecast more reliably the
volume of demand, the ability of the consumer to “form some judgment
as to the prices he should pay for coal,” and the tendency to hold
down over-expansion in the industry by publication of the ratio of
production to capacity. Mr. Hoover concludes that really informative
publicity “would protect the great majority of operators from the
criticism that can only be properly leveled at the minority.” Not
so many years ago neither the majority nor the minority in the coal
industry would have concerned itself about public criticism of the
industry.
From coal to jewelry seems rather a long step, and yet in _The
Jeweler’s Circular_, a trade magazine, I find much comment upon the
National Jewelers’ Publicity Association. This association began with
the simple commercial ambition of acquainting the public with “the
value of jewelry merchandise for gift purposes”; now it finds itself
engaged in eliminating from the public mind in general, and from the
minds of legislators in particular, the impression that “the jewelry
business is absolutely useless and that any money spent in a jewelry
store is thrown away.”
Not so long ago it would scarcely have occurred to any one in the
jewelry industry that there was any importance to be attached to the
opinion of the public on the essential or non-essential character of
the jewelry industry. To-day, on the other hand, jewelers find it a
profitable investment to bring before the people the fact that table
silver is an essential in modern life, and that without watches “the
business and industries of the nations would be a sad chaos.” With all
the other competing interests in the world to-day, the question as to
whether the public considers the business of manufacturing and selling
jewelry essential or non-essential is a matter of the first importance
to the industry.
The best examples, of course, of the increasing importance of public
opinion to industries which until recently scarcely concerned
themselves with the existence or non-existence of a public opinion
about them, are those industries which are charged with a public
interest.
In a long article about the attitude of the public towards the
railroads, the _Railway Age_ reaches the conclusion that the most
important problem which American railroads must solve is “the problem
of selling themselves to the public.” Some public utilities maintain
public relations departments, whose function it is to interpret the
organizations to the public, as much as to interpret the public to
them. The significant thing, however, is not the accepted importance of
public opinion in this or the other individual industry, but the fact
that public opinion is becoming cumulatively more and more articulate
and therefore more important to industrial life as a whole.
The New York Central Railroad, for example, maintains a Public
Relations Department under Pitt Hand, whose function it is to make it
clear to the public that the railroad is functioning efficiently to
serve the public in every possible way. This department studies the
public and tries to discover where the railroad’s service can be mended
or improved, or when wrong or harmful impressions upon the public mind
may be corrected.
This Public Relations Department finds it profitable not only to bring
to the attention of the public the salient facts about its trains, its
time tables, and its actual traveling facilities, but also to build
up a broadly coöperative spirit that is indirectly of great value to
itself and benefit to the public. It coöperates, for example, with
such movements as the Welcome Stranger Committee of New York City in
distributing literature to travelers to assist them when they reach
the city. It coöperates with conventions, to the extent of arranging
special travel facilities. Such aids as it affords to the directors
of children’s camps at the Grand Central Station are especially
conspicuous for their dramatic effect on the general public.
Even a service which is in a large measure non-competitive must
continually “sell” itself to the public, as evidenced by the strenuous
efforts of the New York subways and elevated lines to keep themselves
constantly before the people in the most favorable possible aspect. The
subways strive in this regard to create a feeling of submissiveness
toward inconveniences which are more or less unavoidable, and they
strive likewise to fulfill such constructive programs as that of
extending traffic on less frequented lines.
Let us analyze, for example, the activities of the health departments
of such large cities as New York. Of recent years, Health Commissioner
Royal S. Copeland and his statements have formed a fairly regular part
of the day’s news. Publicity is, in fact, one of the major functions of
the Health Department, inasmuch as its constructive work depends to a
considerable extent upon the public education it provides in combating
evils and in building up a spirit of individual and group coöperation
in all health matters. When the Health Department recognizes that such
diseases as cancer, tuberculosis and those following malnutrition
are due generally to ignorance or neglect and that amelioration or
prevention will be the result of knowledge, it is the next logical step
for this department to devote strenuous efforts to its public relations
campaign. The department accordingly does exactly this.
Even governments to-day act upon the principle that it is not
sufficient to govern their own citizens well and to assure the people
that they are acting whole-heartedly in their behalf. They understand
that the public opinion of the entire world is important to their
welfare. Thus Lithuania, already noted, while it had the unbounded love
and support of its own people, was nevertheless in danger of extinction
because it was unknown outside of the immediate boundaries of those
nations which had a personal interest in it. Lithuania was wanted by
Poland; it was wanted by Russia. It was ignored by other nations.
Therefore, through the aid of a public relations expert, Lithuania
issued pamphlets, it paraded, it figured in pictures and motion
pictures and developed a favorable sentiment throughout the world that
in the end gave Lithuania its freedom.
In industry and business, of course, there is another consideration
of first-rate importance, besides the danger of interference by the
public in the conduct of the industry--the increasing intensity of
competition. Business and sales are no longer to be had, if ever
they were to be had for the asking. It must be clear to any one who
has looked through the mass of advertising in street cars, subways,
newspapers and magazines, and the other avenues of approach to the
public, that products and services press hard upon one another in the
effort to focus public attention on their offerings and to induce
favorable action.
The keen competition in the selling of products for public favor makes
it imperative that the seller consider other things than merely his
product in trying to build up a favorable public reaction. He must
either himself appraise the public mind and his relation to it or he
must engage the services of an expert who can aid him to do this. He
may to-day consider, for instance, in his sales campaign, not only the
quality of his soap but the working conditions, the hours of labor,
even the living conditions of the men who make it.
The public relations counsel must advise him on these factors as well
as on their presentation to the public most interested in them.
In this state of affairs it is not at all surprising that industrial
leaders should give the closest attention to public relations in both
the broadest and the most practical concept of the term.
Large industrial groups, in their associations, have assigned a
definite place to public relations bureaus.
The Trade Association Executives in New York, an association of
individual executives of state, territorial or national trade
associations, such as the Allied Wall Paper Industry, the American
Hardware Manufacturers’ Association, the American Protective Tariff
League, the Atlantic Coast Shipbuilders’ Association, the National
Association of Credit Men, the Silk Association of America and some
seventy-four others, includes among its associations’ functions such
activities as the following: coöperative advertising; adjustments and
collections; cost accounting; a credit bureau; distribution and new
markets; educational, standardization and research work; exhibits; a
foreign trade bureau; house organs; general publicity; an industrial
bureau; legislative work; legal aid; market reports; statistics; a
traffic department; Washington representation; arbitration. It is
noteworthy that forty of these associations have incorporated public
relations with general publicity as a definite part of their program in
furthering the interests of their organizations.
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company devotes effort to studying
its public relations problems, not only to increase its volume of
business, but also to create a coöperative 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
satisfying the public that its service was necessarily below standard
because of the peculiar national conditions. The public, in response to
the efforts of the company, which were analogous to a gracious personal
apology, accepted more or less irksome conditions as a matter of
course. Had the company not cared about the public, the public would
undoubtedly have been unpleasantly insistent upon a maintenance of the
pre-war standards of service.
Americans were once wont to jest about the dependence of France and
Switzerland upon the tourist trade. To-day we see American cities
competing, as part of their public relations programs, for conventions,
fairs and conferences. The _New York Times_ printed some time ago
an address by the governor of Nebraska, in which he told a group of
advertising men that publicity had made Nebraska prosper.
The _New York Herald_ carried an editorial recently, entitled, “It
pays a state to advertise,” centering about the campaign of the state
of Vermont to present itself favorably to public attention. According
to the editorial, the state publishes a magazine, _The Vermonter_,
an attractive publication filled with interesting illustrations and
well-written text. It is devoted exclusively to revealing in detail the
industrial and agricultural resources of the state and to presenting
Vermont’s strikingly beautiful scenic attractions for the summer
visitor. Similar instances of elaborate efforts, taking the form of
action or the printed word, either to obtain public attention or to
obtain a favorable attitude from the public for individual industries
and groups of industries, will come readily to the reader’s mind.
Without attempting to take too seriously an amusing story printed
in a recent issue of a New York newspaper, leaders in movements
and industries of modern life will be inclined to agree with the
protagonist of publicity spoken of. According to the story, a man set
out to prove to another that it was not so much what a man did as
the way it was heralded which insures his place in history. He cited
Barbara Frietchie, Evangeline, John Smith and a half dozen others as
instances to prove that they are remembered not for what they did, but
because they had excellent counsel on their public relations.
“‘Very good,’ agreed the friend. ‘But show me a case where a person who
has really done a big thing has been overlooked.’
“‘You know Paul Revere, of course,’ he said. ‘But tell me the names of
the two other fellows who rode that night to rouse the countryside with
the news that the British were coming.’
“‘Never heard of them,’ was the answer.
“‘There were three waiting to see the signal hung in the tower of the
Old North Church,’ he said. ‘Every one of them was mounted and spurred,
just as Mr. Longfellow described Paul Revere. They all got the signal.
They all rode and waked the farmers, spreading the warning. Afterward
one of them was an officer in Washington’s army, another became
governor of one of the States. Not one in twenty thousand Americans
ever heard the names of the other two, and there is hardly a person in
America who does not know all about Revere.’
“‘Did Revere make history or did Longfellow?’”
CHAPTER III
THE FUNCTION OF A SPECIAL PLEADER
Public opinion has entered life at many points as a decisive factor.
Men and movements whose interests will be affected by the attitude of
the public are taking pains to have themselves represented in the court
of public opinion by the most skillful counselors they can obtain. The
business of the public relations counsel is somewhat like the business
of the attorney--to advise his client and to litigate his causes for
him.
While the special pleader in law, the lawyer for the defense, has
always been accorded a formal hearing by judge and jury, this has not
been the case before the court of public opinion. Here mob psychology,
the intolerance of human society for a dissenting point of view, have
made it difficult and often dangerous for a man to plead for a new or
unpopular cause.
_The Fourth Estate_, a newspaper for the makers of newspapers, says:
“‘Counsel on public relations’ and ‘director of public relations’ are
two terms that are being encountered more often every day. There is a
familiar tinge to them, in a way, but in justice to the men who bear
these titles and to the concerns which employ them, it should be said
that they are--or can be--dissociated from the old idea of ‘publicity
man.’ The very fact that many of the largest corporations in the
country are recognizing the need of maintaining right relationships
with the public is alone important enough to assure a fair and even
favorable hearing for their public relations departments.
“Whether a man is really entitled to the appellation ‘counsel on public
relations’ or whether he should merely be called ‘publicity man’ rests
entirely with the individual and the firm that employs him. As we see
it, a man who is really counsel or director of public relations has one
of the most important jobs on the roster of any concern; but a man who
merely represents the old idea of getting something for nothing from
publishers is about _passé_....
“So there is made plain the difference between two terms, the old and
the new, both of which have occasioned much natural curiosity among
newspaper men. When Napoleon said, ‘Circumstance? I make circumstance,’
he expressed very nearly the spirit of the public relations counsel’s
work. So long as this new professional branch live up to the
possibilities that their title suggests, they are bound to accomplish
general constructive good. Maybe they, at last, will make us forget
that ingratiating though insidious individual, the publicity man.”
As indicative perhaps of the growing importance of the profession, an
article by Mary Swain Routzahn, in charge of the Department of Surveys
and Exhibits of the Russell Sage Foundation, on “Woman’s Chance as
Publicity Specialist” published in the _New York Globe_ of August 2nd,
1921, discusses the profession as one of recent development, but of
such importance as to deserve the serious consideration of women who
are interested in making a professional career for themselves.
The public relations counsel is first of all a student. His field
of study is the public mind. His text books for this study are the
facts of life; the articles printed in newspapers and magazines, the
advertisements that are inserted in publications, the billboards that
line the streets, the railroads and the highways, the speeches that are
delivered in legislative chambers, the sermons issuing from pulpits,
anecdotes related in smoking rooms, the gossip of Wall Street, the
patter of the theater and the conversation of other men who, like him,
are interpreters and must listen for the clear or obscure enunciations
of the public.
He brings the talent of his intuitive understanding to the aid of his
practical and psychological tests and surveys. But he is not only a
student. He is a practitioner with a wide range of instruments and a
definite technique for their use.
First of all, there are the circumstances and events he helps to
create. After that there are the instruments by which he broadcasts
facts and ideas to the public; advertising, motion pictures, circular
letters, booklets, handbills, speeches, meetings, parades, news
articles, magazine articles and whatever other mediums there are
through which public attention is reached and influenced.
Now sensitiveness to the state of mind of the public is a difficult
thing to achieve or maintain. Any man can tell you with more or less
accuracy and clearness his own reactions on any particular issue. But
few men have the time or the interest or the training to develop a
sense of what other persons think or feel about the same issue. In his
own profession the skilled practitioner is sensitive and understanding.
The lawyer can tell what argument will appeal to court or jury. The
salesman can tell what points to stress to his prospective buyers. The
politician can tell what to emphasize to his audience, but the ability
to estimate group reactions on a large scale over a wide geographic
and psychological area is a specialized ability which must be developed
with the same painstaking self-criticism and with the same dependence
on experience that are required for the development of the clinical
sense in the doctor or surgeon.
Of course, the public relations counsel employs all those practical
means of gauging the public mind which modern advertising has developed
and uses. He employs the research campaign, the symposium, the survey
of a particular group or of a particular state of mind as a further
aid, and confirmation or modification of his own appraisals and
judgments.
Charles J. Rosebault, the author of an article in the _New York Times_
recently, headed “Men Who Wield the Spotlight,” remarks that the
competent public relations counsel has generally had some newspaper
training and that the value of this training “is a keen sense of the
likes and dislikes of what we call the public--that is, the average
of men and women. The needle of the compass is no more sensitive to
direction, nor the mercury in the thermometer to variations of heat and
cold than is this expert to the influence of publicity upon the mind
and emotions of the man in the street.”
It is not surprising that the growing interest of the public in men
and movements should have led to the spontaneous creation of the new
profession.
We have presented here, in very broad outline, a picture of the
fundamental work of the public relations counsel and of the fundamental
conditions which have produced him. On the one hand, a complex
environment of which only small, disconnected portions are available
to different persons; on the other hand, the great and increasing
importance either of making one’s case accessible to the public mind or
of determining whether that case will impinge favorably or unfavorably
upon the public mind--these two conditions, taken together, have
resulted inevitably in the public relations counsel. Mr. Lippmann finds
in these facts the underlying reason for the existence of what he calls
the “press agent.” “The enormous discretion,” he says, “as to what
facts and what impressions shall be reported is steadily convincing
every organized group of people that, whether it wishes to secure
publicity or to avoid it, the exercise of discretion cannot be left to
the reporter. It is safer to hire a press agent who stands between the
group and the newspapers.”[3]
It is clear that the popular impression of the scope and functions
of the counsel on public relations must be radically revised if any
accurate picture of the profession is to be looked for. The public
relations counsel is the lineal descendant, to be sure, of the
circus advance-man and of the semi-journalist promoter of small-part
actresses. The economic conditions which have produced him, however,
and made his profession the important one it is to-day, have in
themselves materially changed the character of his work.
His primary function now is not to bring his clients by chance to the
public’s attention, nor to extricate them from difficulties into which
they have already drifted, but to advise his clients how positive
results can be accomplished in the field of public relations and to
keep them from drifting inadvertently into unfortunate or harmful
situations. The public relations counsel will find that the conditions
under which his client operates, be it a government, a manufacturer of
food products or a railroad system, are constantly changing and that he
must advise modifications in policy in accordance with such changes in
the public point of view. As such, the public relations counsel must be
alive to the events of the day--not only the events that are printed
but the events which are forming hour by hour, as reported in the words
that are spoken on the street, in the smoking cars, in the school room,
or expressed in any of the other forms of thought communication that
make up public opinion.
So long as the press remains the greatest single medium for reaching
the public mind, the work of the public relations counsel will
necessarily have close contacts with the work of the journalist. He
transmits his ideas, however, through all those mediums which help to
build public opinion--the radio, the lecture platform, advertising, the
stage, the motion picture, the mails. On the other hand, he is becoming
to-day as much of an adviser on actions as he is the communicator of
these actions to the public.
The public relations consultant is ideally a constructive force in the
community. The results of his work are often accelerated interest in
matters of value and importance to the social, economic or political
life of the community.
The public relations counsel is the pleader to the public of a point
of view. He acts in this capacity as a consultant both in interpreting
the public to his client and in helping to interpret his client to the
public. He helps to mould the action of his client as well as to mould
public opinion.
His profession is in a state of evolution. His future must depend as
much upon the growing realization by the public of the responsibility
to the public of individuals, institutions and organizations as upon
the public relations counsel’s own realization of the importance of his
work.
PART II
THE GROUP AND HERD
CHAPTER I
WHAT CONSTITUTES PUBLIC OPINION?
The character and origins of public opinion, the factors that make
up the individual mind and the group mind must be understood if the
profession of public relations counsel is to be intelligently practiced
and its functions and possibilities accurately estimated. Society must
understand the fundamental character of the work he is doing, if for no
other reason than its own welfare.
The public relations counsel works with that vague, little-understood,
indefinite material called public opinion.
Public opinion is a term describing an ill-defined, mercurial
and changeable group of individual judgments. Public opinion is
the aggregate result of individual opinions--now uniform, now
conflicting--of the men and women who make up society or any group of
society. In order to understand public opinion, one must go back to the
individual who makes up the group.
The mental equipment of the average individual consists of a mass of
judgments on most of the subjects which touch his daily physical or
mental life. These judgments are the tools of his daily being and
yet they are his judgments, not on a basis of research and logical
deduction, but for the most part dogmatic expressions accepted on the
authority of his parents, his teachers, his church, and of his social,
his economic and other leaders.
The public relations counsel must understand the social implications
of an individual’s thoughts and actions. Is it, for example, purely an
accident that a man belongs to one church rather than another or to any
church at all? Is it an accident that makes Boston women prefer brown
eggs and New York women white eggs? What are the factors that work in
favor of conversion of a man from one political party to another or
from one type of food to another?
Why do certain communities resist the prohibition law--why do others
abide by it? Why is it difficult to start a new party movement--or to
fight cancer? Why is it difficult to fight for sex education? Why does
the free trader denounce protectionism, and vice versa?
If we had to form our own judgments on every matter, we should all have
to find out many things for ourselves which we now take for granted. We
should not cook our food or live in houses--in fact, we should revert
to primitive living.
The public relations counsel must deal with the fact that persons who
have little knowledge of a subject almost invariably form definite and
positive judgments upon that subject.
“If we examine the mental furniture of the average man,” says William
Trotter, the author of a comprehensive study of the social psychology
of the individual,[4] “we shall find it made up of a vast number of
judgments of a very precise kind upon subjects of very great variety,
complexity, and difficulty. He will have fairly settled views upon the
origin and nature of the universe, and upon what he will probably call
its meaning; he will have conclusions as to what is to happen to him at
death and after, as to what is and what should be the basis of conduct.
He will know how the country should be governed, and why it is going
to the dogs, why this piece of legislation is good and that bad. He
will have strong views upon military and naval strategy, the principles
of taxation, the use of alcohol and vaccination, the treatment of
influenza, the prevention of hydrophobia, upon municipal trading, the
teaching of Greek, upon what is permissible in art, satisfactory in
literature, and hopeful in science.
“The bulk of such opinions must necessarily be without rational
basis, since many of them are concerned with problems admitted by the
expert to be still unsolved, while as to the rest it is clear that the
training and experience of no average man can qualify him to have any
opinion upon them at all. The rational method adequately used would
have told him that on the great majority of these questions there could
be for him but one attitude--that of suspended judgment.”
The reader will recall from his own experience an almost infinite
number of instances in which the amateur has been fully prepared to
deliver expert advice and to give final judgment in matters upon which
his ignorance is patent to every one except himself.
In the Middle Ages, society was convinced that there were witches.
People were so positive that they burned people whom they suspected
of witchcraft. To-day there is an equal number of people who believe
just as firmly, one way or the other, about spiritualism and spirits.
They do not burn mediums. But people who have made no research of the
subject pass strong denunciatory judgments. Others, no better informed,
consider mediums divinely inspired. Not so long ago every intelligent
man knew that the world was flat. To-day the average man has a belief
just as firm and unknowing in the mysterious force which he has heard
called atomic energy.
It is axiomatic that men who know little are often intolerant of a
point of view that is contrary to their own. The bitterness that has
been brought about by arguments on public questions is proverbial.
Lovers have been parted by bitter quarrels on theories of pacificism
or militarism; and when an argument upon an abstract question engages
opponents they often desert the main line of argument in order to abuse
each other.
How often this is true can be seen from the congressional records of
controversies in which the personal attack supersedes logic. In a
recent fight against the proposed tariff measures, a protagonist of
protection published long vindictive statements, in which he tried to
confound the character and the disinterestedness of his opponents.
Logically his discussion should have been based only upon the sound
economic, social and political value of the bill as presented.
A hundred leading American bankers, business men, professional men and
economists united in public disapproval of this plan. They stated their
opinion that the “American” Valuation Plan, as it was called, would
endanger the prosperity of the country, that it would be inimical to
our foreign relations and that it would injure the welfare of every
country with whom our commercial and industrial ties were at all
close. This group was a broadly representative group of men and women,
yet the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee accused all these
people of acting upon motives of personal gain and lack of patriotism.
Prejudice superseded logic.
Intolerance is almost inevitably accompanied by a natural and true
inability to comprehend or make allowance for opposite points of view.
The skilled scientist who may be receptive to any promising suggestion
in his own field may outside of his own field be found quite unwilling
to make any attempt at understanding a point of view contrary to his
own. In politics, for example, his understanding of the problem may
be fragmentary, yet he will enter excitedly into discussions on bonus
and ship subsidy, of which he has made no study. We find here with
significant uniformity what one psychologist has called “logic-proof
compartments.”
The logic-proof compartment has always been with us. Scientists have
lost their lives through refusing to see flaws in their theories.
Intelligent mothers give food to their babies that they would
manifestly forbid other mothers to give their children. Especially
significant is the tendency of races to maintain religious beliefs
and customs long after these have lost their meaning. Dietary laws,
hygienic laws, even laws based upon geographical conditions that have
been changed for more than a thousand years are still maintained in the
logic-proof compartment of dogmatic adherence. There is a story that
certain missionaries give money to heathen at the time of conversion
and that the heathen, having got their money, bathe away their
conversion in sacred streams.
The characteristic of the human mind to adhere to its beliefs is
excellently summarized in the volume by Mr. Trotter to which reference
has been made before. “It is clear,” says Mr. Trotter,[5] “at the
outset that these beliefs are invariably regarded as rational and
defended as such, while the position of one who holds contrary views is
held to be obviously unreasonable.
“The religious man accuses the atheist of being shallow and irrational,
and is met by a similar reply. To the Conservative the amazing thing
about the Liberal is his incapacity to see reason and accept the
only possible solution of public problems. Examination reveals the
fact that the differences are not due to the commission of the mere
mechanical fallacies of logic, since these are easily avoided, even by
the politician, and since there is no reason to believe that one party
in such controversies is less logical than the other. The difference
is due rather to the fundamental assumptions of the antagonists being
hostile, and these assumptions are derived from herd-suggestions;
to the Liberal certain basal conceptions have acquired the quality
of instinctive truth, have become _a priori_ syntheses, because of
the accumulated suggestions to which he has been exposed; and a
similar explanation applies to the atheist, the Christian, and the
Conservative. Each, it is important to remember, finds in consequence
the rationality of his position flawless and is quite incapable of
detecting in it the fallacies which are obvious to his opponent, to
whom that particular series of assumptions has not been rendered
acceptable by herd suggestion.”
Thus the public relations counsel has to consider the _a priori_
judgment of any public he deals with before counseling any step that
would modify those things in which the public has an established belief.
It is seldom effective to call names or to attempt to discredit the
beliefs themselves. The counsel on public relations, after examination
of the sources of established beliefs, must either discredit the old
authorities or create new authorities by making articulate a mass
opinion against the old belief or in favor of the new.