The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-02-01
Prof. G.. +. KOehler Reads
a Paper on Lynching.
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CROWD
Many Will Descend 10 Evil Doing When
the Individual Would Shrink
Thgrefrom.
From Fridays Daily.

Professor C. +. Kochlcr, formerly of
the NTankato normal faculty, now at the
head of the Brandrup & Nettleton school
at Winona. read a paper before the Mems
club of the Central Methodist church,
on Tuesday evening, on Psychology of
the Crowd or the Mob Spirit"
The paper represented much research
on the part of Professor Koehler and the
results of his study were presented in a
most interesting manner. The professor
contended that the mob spirit was not
always downward, although perhaps its
most frequent manifestations were along
that line. 1t depended on the leadership
whether the manifestation was down
ward or upward. In great evangelistic
movements where large crowds were
moved to better living the movement
was distinctly upward. In the ordinary
revelation of the mob spirit such as at
| lynchings, etc, the movement was down
ward. In defining crOwdd and the MOB
spirit that sometimes takes possession
| of crowd Professor Koehlcr said:
''What is crowd? Or what is not a
crowd?
"The uprising in New Orleans Il few
wears AGO Oh the accession of the murder
of the chief of police by Italian malta
and the consequent murder of number
of Italians does not answer to the idea
of an organized mob or psychological
crowd However. the Cincinnati riot of
| 1882 was a crowd. I'm crowd the in
! terests and ideas take one and the same
direction and their conscious personality
vanishes. The disappearance of con-
scious personality and the turning OF
feelings and thoughts in definite dir
ection constitute the characteristics of Il
psychological crowd. In another form
| it may be put as one -mindedness due
to imitation. f. A. Ross defines a mob
as crowd of people showing a unani-
| by the contagion of feeling at the oc-
| currence of anything unusual, a wave of
excitement passes over the entire herd
or flock and they respond instantly and
| unanimously. There is no sign of in
quiry, doubt or reflection. Harsh condi-
tions OF animal life cause this prompt ODE
dience to suggestion. Nature has sifted
out the stupid, needless and skillful, and
| preserved the most alert to suggestion.
| There is 10 other reason why a feeling
should run like wild fire through a
herd of deer The human analogue to
the agitated herd is the mob or crowd"
Continuing the professor said in part:
Man is swayed by a moral code
founded OH discipline often quite alien
to his impulses. Remove the fear of
consequences by the anonymity of the
crowd; take away personal responsibility
by the participation of numbers, and peo-
pile will descend to evil-doing violence,
showing how far below the social moral
standard lie their prevailing inclinations.
Other traits of the crowd are ferocity,
shamelessness, or mina1ity, courage, in
tolerance, all due to sense of numbers.
'The telegraph, telephone, press, fast
mail, etc, have made mental contact
and contagion of feeling possible with
out proximity and personal presence
Dense populations especially city dwell
ers. furnished with the means of rapid
communication excmplify the conduct of
the crowd. Here we get unanimity, impul-
siycness, exagSeration of feeling, eXces-
sive credulity, fckleness, inability to
reason and sudden alterations of bold
ness and cowardice. I'm the city at
tention is bombarded by innumerable
sense impressions, producing neurasthen-
ia OF hysteria, the peculiar malady of the
city dweller. Many mental degenerates
are sheltered in tie city and thrive there.
/ Easy communication makes possible
mental contact here. The main thing in
the mob mind is mental contact.
| A craze or fad is that irrational UNI
animity of interest, feeling, opinion or
deed in a body of communicating indi
! viduals which results from suggestion or
i imitation a craze is the result of UNI
animity arrived at under great excite
lnent, while the fad is that milder form
of imitation which appears i'll sudden
universal interest is some novelty
cit is contended that the popular mind
is not mere aggregate of individual
minds-a mere arithmetical sum of SO
many units. There is reason for believ-
ing that the social mind is the result
lof transformation similar to chemi-
Teal process The fermentation of mind
lin contact with other minds produces a
lchange in the associated minds and leaves
permanent effects on individual mental
life. The process is as yet unexplained.
The product has been observed innum-
cradle times"
/ In conclusion Professor Koehler sug-
'gested that prabably the most satisfac-
tory study OF the popular mind would