The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-09-05
Organizing Public Opinion.
BY JOHN ID. BARRY.


! A public recently made shrewd remark
i Public opinion be organized like trust OF
anything else"
1t is important for us to bear this truth in mind
1t may make us more wary in forming opinions
/ There able men in this country who long
ago recognized this truth.
/ They have acted on it. sometimes legitimately
sometimes iegitimately.
1 I know who built up highly successful
business as an organizer of public opinion.
| At first his only capital his skill a
writer. He knew how to be interesting Any sub
ject he touched he somehow managed to make at
tractive, not only to the few, but to the many.
He began his work in highly respectable way.
He went to the president of great university and
said: "Now that competition for students is so
strong among universities you ought to adver-
tise".
The president smiled "Our name is sufficient
advertisement" he replied. eff we to try to
exploit ourselves by means of advertisements we
should simply impair our dignity and in the end
do ourselves HARM"
The writer shook his head. "You don't under
stand what mean. My aim is not to exploit your
university in advertising columns l agree that
that would be poor way. l will simply keep the
! work you are doing before the public by means
of entertaining and. instructive articles. These
will be published reading matter in newspapers
and magazines"
| The president was impressed. He was highly
moral man. He would not consciously do wrong
even to help his university He thought he saw
only good in the proposition. So he agreed to
give that young man large fee each year for
the sake of having the fine work in the various
departments of his universities made known to the
public.
He would himself make that everything
appearing in these articles was the exact truth,
that is what he believed to be the exact truth.
| He forgot that even truth may be means of
corrupting public opinion
The wrong, of course, lay in the printing Of
these articles as reading matter, instead of what
/ it really was, advertising.
! In other words, biased matter was presented
| to the public as though it unbiased matter
/ Lately folks have grown more scrupulous about
! advertising. that is. some folks. There is ten
dency among self-respectng publishers to watch
their advertising columns far closely than
they used to do. Where they would once have
eagerly accepted advertisements they now reject
Many publishers reject advertisements that they
know to be dishonest, or, in their effect on public
welfare, unwholesome.
The other day l heard that Mrs. Charlotte
Perkins Gilman. publisher and editor, we'll as
the sole writer Of the magazine called 1.-THE Fore
runner" went far to write the adver-
ttisements herself. She would not advertise any,
thing that she did not believe to be good.
1t would be asking a great deal of all human
nature to reach dizzy moral height and to
stay there.
There is something to be said from the point
of view that makes advertisers alone responsible
for their statements. At any rate, when the public
knows that statement is advertisement, it is,
to that extent, treated with frankness.
But when advertisement is published not
an advertisement but reading matter, either
anonymously or signed the public is deceived out
rageously, crimnally. The offense is of the
worst of all public ofenses. 1t leads corruption
of the whole body polite. 1t is the poisoning of
the public mind, the weakening of the powers that
sustain democracy
That young man with his exploitation bureau
made dignhed beginning. Many people would
agree with that university president that it was
highly praseworthy. The university president
started him what promised to be brilliant
career. In short time he secured many clients
that he couldn't do all the writing himself. So he
proceeded to organize staff of writers. They in
cuded young men of exceptional ability, college
graduates. some of them devoted to high ideals,
influenced by the social spirit of the time
These young men were put to various tasks,
exploiting this interest and that, including here
and there an interest that wished to secure at as
small cost possible, cost at all, valuable
privileges from the people.
Gracefully, interestingly, in articles dissent
mated throughout the land, stories about these in
terests would appear. They gave a great deal of
instruction. They enabled many good people to
spend hours of enjoyment
They were organizing public opinion. deceiv-
ing it, degrading it, insulting it.
Fortunately, one of the watchdogs of public
opinion, honest and fearless publication
turned eye on the exploitation bureau. One
day it made an exposure.
The exploitation bureau lsnguished. 1t is now
out of business.
After all, in spite of the charming way in which
these articles were written it crude affair.
In the first place it made the blunder of calling
itself exploitation bureau. To do its work eff