The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1919-05-29
the POWER OF SUGGESTION

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ceeds to carefully SOW the seeds Of
suspicion, jealousy. hatfed. and re-
venge in the Noor's mind. The vile
suggsstions drive the Moor to suspect
his most trusted friend and murder his
newly welded wife. The cours Of the
r0ue or libertine bent on the ruin Of q
noble young woman has been depicted
by a dozen different psychological
novelists and writer's. First impress
on them the fact that most people take
liberties with the moral law, then
bring images through sloppy pictures
or reading into their Imagination.
Work on their baser feelings and pas
sions. Remove them from a pure way
Of thought to a foul and filthy one,
especially by dribbling into their mind
suspicion, seeds of passion In the form
Of salacious and suggestive images.
Ideas and images transform people
without their own selves being con-
scious Of the change. Our thoughts
are our bosom companions. They
make US or break us.
In the Courier-News, the Leader and
the rest of the Townley kept propa-
ganda press you find certain sugges-
tons repeated v e and over again. BY
grouping these suggestive expressions
it Is easy to see what object 10 sought.
For example: Farmer robbed" "Old
gang Of Twin cities" ION a 90 million
bushel crop you are robbed 50 million
dollars" "Extortionists," wealthy
capitalists" "Unearned wealth." Tx
ploiter Of the poor" Many a man,
even though we'll fixed and living in
dependently on his farm, hears this
rant and reads these statements, is
waited on by a gang Of solemn faced
organizers who assur him he Is robbed
until he begins to feel that he certainly
has Travelled the road to Jericho and
has fallen among thieves. Instead of
noting his many comforts and how
much better off he now Is than he wal
years ago, he sees in his mind only
m%illionaires lolling in Marmon cars
like Jack Hastings used to do in his
apostolic days. and he is changed from
q contented and useful man into an
envious creature full Of hatred for
everybody who seems q little better
off than himself.
: Then again such headline express
sions as these: "a new day." New
order" Great change" Verge Of
revolution" "Great %upheaval," 1.-THE
crime of property" Criminal founda-
tion," "lnherited wrongs" MAY day
agitation great" BY and by the man
who sees and hears these suggestions
gets to be like the boy looking for
ghosts. He 1lls the dim and shady
places he doesn't know with spooks
and COLLINS. The principles, institu-
tons, and axioms of our government
which have been his and his ancestors
pride for q century and q half, slip
away from him. The new order, the
new day is going to supplant them.
Again notice these: "Bolshevism Is
better than represented" 1--WE do not
get the truth about B%olshevism,"
"Soviet government Social justice"
"Laborers take charge" Soviet now
in charge" 'Reactionaries attacking
Communists" "Junkers opposed to
Soviets," "Old gang aristocracy fight
ing against people," people set up
communist government" Here IL
dribbled into the mind a substitute
for our government. The fact that the
soviet is plain robber gangs in control
by means Of arms, that no vote Is
taken except In the ruling clique, that
no consent of governed is mentioned,
besides the outrages against all de-
cency by the red-handed murder gangs
these facts are not mentioned. But
that this Russian bestial brutality
called 4 soviet 10 to be the government
Of the future, this precious idea 10
nursed and carefully planted in the
minds already convinced that they are
robbed and that 4 new order and q
new day IL coming. OF course a day
when nobody needs to work. not even
the farmer, because he will then live
off the profits Of the mill and terminal
elevator, profits which he collects
from laborers, middlemen and other
farmers. Then finally the means:
Direct action" Peaceful revolution"
Strikes" every little while 4 de-
scription Of mobs attacking police
stations and city halls" Cartoons
showing destruction Of Big BE-"
"Prejudiced accounts favoring every
act of violence" All this to get the
image Of violence, mob attacks, in
surrection into peoples minds. Just
as the power Of suggestion transforms
the dime novel reading boy into 4
tramp and I. w. w.. the gun-toting
Nick Carter kid into a murderer and
the sloppy novel reading girl into a
disreputable, 10 it is calculated that
dinging these suggestive phrases and
images Of violence and direct action
into the minds Of people shall change
them from contented citizens into
envious. hating, disloyal men ready to
do violence, not for standards Of
truth or religion, but for social Justice
which means taking the other fellows
property, killing those who oppose,
communize the women and make them
chattels again, place private work and
business in the hands Of these liars
and agitators. While they murder the
priests Of Russia and abuse the church
here. let US remember that the same
church teaches that 1.-THE devil is the
father Of lies and that he has always
been 4 murderer" Men who have
brains enough to know that all human
progress IL founded on work. and
property and personal rights. should
stop to consider the possible results
Of the continual suggestions poured
into peoples minds. This is every
mans business. It's his own fat that's
in the IRE. Let these social liars run