Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-04-23
EAGLE RIVER, WISCONSIN. APRIL %, 1925
PUBLIC OPINION AND PUBLIC MIND

One of the errors made by pubcsts is the confusion
or public opinion with the fubc mind The difference
between public opinion and public conviction may be the
poles apart The thick of the world may exist between
what is public feeling today and what the underlying
public belief yesterday, today and tomorrow.
This has been found true to their sorrow, by men
who have tried to msead the public by appeals to cred
ulity superstition or spite The magician mas appeaed
to credulity the religious fakr to superstition the pot
cal demagogue their Spite Yet of these has been
continuously successful because of the nsstence OF the
or that NAV be started but no wave VI human mind
blows continuously any direction except that of the
truth You may get todays public opinion on your slde
can you get tomorrow's public conviction?
Any observer of our American life, enlightened as
it is will see ample illustration of these statements 1t is
probably less easy than it few years ago to rouse
public opinion yet there are signs that the manlfod age
ces organized to regiment public expression are fairly
successful in achieving their ends 1t is much easier TO
get public expression (Which the modern goa than to
get public opinion, which years was the goal
sought. That is to say, whereas it necessary
engender public opinion before public expression
could be hoped for it is possible to get public ex-
preston without the time and labor to create
public opinion Any secretary of paclflst organization
can give illustrations of how this works.
In this country we have passed through several
grades of opinion the economic side means business
and industry These are Of course, but appearances
parts manifestations Of economics but for the casual
thinker thew stand for the whole thing may be worth
while to remember that the central economic problem was
here before modern industry made it's appearance and
that it will remain when modern industry has adapted
and purged itself and become acceptable proved and
wholesome, not to say necessary, part OF lie.
The entire danger resident in popular resentment
mlSloQ
will presently be made arises from the shorsighed self
shness of who satisfy themselves that verbal eX
plantations which accepted by the public are sufficient
to satisfy the moral demand for more adequately social
situation.
To put it another way in this country we have seen
period when the people, ourselves, of course among
them reused against business Business like bols
boy in his first long trousers was carrying itself
quite proudly with an insufficient regard for of
the finer qualities in which everyone has interest
And the expressed disregard of friends is potent to
effect change upon the schooboy and as addition,
ho
men of his mind business needed criticism and
in addition benefited by maturity of wisdom ia its
quarters.
This enabled business to pass what might have been,
and which in undoubtedly was, crisis The i'm
maturity OF many business metnoos ana Inc rise 81 pe
ter business who repudiated the worst OF the old
methods justified public mind in reaching decision
that what they regarded deliberate and organized wick
edness was merely form of business ignorance.
This briefly, and perhaps inadequatey, sketches a
period the history Of the American mind which makes
our people the best educated in industrial and economic
questions of any people the globe Almost other
people be classified having met these same ques-
tions other people be classified having tackled
them and dealt with them Other peoples perhaps have
charged these questions wildly poured out their political
revolutionary resentment without stint but have re-
turned to their normal state with knowledge
power than they had when they set out They have felt
the wrongness of the condition. they have achieved only
the most crude and altogether impractical IDEAS OF the
remedy.
Observers who declare that the American people
socially dull because they have not during recent years
naugurated the disorders that have marked other
people, overlook the fact that the American economic
consciousness is balanced by high degree OF economic
knowledge and that this functions in two directions
first preventing the development among OF abuses
such as may arise among more backward civilizations
and second enabling to deal more efficiently with
such abuses may creep in and call for attention
Among competent people you don't need revolution eV-
cry time you require to open up a road.
In the last presidential campaign considerable atten
ton was given the American idea of business 1t
not so much plea from business to be given chance,
as it was plea from the people themselves that real
constructive business be released from the suspicion and
hndrance under which had progressed The idea was
hailed with general agreement People recognized that
industry vitality interviewer with our daily well
fare that longer element to be attacked but
one to be nurured And the recognition as was
and phrased in all the terms of and good
will, very pleasant.
The pleasure due doubt in part to public sat-
sfaction that as people could come to construc
tive state of mind concerning industry but strong ee
ment the pleasure the public belief that it was the
new era in business that being proclaimed not the
old errors that being enthroned again No man UNI
derstanding the situation will suggest that this not
part of the public belief that it the American
idea in business that being given the free highway
of American confidence.
Has that hope been fulfilled? Has that confidence
been justified? Voices heard here and there asking
these questions thought is creeping through the con-
youtions of the national mind that is the old style OF
business the exploiting and proteerng type which has
stepped in to take the place of what people thought was
promised And it is said that this thought ha sample
Justification There are who seem to think that the
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