onse to changed conditions. Change in mores is
something like change in the nest-building habits of certain birds, the
swallows, for example. This change, like the change in bird habits,
takes place without discussion--without clear consciousness--in response
to changed conditions. Furthermore, changes in the mores, like changes
in fashion, are only slightly under our control. They are not the result
of agitation; rather they are responsible for the agitation.

There are profound changes going on in our social organization today.
Industrial democracy, or something corresponding to it, is coming. It is
coming not entirely because of social agitation. It is coming, perhaps,
in spite of agitation. It is a social change, but it is part of the
whole cosmic process.

There is an intimate relation between the mores and opinion. The mores
represent the attitudes in which we agree. Opinion represents these
attitudes in so far as we do not agree. We do not have opinions except
over matters which are in dispute.

So far as we are controlled by habit and custom, by the mores, we do not
have opinions. I find out what my opinion is only after I discover that
I disagree with my fellow. What I call my opinions are for the most part
invented to justify my agreements or disagreements with prevailing
public opinion. The mores do not need justification. As soon as I seek
justification for them they have become matters of opinion.

Public opinion is just the opinion of individuals plus their
differences. There is no public opinion where there is no substantial
agreement. But there is no public opinion where there is not
disagreement. Public opinion presupposes public discussion. When a
matter has reached the stage of public discussion it becomes a matter of
public opinion.

Before war was declared in France there was anxiety, speculation. After
mobilization began, discussion ceased. The national ideal was exalted.
The individual ceased to exist. Men ceased even to think. They simply
obeyed. This is what happened in all the belligerent countries except
America. It did not quite happen here. Under such circumstances public
opinion ceases to exist. This is quite as true in a democracy as it is
in an autocracy.

The difference between an autocracy and a democracy is not that in one
the will of the people finds expression and in the other it does not. It
is simply that in a democracy a larger number of the citizens
participate in the disc