fatal contentment with simple
answers to complex questions."

In the great international life of nations Public Opinion also holds
the reins. This power manifests itself particularly at the great
turning points of History, such as we are now witnessing. There is
always then resistance between conflicting forces; and resistance, we
know, strengthens the current. What power was at work for the last
fifty years and marshalled, on that fatal August day of 1914, the
formidable army that swept over Belgium, France and Russia? Public
Opinion created by the military caste in Germany! What secret and
growing force made of the Allies' contemptible army of yesterday the
crushing victorious army of to-day?--The invincible power of Public
Opinion!--It leaped from the very depths of the wounded heart and
outraged conscience of nations, and created in a few months that
unconquerable army of inexhaustible reserves upon which the Allies
relied until their final triumph. It fired the morale of our armies
and smashed the way to victory. For those who could not go to the
battle-field, it kept the homefires burning and fringed with the silver
lining of radiant hope the dark clouds that hung over our horizon for
four long, dragging, weary years.

3. _How Public Opinion is Formed_.

You may ask how are the thoughts of the multitude so marshalled as to
make the unit of Public Opinion. As we already remarked, the thinking
power of the ordinary man does not go _far_, _wide_, nor _deep_. His
facility of absorbing ideas is far greater than his power of valuating
them. He generally accepts as real value any thing that bears the
stamp of current opinion. His belief in the value and weight of number
is without recall; his absolute trust in what Bryce calls "the fatalism
of multitude" is beyond appeal. He lives and thrives on the
_surrounding mental atmosphere_.

How is this atmosphere created? By the continued, persevering
repetition of the same ideas; by the vesting of these same ideas in the
attractive garb of self-interest, passion, fancy and vogue. On this
process, we all know by experience, is based the ever youthful power of
_Advertisement_ . . . and of _Fashion_.

Advertisement! Modern business is built to a great extent on the
mysterious allurement, the attractive invitation and innocent
camouflage of the advertisement that you find sparkling everywhere, on
the flashy poster, in the show-window, in the magazine, in the