Public opinion; Public relations; Publicity; Social psychology
The method of education by information, which was to a great extent
relied upon by the United States, for example, was evidenced in the
formation during the war of such agencies as the Committee on Public
Information. The public relations counsel, through the mediums chosen
by him, presented to the public the information necessary to aid in
understanding America’s war aims and ideals. George Creel and his
organization reached vast groups, representing every phase of our
national elements, in every modern method of thought communication. But
even in the United States the other two methods were used to obtain
cohesive force.
In fact the method least relied upon in any of the belligerent
countries was that of “government based on such a highly developed
system of information, analysis and self-consciousness that ‘the
knowledge of national circumstances and reasons of state’ is evident to
all men.”
This breakdown did not occur among small, inefficiently organised
groups. It occurred among the representatives of the highest
development in social organization.
If this was the fate of the most highly organized social groups,
consider then the problem which confronts the social, economic,
educational or political groups in peace time, when they attempt to
obtain a public hearing for new ideas. Innumerable instances have shown
the difficulty that any group faces in gaining an acceptance for its
ideas.
The development of the United States to its present size and
diversification has intensified the difficulty of creating a common
will on any subject because it has heightened the natural tendency of
men to separate into crowds opposed to one another in point of view.
This difficulty is further emphasized by the fact that often these
crowds live in different traditional, moral and spiritual worlds. The
physical difficulties of communication make group separation greater.
Mr. Trotter’s conclusions from a study of the gregarious instinct are
singularly apt on this point. He says that[25] “the enormous power
of varied reaction possessed by man must render necessary for his
attainment of the full advantages of the gregarious habit a power
of inter-communication of absolutely unprecedented fineness. It is
clear that scarcely a hint of such power has yet appeared, and it is
equally obvious that it is this defect which gives to society the
characteristics which are the contempt of the man of science and the
disgust of the humanitarian.”
When the worker was of the same ancestry as his employer, labor
difficulties, for example, could be discussed in terms which were
comprehensible to both parties. To-day the United States Steel
Corporation must exert tremendous effort to present its view to its
thousands of employees who are South Europeans, North Europeans,
Americans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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