Catholic Problems in Western Canada

by George Thomas Daly

CHAPTER XIII.

WHOM DO MEN SAY THAT THE SON OF MAN IS? (MATH. XVI.-13.)—PUBLIC OPINION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

What is Public Opinion—Its Power—How is it Formed—Public Opinion and the Catholic Church—Our Duties to Public Opinion.

Numerous and strong are the influences at play in human life. Acting and reacting on the free will of man they are ever at work moulding his character and shaping his destiny. Like the waves of an incoming tide they are beating the shores of our heart; their triumph is to carry away our liberty on their receding waters.

Surrounding influences for good or for evil are indeed, to a great extent, the determining factors of our moral life. Day by day they write our history and with it the history of the world; for, the life of every man is but a line on the great page of his nation's history and the history of a nation, but a chapter in that of humanity.

Of all the influences underlying human activities in the moral, social, economic, and political world, one of the most universal and most effective is beyond doubt, nowadays, Public Opinion. We may well name it the "current" of Public Opinion. In every sphere of life one can indeed feel the constant pressure of its tremendous power. Like the waters of a mill-race constantly and irresistibly the stream of Public Opinion sweeps on. It is very difficult to determine exactly where lies its strength; it is nowhere and everywhere. Unconscious of its swollen powers it spends its energies for the welfare of the community, or, unfortunately too often, loses itself in an angry torrent of destruction.

You thwart its onward march: it will bury your barrier under its laughing waters or . . . sweep it away. You ride with it: it will gladly carry you. You check it: its troubled waves will rise angry around you and engulf you.

Such is the "current" of Public Opinion. To direct this great power, to harness its tremendous forces, to convert them into light, heat, and energy and set the wheels of moral, social, and political life running with greater smoothness, rapidity, and strength, should be the noble effort and the great task of every serious-minded man.

By no idle whim or sheer literary piquancy have we coupled Public Opinion and the Catholic Church. The inevitable relations that exist between Public Opinion and the various predominating factors of a nation should necessarily interest every true Canadian. Among these factors the Catholic Church stands pre-eminent. Her beneficial influences and her ready solutions to the various social and moral problems that confront the world, cannot, even to the most prejudiced, be passed unnoticed. So no matter what our spiritual allegiance may be, the relation of Public Opinion to the Catholic Church should be of the greatest interest to any one who has at heart the common welfare. In Western Canada particularly, where Public Opinion has such a sway, this subject, we presume, must be of service both to those of the Catholic Faith and to those of a different persuasion.

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What is Public Opinion—Its Power—How is it Formed?

1. What is Public Opinion?

Ideas rule the world, but various are the effects ideas have on the minds of men. On some minds they exercise only a passing influence; they are then what we call "Impressions"; variable as lights and shadows over a summer lake they come and go. Impressions are indeed only on the surface of the mind, like foot-prints on the sand washed away by the next tide.

When ideas take a stronger footing in our intelligence and are accepted with a certain confidence, on their face-value or on the authority of some leader, they become "Opinions." Loosely entertained and readily exchanged, opinions are the ordinary mental pabulum of the masses.

Few minds see their ideas crystallized into "Convictions." Convictions are permanent, unchangeable ideas: based on facts and supported by satisfactory evidence, they rest on the bed-rock of truth. Few minds indeed, particularly on the larger and fundamental issues, can claim the right to convictions. For, convictions demand a breadth of vision and grasp of detail which are given but to few souls. These minds, few in number, are the minds of leaders. Their noble duty and great responsibility is to Awaken, Stimulate, and Organize the thinking of the people. Their thoughts, their ideas, are on the unchartered sea of truth as the tossing buoy or lighted beacon from which the unthinking masses take their course. Rather than go to the pains of thinking for themselves the crowds leave this task to a few and content themselves with ready-made opinions, as these float by with the tide of the hour. Few make up their minds; they are made up for them.

The common opinion which reflects the mind of the great majority, embodies the prevailing idea, the universal sentiment, and directs the common action is called. . . Public Opinion.

2. Power of Public Opinion.

You readily see, by its very nature, the tremendous power of Public Opinion. It is the "reason why," the basis of appreciation, the norm of conduct of the great mass of the people. As we stated before, Public Opinion is like the stream that drains to its profit the loitering energies of the individual mind, and makes them tributaries that swell its volume and compress its course. Who can analyze the powers of this "Organized Thinking" of the people in a democracy? Who can measure the force of these sweeping currents, of these tidal waves of Public Opinion?

In fact, Public Opinion may be considered in our modern societies as the greatest driving power. For, Public Opinion is the vision of the unthinking multitude, and vision is the first and foremost of constructive or destructive forces. It lights the way and invites action accordingly. Marvellous indeed is the sweep of the tide of Public Opinion in various realms of human activities. Its ebb and flow—although frequently beyond analysis, are felt on every shore.

In the world of finance,—and this is the lowest in the scale of real values,—is not that fragile but mighty factor we call credit based on Public Opinion? For, credit is but the general opinion of the community on the possibilities of the industry or undertaking in which its capital is involved, and on the honesty and ability of the management.

What has weakened the moral fibre of our modern society so much that at times one wonders if we are living in the Christian era? If the home is now so often desecrated by theories of free love and trial marriages, if the cradles are empty, if the very sense of shame is a thing of the past, if the most elementary principles of morality are questioned, is it not because the public conscience is being warped, chloroformed, deadened by a frenzied propaganda of a corrupted Public Opinion?

Has not the politician and the legislator the ear to the wind, the eye on the running tides and cross currents of thought, to know and sound Public Opinion? Like the skilful and watchful pilot, he counts with the set of the tide and catches it at its crest. He knows the exact height of the rising tide that will float him and his cargo over the bar . . . of a coming election—. This tide of public feeling has carried some to the high seas of success but left many stranded on the desert shores. Many public men indeed have set out on its angry waters to brave its fury . . . and have never returned. "In our times of Democracy when the "competitive" principle has replaced the "hereditary," not the kings, princes and nobles, but bankers, merchants, railroad magnates, capitalists, politicians, editors, educators, writers and artists occupy the high seats, hold the baton and beat the time for the great social orchestra." (Ross-Social Psychology.) "Power and influence," said Morley, "no longer reside in the Crown but in the strong, subtle forces called Public Opinion: and that Public Opinion is apt to involve 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 daily paper. Without willingness to admit our weakness, we fall victims to this wizard that we despised yesterday and court to-day, and line up at the counter . . . for a Special Sale, an Astonishing Bargain. "We are so thoroughly accustomed to the exploits of the advertiser that we take them as a matter of course, rarely pausing to appreciate the art, or at least, the artfulness with which we have been lured into the acceptance of his ideas."

Fashion! Who can analyze this power so great, so universal? Who can explain the psychology of this fact? Every spring and fall of the year Dame Fashion has an opening-ball—Paris plays the tune, New York wields the baton, the ladies of the world . . . keep time . . . and the gentlemen pay the piper.

We mention these facts of every day life to illustrate the permeating and driving force of an idea, when constantly kept before the mind. And what advertisement and fashion are in the commercial and social life, Propaganda and Publicity are in the world of thought. The policy of propaganda is to enlist the active co-operation of every vehicle of thought for the furtherance of an idea and to keep that idea ever before the public. One readily sees the tremendous responsibilities, and understands the flagrant abuses of those called to create and direct Public Opinion. "The supremacy of ideas," it was stated, "gives the greatest places of opportunity to those who awaken, stimulate and organize the thinking of the people and especially the thinking of a people in a democracy. The teacher's desk, the preacher's pulpit, the orator's platform, the writer and editor's sanctum—these are the places of true leadership, the thrones of real power."

This analysis of Public Opinion, of its power, of its formation will now make us better understand its relations with the Catholic Church.

Public Opinion and the Catholic Church.

Nowadays the relation of Public Opinion to the Catholic Church is, generally speaking, one of suspicion, frequently of silent contempt and very often of open hostility. This statement of fact may appear to many too sweeping; its broadness may trouble the peaceful faith of others. Yet, history and every day experience prove the truth of our assertion. We go further and claim that for the Church this condition will, and must exist. The Church, like Christ, her Founder and Master, is to be a "Sign of Contradiction." Her very name "Catholic" is a perennial witness to her sublime and admirable Catholicity, and thereby an abiding proof of her Divinity. A Church that modifies her tenets and adjusts her moral standards to accommodate herself to the conveniences and fancies of the world is not, and cannot be the Church of Christ. Now, as in the times of the Apostles, the Church "Is a Sect that is everywhere spoken against"—"If ye were of the world?" said the Saviour, "the world would love his own; but ye are not of this world, therefore the world hateth you." Yes, suspicion, contempt and hostility are the hall-marks of historic Christianity, for they are the realization of Christ's promises to His Church, the fulfilment of His prophesies. This fact for a Christian who has eyes to see, and ears to hear, is particularly noticeable when periodically a tidal wave of bigotry or open persecution strikes the Catholic Church, lashes itself into fury, washes the Rock of Peter with ugly foam . . . and dies away, ashamed of its own powerlessness and unfairness.

Viewing this relation of Public Opinion to the Catholic Church—not as an evidence of that spiritual conflict, often unconscious but ever real—but as a fact, a historic reality, some may ask the proof of our rather bold statement. Even those who are not of our Faith, and yet always wish to be fair and broad in their dealings with the Catholic Church, may question it.

The proof is very simple to give. Public Opinion is against the
Catholic Church, because the powers that create and maintain Public
Opinion are against the Catholic Church. Facts here speak for
themselves.

The Press—the Novel—the Periodical Literature—the Cinema—the Stage—the Public School—the Academy and University Halls—the Legislative Assemblies . . . are without doubt the high voltage-wires that receive, carry and distribute the current of Public Opinion. Or rather, like the wireless stations they gather those invisible and imponderable waves of thought and feeling that are ever flashing through the intellectual and moral atmosphere of nations, and translate their message to the masses. Between these powers and Public Opinion there is a continuous action and reaction. They are at the same time the moulders and mirrors of Public Opinion. They are its masters, but with the condition of being first its servants.

Of all these creative forces none is greater and more universal than the Press. If Public Opinion is the king and master of the modern world, the Press is assuredly his faithful and most active Prime Minister. This chief executive has extended the kingdom of his master to the very confines of the civilized world. Nothing has contributed more to the rule of Public Opinion than the Press. With it ideas and opinions run through the public mind as rapidly as the dispatches that carry them. "Mental touch is no longer bound up with physical proximity. With the telegraph to collect and transmit the expressions and signs of the ruling mood, and the fast mail to hurry to the eager clutch of waiting thousands the still damp sheets of the morning daily, remote people are brought as it were into one another's presence." (Ross-Social Psychology.)

The ordinary man now sees the world through his newspaper. He absorbs facts and principles with the shades and variations the daily paper gives them. Reports of events and announcements of policies are colored to suit the aims and opinions of the editors and proprietors. Windy platitudes—at least for those who know facts and have studied principles—become gospel truth for the unthinking mass. Public Opinion is thus conscripted by an "irresponsible power." This irresponsibility of the Press is without doubt the greatest menace of the day. For, the opinions,—we mean to say—the propelling forces of the silent millions are at its mercy. . . . And these silent millions make and unmake the world.

This great power of the Press is inimical to the Catholic Church. By press, you will readily understand, we do not mean any particular paper, or a certain group of papers, but rather that formidable ensemble of tremendous financial backing, of world-wide information-services, of chains of papers that encircle the globe, of these various agencies that tap the telegraphic wires of every country and keep the cables hot. The Hearst papers alone reach simultaneously four or five million readers daily. From New York to San Francisco one man is leading the minds of these millions "to conclusions that he wants them to arrive at"—What Hearst is for the United States, Lord Northcliffe is for England.

This great press is against the Catholic Church. The total suppression of truths and of facts; the conspiracy of silence—often more dangerous than an open attack; the coloring of news with shades of thought suited to a definite purpose; the partial admission of truth and the maimed relation of facts; the bold assertion of deliberate falsehoods; the deceptive headlines—and the people live on headlines; the insinuating title which is often in flagrant contradiction to the dispatch it underlines:—these are a few of its various strategies of attack. "The Pope and the War," "Quebec and the War," "The Guelph Novitiate Incident," are recent instances of what we refer to.

Some may object that the Catholics are of a rather susceptible nature and always expect "privileges"—No, we only want the privileges of truth, we mean fair play, equality, and justice.

What we say of the Press can also be said of periodical literature and modern fiction. "The very nature of periodical literature," says Cardinal Newman, "broken into small wholes and demanded punctually to an hour involves the habit of extempore philosophy . . . and that philosophy, we know is not Christian philosophy. The writers can give no better guarantee for the philosophical truth of their principles than their popularity at the moment and their happy conformity in ethical character to the age which admires them."

Any one who has kept in touch with the stream of modern fiction is well aware to what extent its waters are polluted and have contaminated the mind and heart of our present generation. When the world has been slaking its literary thirst at sources such as H. G. Wells, Galsworthy, Ibanez—only to mention a few—should we be astonished that public opinion is drifting to paganism? If theories of "Free Love" and Divorce are rampant in our society, the responsibility to a great extent lies with our modern novel. The novels that are written and read, indicate the mind and morals of a people.

What could we not write of the Moving-Picture and the Stage? Suffice it to state with Rev. R. A. Knox—then an anglican minister, and now a catholic priest: "When a nation has lost its hold of first truths and its love for clear issues, which has had its morality sapped by sentiment, thinks of Christian marriage in the light of the problem-play . . . the moral fibre of that nation is gone." For, the vision of life and the interpretation of its pleasures and sorrows, that come from the glare of the foot-lights, or the dimness of the Movie-Screen, are surely not that given by the Catholic Church. Over the screen of the movies and the proscenium of the stage could we not very often write what the author of the play "Enjoy Life," Max Hermann Neisse, said lately to a Berlin sensation-seeking audience that was underlying with frantic applause the unsavory remarks and filthy inuendos of the closing act: "Pardon me, I did not write this act.—You dictated it to me."

In pandering to the morbid curiosity and lustful passions of a pleasure-mad world, the stage, the moving-picture, the novel, the illustrated weekly are leading Public Opinion to depths before unknown. The abyss calls to the abyss. Ways of living always follow ways of thinking. Should we then be astonished that crime-wave after crime-wave is sweeping the shores of every country.

Existing conditions in our universities, public academies and schools are not of a nature to conciliate Public Opinion with the Catholic Church. We know perfectly well that in our seats of higher-learning the Church is looked upon as an effete Institution, as something of the past that has kept a certain air of respectability. Her teachings and her history are there viewed in the light of the "evolution theory." Who has not read, a few years ago, that terrible indictment against the antichristian education of the American Universities, as it appeared in a celebrated article, under the title: "Blasting at the Rock of Ages?"

In our legislative assemblies, here and abroad, do we not find the educational problem the burning problem for Church and State? Over the head of the child swords clash, for the child of to-day is the man of to-morrow. The stand the Catholic Church takes on the educational problem—from which She never deviates—has always stirred Public Opinion against her in political and social circles. We have only to mention "separate schools" to awaken the memories of a long and bitter struggle.

The same inimical relations dominate the International Order. Rome and its world-wide moral influence have been deliberately ostracized in the recent and unhappy attempt to form a League of Nations.

So the tide of Public Opinion sweeps upon tide. Everywhere its heavy waves break into a foamy froth on the Rock of Peter. We conclude: Public Opinion is against the Catholic Church.

Our Duties to Public Opinion.

The antagonism against the Catholic Church is an overt fact. What are the causes? A distorted vision, born of misrepresentation of facts and misrepresentation of doctrine and practice; the blind prejudice against which our refutation of facts and explanation of principles are of little avail: these are the two main causes to which can be traced this universal opposition. And indeed no one will tax us with exaggeration were we to repeat here what Tertullian wrote in his "Defence of the Church," a hundred years after St. John's death: "They think the Catholics to be the cause of every public calamity, of every national ill." Have we not in our own country, organizations that live and thrive only on enmity to the Church of Rome? They cannot meet without passing resolutions of condemnation of the Church, of the Pope, of separate schools, etc. We all know how often Public Opinion, in our country, has been inflamed by prejudiced appeals to racial and religious feelings. Racial antagonism itself is only a cover for anti-Catholic fanaticism.

Let us, by clear and sound thinking, by definite and bold expression enlighten Public Opinion. To-day Public Opinion is shifting as the winds, swinging like a boat with the ebb and flow of the tide. These are days of loose thought, wild words, catchy phrases, especially in social and religious matters. Words and phrases are passed off as ideas, and fragments of an idea as the whole idea. Let ideas always be clear-cut, with a sharp, definite relief. Hazy notions are of no constructive value, and always full of danger, particularly in times of intellectual ferment, such as we are now going through. They are on the great sea of Truth as the smoke-screens, behind which lurk the destroyers of error.

Cardinal Newman concludes one of his letters on "The Position of Catholics"—which bears on the subject of Catholics making themselves known: "Protestantism is fierce because it does not know you; ignorance is its strength; error is its life; therefore bring yourselves before it, press yourselves upon it, force yourselves into notice against its will. Oblige men to know you. Politicians and philosophers would be against you, but not the people, if they knew you."

Create Public Opinion by individual and concerted action, that is our next duty. Truth spreads, not like the devastating torrent, but like the tide. From individual to individual as from pebble to pebble it slowly creeps in and spreads the silent power of its rising waters. "No one ever talks freely about anything without contributing something, let it be ever so little, to the unseen forces which carry the race on to its final destiny. Even if he does not make a positive impression he counteracts or modifies some other impression, or sets in motion some train of ideas in some one else, which helps to change the face of the world." Godkin "Problems of Modern Democracy." 221-224.

By the continued repetition of truth and the persevering refutation of falsehood we will help to create around us, in our limited sphere of action, a sane Public Opinion. But it is above all by the radiance of our moral life that truth, particularly religious truth, will spread. Religion, as we know, is of the moral order; its dogmas, precepts and sacraments reach out into that domain. Paul Bourget, the celebrated French writer sums up one of his most striking novels in this phrase: "At Forty-three" which he calls the noon hour of life—"man must live what he believes or he will eventually believe as he lives." To live up to our principles is always the best proof of our belief in them.

Concerted action will extend the benefits of this individual action to the creation of Public Opinion in the Community, in Society at large. As all great powers, Public Opinion is courted; this courtship is "Propaganda." Truth requires propaganda as life needs transmission. An efficient propaganda takes myriad forms but its purpose is always the same, i.e., give to others our ideas and through them organize the public mind. Distribution of literature, lectures, the press, the novel, the cinema, bureaus of information, active participation in public life are vital factors of an efficiently organized propaganda. The recent Northcliffe propaganda, followed by the Hearst propaganda are typical illustrations of how the public mind of a Country was swayed from a pro-British to an Anti-English attitude.

The Direction of Public Opinion is the ultimate triumph of propaganda. This is obtained when our principles pass into the warp and woof of the social textures which are always in the making on the great loom of our nation's life. Ideas have their full value when they are extended to social and political issues. It is only then that they influence a nation as such. For our lives are knitted with the lives of others, and their action and reaction upon them form our public life. "In the formation and guidance of the public opinion which ultimately determines public action, Catholics bear responsibility and must take their part." (Cardinal Bourne, at the Catholic Congress of England, 1920.)

As Catholics we have a contribution to make to the great upbuilding of our Country. There is in every problem an ethical side, an unchanging and unchangeable principle, the bedrock on which it rests. This principle, the Catholic doctrine possesses; we know it, we are sure of it. Why not then have that aggressiveness of militant Catholics who take advantage of every opportunity, without being obtrusive? Are we not too apologetic in our Public life? We would not suggest in the least to be discourteously aggressive, although at times we are tempted to do so and seem justified in our retaliation. But there is no reason why we should apologize for our principles, for the solutions we have to offer. The sun of Canadian liberty shines also for us and for what we stand; we have our place under the shade of the "Maple Leaf."

May we add a word for our non-Catholic friends. They also have duties towards Public Opinion in its relation with the Catholic Church.

Receptiveness of mind is, in our estimation, the first and most important duty of the non-Catholic. Open-mindedness was named by Confucius "mental hospitality." It opens the door to truth by allowing ourselves to be convinced by the strength of argument and the weight of evidence. This state of receptivity permits the mind to correct its distorted vision, and to see facts and principles as they really are. Freedom of mind enables those who possess it to see things in their true proportions.

Fair-mindedness will overcome prejudice, the great obstacle in matters of Religion. Prejudice is made of a coarse and impenetrable fibre, of a close woven texture; it is the product of numerous and various influences. The ordinary causes of this pre-judgment or mental torsion are an habitual intellectual outlook resulting from education and surrounding influences, and a mental laziness which fails to question its own attitude and to pursue principles to their logical conclusions, and problems to their solution. This explains how reluctantly the mind, in religious matters particularly, will accept views contrary to those with which it has been familiar since early youth and which time and surroundings have but strengthened. A straight-forward appeal to fairmindedness is alone able to break down this barrier.

Duties are in proportion to the responsibilities they entail. Public Opinion, as we have seen, is a tremendous power but it is the power of a high explosive which misdirected and ill-used will spread disaster. Leadership is the spark that ignites the charge, is responsible for its driving force. In the days of real intellectual leadership the mastery of ideas prevailed and Public Opinion was considered as the triumph of an idea. But in our days of so called democratic equality the centre of gravity of this power has shifted from the leader to the multitude. De Tocqueville in his book "Democracy in America" [1] has a remarkable page, illustrating this point. "The nearer the people," he writes, "are drawn to a common level of an equal and similar condition the less prone each man becomes to place implicit faith in a certain man or certain classes of men. But his readiness to believe the multitude increases and opinion is more than ever the mistress of the world. Not only is common opinion the only guide which private judgment retains among democratic people, but amongst such a people it possesses a power infinitely beyond what it has elsewhere. At periods of equality men have no faith in one another by reason of their common resemblance; but this very resemblance gives them almost unbounded confidence in the judgment of the public; for it would not seem probable, as they are all endowed with equal means of judging, but that the greater truth should go with the greater number. The public has therefore among a democratic people a singular power which aristocratic nations cannot conceive of; for it does not persuade to certain opinions, but it impresses them and infuses them in the intellect by a sort of enormous pressure of the minds of all upon the reason of each."

To this prestige of vast numbers Bryce has given a name. "Out of the mingled feelings that the multitude will prevail and that the multitude, because it will prevail, must be right, there grows a self-distrust, a despondency, a disposition to fall into line, to acquiesce in the dominant opinion, to submit thought as well as action to the encompassing powers of numbers."

"This tendency to acquiescence and submission, this sense of insignificance of individual effort, this belief that the affairs of men are swayed by large forces whose movements may be studied but cannot be turned, I have ventured to call it "The Fatalism of the Multitude." It is often confounded with the tyranny of the majority, but is at the bottom different though, of course, its existence makes tyranny by the majority easier and more complete. . . . In the fatalism of the multitude there is neither legal nor moral compulsion; there is merely a loss of resisting power, a diminished sense of personal responsibility of the duty to battle for one's own opinion, such as has been bred in some people, by the belief of an over mastering fate." [2]

One can readily grasp the dangers of Public Opinion at the mercy of blatant agitators and unscrupulous leaders. They have no idea to promote, but only a feeling to exploit. They flatter Public Opinion to gain it. They appear to consult it when in reality they are creating and directing it. They catch the restless and undirecting currents of popular feeling when they are seeking an outlet and swing them slowly at first but with a growing impetus in the channels of their own interest or of the party they represent. The people are deluded into thinking that they are their own leaders and masters. The feeling of unrest that now prevails is due to this abuse of Public Opinion. Like children the leaders of nations have been playing with this wire of high voltage. Should we be surprised to see the world suffer deadly shocks from whence it should receive light and power?

We are now at one of the most momentous periods of history. Never have clear thinking, earnest expression and concerted action been more needed than now. The world is ringing with wild words and dying from loose thinking. "The persistent statement of principles and the union of all true conservative forces are absolutely necessary, if we wish to bring the nation safe through this agonizing period and make the world safe for democracy," as President Wilson said.

Therefore we claim that it is for the greatest benefit of the community at large to have Public Opinion enlightened as to the value of the Church as a reconstructive factor.

"Great have been the Problems of War!" But, with Clemenceau, we also are realizing—and some countries, with bitter deception and depressing sorrow, "That greater still are the Problems of Peace."

[1] Vol. II., Chap. II.

[2] Bryce—"The American Commonwealth," Vol. II., Chap. 84.