his way upward along Time's tangled trails personal
opinions began to jog along together in groups, creating Force. With
the growth of populations and the invention of printing this power was
called Public Opinion and experience soon taught the folly of ignoring
it.

In the course of human aspiration Somebody who had a Bright Mind got
the notion that in order to get his own way without fighting the crowd
all he had to do was to educate the "Great Common Pee-pul" to his way
of thinking and by sowing enough seed in public places up would come
whatever kind of crop he wanted. Thus, by making Public Opinion
himself he would avoid the hazard of opposing it. The name of this
Sagacious Pioneer of Special Privilege who manufactured the first
carload of Public Opinion is lost to posterity; all that is known about
him is that he was a close student of the Art of concealing Artifice by
Artlessness and therefore wore gum rubbers on his feet and carried
around a lot of Presents to give away.

It is quite possible to direct the thought of Tom-Dick-and-Harry. A
skillful orator can swing a crowd from laughter to anger and back
again. The politician who prepares a speech for a set occasion builds
his periods for applause with every confidence. But it was to the
public prints that they who sought the manufacture of Public Opinion
were in the habit of turning.

There has always been something very convincing about "cold print."
The little boy believes that the cow really did jump over the moon; for
isn't it right there in the nursery book with a picture of her doing
it? And despite the disillusionments of an accelerated age many
readers still cherish an old-time faith in their favorite newspaper--a
faith which is a relic of the days when the freedom of the press was a
new and sacred heritage and the public bought the paper to learn what
Joseph Howe, George Brown, Franklin, Greeley or Dana thought about
things. This period gave place gradually to the great modern
newspaper, the product in some cases of a publishing company so
"limited" that it thought mostly in terms of dollars and cents and
political preferments.

When the cub reporter rushed in to his city editor with eyes sparkling
he cried out enthusiastically:

"Gee, I've got a peach of a story! Old John Smith's daughter's eloped
with the chauffeur. She's a movie fan and----"

But it did not get into the paper for the very good reason that "Old
John" was the propriet