The merits of Public Opinion summed up. Public Opinion contrasted with voting in these respects. The relation of Public Opinion to voting. A large percentage of the votes are given with little reference to the main issues involved. It is the business of the managers to "froth up" party feeling and make excitement do the work of reason. In all the points just enumerated Public Opinion, when and in so far as it can be elicited, is an organ or method through which the people can exert their power more elastic and less pervertible than is the method of voting. It is always operative; its action changes as the facts of the case change and keeps pace with them. It sets the larger and the smaller issues in their true perspective. It reduces petty "fads" or selfish groups to insignificance. It relies, not on organization and party drill, but on the good sense and fairness of the citizens as a whole. It expresses what is more or less thought and felt in all the parties by their more temperate and unbiased members. It is a counterpoise to the power of mere numbers. At a poll one vote is as good as another, the ignorant and unreflecting counting for as much as the well-informed and wise, but in the formation of opinion knowledge and thought tell. The clash and conflict of argument bring out the strength and weakness of every case, and that which is sound tends to prevail. Let the cynics say what they will, man is not an irrational animal. Truth usually wins in the long run, though the obsessions of self-interest or prejudice or ignorance may long delay its victory. . . . Voting, though indispensable as a means of determining the view of the majority, is a mechanical operation, necessarily surrounded with legal forms, while in the formation and expression of opinion the essential spirit of democracy rises above the machinery and the trammels which machinery imposes, and finds a means of applying its force more flexible, more delicate, more conciliatory and persuasive than is a decision given by the counting of votes. Voting, I repeat, is indispensable, for it is positive, giving an incontrovertible result. But voting is serviceable just in proportion as it has been preceded and prepared by the action of Public Opinion. The discussion which forms opinion by securing the due expression of each view or set of views so that the sounder may prevail enables the citizens who wish to find the truth and follow it to deliver a considered vote. It is an educative process constantly in progress. In the intervals between elections it imposes some check on the vehe mence of party spirit and the recklessness or want of scruple of party 229. The defects of Public Opinion 1 In the above selection the merits of Public Opinion are set forth Professor Ross on by one of the most able statesmen of the present generation. In the defects comparing the ballot with Public Opinion he concludes that as a of Public form of social control the latter has many advantages over the Opinion. former. Let us notice, now, that as a form of social control Public Opinion is in several important respects inferior to law. Professor Ross discusses the defects of Public Opinion as follows: ties inflicted by Public Opinion are neither definite, nor proportioned [The penalties which Public Opinion imposes for mis-conduct] The penalare not definite, and not proportioned to the gravity of the offence. No member of the public knows just how much praise or blame, warmth or chill, others are applying. Moreover, systematic inquisition into guilt or merit, with observance of the rules of evidence and due deliberation, is impossible with the public, for it does not function as does a court. It merely reacts. From this fact arise the many injustices and mistakes which weaken the authority of Public Opinion. to the gravity of the offense. has a short wrath and a poor Again, to utilize the temper of the community, it is necessary The public to strike while the iron is hot. The ministers of the law, if they have a slow foot, have a firm clutch and, like the gods, are known by their long memories. But the public has a short wrath and a poor memory, and the offender, if he dodges into obscurity, and waits till the gust of public indignation is over, often goes unpunished. memory. As there is only one law in force at any one time, there can be no It is rarely unanimous. clashing of jurisdictions. But the public is rarely unanimous, and Public Opinion often clashes with the sentiment of a sect, party, or class. In a homogeneous community, people are able to feel and think 1 From Edward Alsworth Ross, Social Control. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1921; pp. 96-97, 99–101. The result. Public Opinion is powerless when the for an act cannot be localized. alike in all important cases, and hence Public Opinion is effective; but in a stratified community, the separation of classes hinders an easy conduction of feeling. Here, then, an offender escapes the lowering glances and bitter words of his fellows by taking refuge in circles where his fault is condoned. The bruiser dives into the sporting class, the duellist haunts the mess-room, the ballot sharp takes refuge with his political friends, the snob shuts himself away from popular derision in a social club. This right of asylum with complaisant coteries is a very grave thing, for it often transforms an act of punishment into a class war, and rends the community in twain. ... The might of public wrath is destroyed by anything that diverts it from an individual and spreads it harmlessly over a network of administrative responsibility. The common indignation, always conresponsibility fused by a shifting responsibility, is most baffled when responsibility on being traced back is found to be lodged in a body of men. It is this fact that accounts for the increasing disregard of Public Opinion in the management of business. Corporate organization opposes to public fury a cuirass of divided responsibility that conveys away harmlessly a shock that might have stretched iniquity prone. In such cases public indignation must be given an arm to strike and hurt with, if it is not to become mere impotent rage. [This truth is overlooked by those who] ignorantly extol the might of Public Opinion in all cases whatsoever. The public is moved and influ enced by instincts which cannot be trusted to guide or control modern society. While the irascible instincts were given to man to fit him for the struggle for existence as it was ages ago, nothing is surer than that to-day they are utterly unsafe to follow. . . . The first impulsive reactions of the public have almost nothing to do with social welfare. It does not like unselfish devotion nor does it detest brazen egotism. High on the crest of popular idolatry, the jockey, the bruiser, and the soubrette share the honors with the soldier, the patriot, and the philanthropist. The public is enraged at vivisection or grave-robbing. It is flaccid before bribery, breaking quarantine, the adulteration of drugs, or the plugging of armor plate. People react most against that which shocks their instincts, but these offences being contrary to deep-seated instincts are just those which are least liable to spread and threaten the life of society. Light shines first on the few, and the public is the last to apprehend the ... real bearing and ultimate results of conduct. The handful of thoughtful men penalize forest-firing and the selling of explosive oil, and the killing of game out of season, while yet the senseless mob is gnashing its teeth at vaccinators and body snatchers. . . ened Public Opinion to the In certain directions . . . unenlightened Public Opinion pushes Unenlightregulation to excess. It is possible for the vague feelings against vegetarianism, or long hair, or "bloomers," or non-church-going, may push to run together into a hostile and imperious public sentiment. It regulation is but a step from the image-breaker's hatred of stained glass, the point of Scotch Calvinist's contempt for a violin, the rabble's resentment persecution. of a silk hat, or the frontiersman's detestation of a "biled" shirt, to a persecution that is as senseless as it is abominable. To the ignorant, unlikeness is an affront, nonconformity an outrage, and innovation a crime. Give full play to this feeling, and you have the intolerant multitude, eager to stretch every one on its Procrustean bed. It was the majority that stoned Stephen, banished Aristides, poisoned Socrates, mobbed Priestley, and beat Garrison. 230. The improvement of Public Opinion 1 1 with respect Three points have been brought out in the two foregoing selections: The first, that Public Opinion is a powerful force, second, that it has its problem merits, and third, its defects. The constructive student should react to Public to this situation by sanctioning a program which will serve to retain Opinion. and to enlarge the merits of the Public Opinion, remove or mitigate its defects, and, in short, direct its power into channels which will be productive and helpful. The improvement of Public Opinion may come about in many ways, but fundamentally, perhaps, it depends upon education. The importance of the educative process in this regard is developed by Professors Blackmar and Gillin in the following passage: of education in social Inasmuch as social order has been developed by slow degrees, Importance control by force has, at times, been necessary as a temporary check upon insubordination; but it is always soon replaced by other agencies. Gradually the idea has grown that other forms of control are cheaper From Frank W. Blackmar and John Lewis Gillin, Outlines of Sociology. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1915; pp. 393-397. control. The full expression of Public Opinion depends upon the diffusion of general intelligence. Effect of education upon the improvement of government. Self-government calls for an educated people. and more easily administered; and gradually other methods have become the usual ones. Since, however, the conscious effort of society to govern itself demands a recognition of the laws of social development and requires, among the component members of society, some ability to control themselves in the interests of the group, society cannot do better than to adopt the educational method as a means of establishing that high degree of intelligence necessary for democratic social control. . If the general intelligence is low, Public Opinion will, of necessity, be wrong in its premises; and the type of political and social life which develops will then be undemocratic. It is, of course, possible for a community to maintain order on a low standard of social responsibility; but only that society will be progressive and self-controlled in which Public Opinion is permeated with social idealism. And notwithstanding that, in any community, Public Opinion may sometimes be created by a few of the more intelligent, the fact remains that unless the majority has sufficient intelligence to understand the ideas of the leaders and make them their own, society will be controlled, not by Public Opinion, but by the opinions of a dominant few. For it is only when the members are in intelligent and harmonious sympathy with one another that Public Opinion can receive full expression - a condition involving not only individual capacity, but the perfection of social machinery as well. As education grows more and more general, the critical faculty of individuals, becoming stimulated, gradually raises the governmental ideal. But the development is, indeed, gradual; for even when people have determined what is right, they sometimes find it very difficult so to perfect the machinery of legislation and justice as to carry out their ideals. As a matter of fact, there is nothing in human experience that requires more foresight, ability, and harmonious social action than does the creation of laws for the government of a free people. . . . Thus the state that is to be perpetuated through self-government must see to it that its citizens are well educated. . . . Beginning in the grammar grades and continuing with increased force through the high school and the university, special training should be given in all the subjects that pertain to social order and social control. . . . Everything that leads to an acquaintance with the political and indus |