Aspects of Publicity

...then the flurry of excitement passes away till something else happens or is "brought about...

...Today in Washington there are known to be some six hundred organizations and individuals whose work is to bring about or to influence national legislation...

...Hays once remarked that "things don't happen...

...I believe that no man who has had much practical experience in journalism or politics or, in fact, any kind of public affair, would disagree with him...

...There remain many potent reasons why politicians have to be watched and assisted and checked up and supervised for the common good, not only by newspapers but by organizations representative of public or even private interests...

...Sullivan goes on to say: Nobody expects from any quarter any revelation more incredible than the employment of William B. Shearer by the shipbuilding companies...

...Williams sifts the good from the bad, the civically healthful from the damage-doing...

...Every state capital in the country shows the same thing, in lesser degree...

...Not to speak about his political manipulations of public opinion, Mr...

...And when organized, they must and they do operate through agents, of one sort or another...

...they are brought about...

...And more and more, in such a complex civilization as ours, the other classes and interests must and do organize to bring their influence to bear in the shaping and making of legislation...

...In the struggle between the two organized forces, Mr...

...As Mr...

...It is a lot to grant, even for argument's sake: but let us make the effort, even if it strains our credulity...

...These motives for propaganda and publicity may be suggested by a remark made by a somewhat cynical observer of public affairs, who said: "It is quite all right for the politicians to investigate the lobbyists: but who is going to investigate the politicians...

...There is also another motive, not at all sordid, which inspires a very large number of the men and women who are doing the sort of work at Washington and elsewhere which will be investigated by the Senate, a motive which "brings about" even more things than the money motive...

...It will now be resumed, with the other show staged by the Senate Judiciary Committee-the investigation of lobbying and lobbyists- rivaling it for front page space...

...Many of the lobbying organizations at Washington are also represented in the state capitals...

...Sullivan goes to the root of the matter concerning propaganda and publicity when he says that "there is no such thing as the will of the people in the sense of a spontaneous force intelligently self-directed...

...These favors may take many forms...

...The Legion wants to know who pays the bills for these pacifist campaigns, and why...

...Will Hays: "Things don't happen...

...They tend more and more to be one special class...

...The following reply to these absorbing questions takes for its text this remark which was made by Mr...

...In any democratic, or even semi-democratic society, practically every form of human activity must be "brought about" by individuals or groups set apart from the rest of the people for precisely that purpose...

...At the same time as all these investigations and demands for further investigations are going on, the newspapers and magazines also find space for many editorials or special articles dealing with diverse aspects of the general theme...

...Hays and his organization so far have prevailed...

...It is putting the truth mildly to say that if commercial and other interests are apt to be greedy in their efforts to manipulate politics and legislation in favor of their business, politicians as a class are not always to be regarded as angels of the public good...

...no doubt a most necessary class under our social system, yet by no means adequately representative of all the essential classes and interests of the whole people...

...Neither does anybody expect any disclosures of lobbying on as large or as well-organized a scale as already has been revealed by the Federal Trade Commission's investigation of the power companies...

...A great deal of the most sincere and, in intention at least, the most beneficial work on behalf of the common good is being done by organizations created to carry on propaganda, to effect publicity and to bring about pressure on politicians...

...This tide itself had been set in motion, not by some mystical, spontaneous operation of "the will of the people," but by propaganda and publicity organizations set up and financed, by certain "moral reform" movements...

...They have to be shrewd, in order to earn the large rewards within the reach of successful propagandists and publicity agents...

...Drawing upon a lifetime of experience in varied forms of journalism, Mr...

...The parallel problem is how to let legitimate propaganda play its proper part in the press and the other channels of publicity, and at the same time expose or stamp out illegitimate propaganda...

...And, putting such gross wrong-doing as bribery aside, the acceptance of favors by politicians from business men without any direct obligation to legislate on behalf of the business men's interests, but yet with an implied understanding that such interests shall, to say the least, not be unduly jeopardized, is something not unknown to occur...

...Secondly, I shall propose certain definite remedies...

...It must be brought about by some leader or group of leaders, and directed in the same way...

...ASPECTS OF PUBLICITY By MICHAEL WILLIAMS THE preposterous Shearer case let loose a flood of publicity about publicity...

...What will such an investigation reveal that will be publicly helpful...

...Hays is responsible for stemming the tide of public opinion which a few years ago was running so strongly in the direction of strict censorship of the films...

...leaving the condition that has been "investigated" still doing business, though not always at the same old stand, or with the methods that provoked the investigation...

...But passing, or even enforcing a law, does not of itself cure the evil to correct which the law has been made...

...but essentially they are distinct branches of the necessary and commendable art of influencing and molding public opinion...

...The cutting short of the scandalous investigation of the "big navy drum" so that the country might have some attention to give to Prime Minister MacDonald's small navy plea, was merely a pause between the acts, not by any means the ending of the sensational melodrama...

...Even such a thing as a mob rising, whether a lynching party, or a slave revolt, or a revolution, cannot happen and never has happened of and by itself...

...For that is their business, and they are shrewd and resourceful fellows...

...Not since Martin Luther advertised that he had thrown his inkpot at the devil has the art and mystery of publicity attracted so much attention to itself...

...Mark Sullivan says, their exposure may have a tonic effect on public sentiment...

...This is granted fully even by so determined an opponent of unworthy tampering with public processes as Senator Thomas J. Walsh, in his article on the subject in the New York Times...

...Experience and common sense concur in teaching us that politicians at any time, and certainly today, are not necessarily the best informed, most wise, most honest, most devoted to the common weal, of all the members of the republic...

...This scepticism prevails elsewhere, being shared by most people who really know anything about the inner workings of journalism, politics, business, in fact, all public affairs...

...Speaking from a journalistic experience of many years, which has touched many aspects of publicity and propaganda, I confidently assert that the current tendency to think of all propaganda activities as necessarily sinister, and all lobbying as inherently a bad thing, and publicity agents as objectionable creatures per se, is stupid and wrong...

...for I think that we shall have no answer but one to make to the inquiry we shall propound: namely, that American Catholics are more poorly equipped with adequate publicity technique than any other considerable body of American citizens...

...It is estimated that it would take about two years for the Senate Committee which is now investigating this matter merely to inquire into a small part of the enormous and complex workings of the lobbyists...

...They would report who employs them, who pays their expenses and salaries...

...These agents are the propagandists and the lobbyists of today...

...And what is legitimate publicity...

...Shearer and the shipbuilding companies who hired him, to include the activities on behalf of small navies, or of none, carried on by a large number of organizations and, according to the Legion, "tending to weaken the national defense...

...In these articles I have a particular and concrete purpose, namely, to deal with Catholic publicity...

...they are brought about...

...The whole problem is reduced to a very simple thing, yet one exceeding difficult to effect, namely, how to permit legitimate lobbying its due and proper place, and simultaneously control, or if possible eliminate, illegitimate lobbying...

...We may leave sinister and injurious lobbying and propaganda to the Senate committees, hoping that even if no permanent cure is devised for their bad effects, at least, as Mr...

...Many of them who once upon a time were newspapermen glad if they earned $6,000 to $15,000 a year now earn from $10,000 to $50,000 a year, some of them even more than that, with pickings on the side...

...I shall ask my readers to judge, in the light of facts that will be assembled and will, I think, enable them to judge justly, whether or not American Catholics are adequately equipped to give publicity to their special points of view, as these affect and are of concern to the common interests of the nation...

...The lobbyists would cheerfully register their names, if the law so required...

...In a democracy such as ours, the professional holders of public office, who supposedly are the mere servants of the public, yet who are entrusted with the tremendous task of making the laws of the state, simply cannot be elected and then let alone to do what they themselves think fit to do...

...The next one will discuss especially the need for Catholic publicity.-The Editors...

...What is propaganda...

...As Mr...

...The American Legion is "demanding" of the Senate that it extend the investigation of propaganda in its relation to naval activities from Mr...

...Mark Sullivan, one of the foremost journalists of today, with the authorship of the best definition of propaganda-publicity so far formulated...

...in other words, to lobby...

...This paper is the first of a series which will treat of the whole subject in an endeavor to establish certain fundamental practical conclusions...

...But let it be granted (for the sake of the real issue here being argued) that legislators are today mostly incorruptible...

...Mr...

...Will Hays, propagandist-in-chief for the moving picture industry, is credited by Mr...

...Even should these disclosures be eclipsed by more shocking ones-what can be done about it...

...That sinister and sometimes evil propaganda and publicity do often go together, is true enough...

...And all the many other kinds would just as cheerfully evade the laws, or devise methods not touched by the laws...

...among which stock tips are not uncommon...

...Out of the investigation of lobbying, for example, there may come, according to Mr...

...I say publicity, not propaganda, for reasons which will be stated in another article...

...Sullivan, "a law which shall require registration by lobbyists and disclosures of their employers...

...This opinion will be developed in my succeeding articles...

...All the reputable ones which exist for purposes which cannot be condemned in any democratic form of society-and a large proportion of them might justly so be termed-would be glad to obey reasonable laws of regulation...

...Hays was speaking not as a mere theorist, but as a high and successful expert, for he is one of the most experienced bringers about of things now functioning...

...Properly to explain this motive requires an examination of certain deeper reasons for lobbying than merely the mercenary reasons the exposure of which has brought about the present investigations...

...I use the words "necessary and commendable," of course, in relation to those movements which, because they are not and often cannot be adequately represented by the usual and normal processes of publicity through the press, the radio, moving pictures and other instruments of publicity, must be promulgated by organizations or individuals set apart for that purpose...

...Such investigations happen, or are "brought about," exciting and disgusting public opinion for a while...

...Mark Sullivan reports that "the prevailing mood of Washington wonders somewhat sceptically what will come of it...

...Lobbying, however, has been unduly confounded as to general meaning, and condemned, with or without cause, with the propaganda that is effected through publicity...

...If corrupt agents of a business interest give bribes, they must (and unfortunately sometimes they do) find public servants quite willing to take the bribes, in order to make the bribes produce results...

...And they are indispensable...

...Sullivan points out, Mr...