12 THE CLASS STRUGGLE WAR AND PUBLIC OPINION 13 capable of producing a psychological effect antagonistic to that desired by the government. Even in its extreme use this does not necessarily imply that all criticisms of the government are forbidden, as we can see in the notable case of Maximilian Harden, nor that a peace propaganda is obviously penalized. On the other hand, criticism may be encouraged if it is so made as to appeal to a small select intellectual class and provided that it is not of a nature to affect the mind of the masses. The possessing hand of the government on public opinion therefore brings it about that the only live existent opinion is governmental opinion, for the masses have no power of expression and they are deprived by the exigencies of war of all opportunities for debate and are thus shut off from that liberty whence alone can arise public opinion in any real sense.
Catchwords with which the history of the group has made the masses familiar and which form part of the prosperity mores of the group are the favorites. The governmental advertisers play on them continually as they have already channelled themselves into the consciousness of the masses and their use provokes an almost automatic response. Thus around the phrase rights of small nations a whole mass of sentiment clusters, and the Greece of Byron, Bulgaria, Poland, and the American Colonies arise at once in the minds of Britons as soon as the expression is employed. On the other hand Ireland, the Transvaal and Egypt do not occur so readily. For in the former cases the rights of small nations were associated with the interest of the governing class, the dominant economic group, while in the latter case they were not so associated.
So that catchwords vary with the passing of time and the consequent changes in the structure of the dominant group. semi feudal class like the German Junker cannot use the same catchwords as a dominant bourgeoisie. The fact that the British government was in Liberal hands at the outbreak of the war gave it a great advantage, for there is a notion that the Liberals are closer to the people than the Conservatives and so can use popular shibboleths more effectively. The term freedom of the individual so frequently employed to show the superiority of the British as compared with the German system is a product of the long struggle between the English Agrarians and the Industrialists. The people in the industrial towns having grown used to the phrase by long usage applaud it automatically and its very employment by the apologists for the government is itself a justification. The unqualified term freedom is used indiscriminately by the publicists of all governments, as a negative catchword. It implies that the country is in danger and produces in the mind of the average man the conviction that his means of livelihood are threatened. It therefore makes a universal appeal. died for freedom for they told me so is the explanation made by the dead of each of the conflicting countries. No other catchword is so powerful, for no other is so general in its appeal or makes response so certain, and no other has been so universally advertised.
The country is associated immediately with the means of livelihood, particularly in the minds of the dominant class.
During the great railroad strike of 1893 a rumor spread in California that the soldiers in Chicago had refused to fire upon the strikers. On hearing this a well known official of the Southern Pacific Railroad is said to have exclaimed, We have no country. To him country meant the opportunity to conduct his business backed by all the resources of the government. By virtue of the shaping of public opinion by the dominant class the word has come to mean the same thing even to those who have nothing and who could not conceivably be worse off even in the event of defeat.
By the use of the word Kultur the German possessing and dominant classes give a name to the system under which their prosperity has grown up. The greatness, the dignity and the prosperity of the Germans are all bound up in the term. It is the catchword which embraces the prosperity mores of the country and hence has all the power of a religious affirmation. It is a mere secularization of Gott mit uns which expresses gratitude for an existing society and a determination to fight for its maintenance.
These catchwords are all advertised and kept before the