HOME-MADE PROPAGANDA

One of many words brought into prominence by the war is "propaganda" with its various connotations. In 1947, the term conjured up visions of innumerable lurking Teutions, spying upon our defenses and undermining society in general. Nowadays it suggests Sinn Fein. Bolshovism, or the Loyal Coalition. Education, industry, polities, almost every phase of our national life is disturbed by propaganda of one sort or another. Some of it is instigated from abroad, but most of it originates with "true-hearted American citizens."

Back in the middle of the eighteenth century as historians tell us to satisfy the unscrupulous ambition of a European ruler, redskins sealped one another on the shores of the Great Lakes. The day of the Indian is past, but the inhabitants of America are still quarreling over matters about which they are often as ill-informed as was the ignorant aborigine a century and a half ago. Love of the old country, of race and traditional institutions, leads us to accept mere rumor as fact.

In these days of garbled despatches, of flaring headlines and imaginative write-up men, we cannot be too careful in sampling the multifarious and savory morsels dealt out to us by the public press. Under the skilful hand of inventive genius-by dint of adding a detail here and a touch of color there-assault becomes murder, a riot rebellion, until all sense of perspective is lost. When interest in European or World politics leads us to discuss the problems of the day, let us be sure we know whereof we speak, Our daily newspapers publish much propaganda that is American-made: either side of a question may be found treated in the most vivid terms according to the attitude of the staff that printed it. The prudent man will read between the lines.