England. Britain became a speculative crowd. Stock in the South Sea Company rose

from 128-1/2 points in January to 550 in May, and scored 1,000 in July. Five

million shares were sold at this premium. Speculation ran riot. Hundreds of

companies were organized. One was formed "for a wheel of perpetual motion."

Another never troubled to give any reason at all for taking the cash of its

subscribers--it merely announced that it was organized "for a design which will

hereafter be promulgated." Owners began to sell, the mob caught the suggestion,

a panic ensued, the South Sea Company stock fell 800 points in a few days, and

more than a billion dollars evaporated in this era of frenzied speculation.

 

The burning of the witches at Salem, the Klondike gold craze, and the

forty-eight people who were killed by mobs in the United States in 1913, are

examples familiar to us in America.

 

_The Crowd Must Have a Leader_

 

The leader of the crowd or mob is its determining factor. He becomes

self-hynoptized with the idea that unifies its members, his enthusiasm is

contagious--and so is theirs. The crowd acts as he suggests. The great mass of

people do not have any very sharply-drawn conclusions on any subject outside of

their own little spheres, but when they become a crowd they are perfectly

willing to accept ready-made, hand-me-down opinions. They will follow a leader

at all costs--in labor troubles they often follow a leader in preference to

obeying their government, in war they will throw self-preservation to the bushes

and follow a leader in the face of guns that fire fourteen times a second. The