mob becomes shorn of will-power and blindly obedient to its dictator. The

Russian Government, recognizing the menace of the crowd-mind to its autocracy,

formerly prohibited public gatherings. History is full of similar instances.

 

_How the Crowd is Created_

 

Today the crowd is as real a factor in our socialized life as are magnates and

monopolies. It is too complex a problem merely to damn or praise it--it must be

reckoned with, and mastered. The present problem is how to get the most and the

best out of the crowd-spirit, and the public speaker finds this to be peculiarly

his own question. His influence is multiplied if he can only transmute his

audience into a crowd. His affirmations must be their conclusions.

 

This can be accomplished by unifying the minds and needs of the audience and

arousing their emotions. Their feelings, not their reason, must be played

upon--_it is "up to" him to do this nobly_. Argument has its place on the

platform, but even its potencies must subserve the speaker's plan of attack to

_win possession_ of his audience.

 

Reread the chapter on "Feeling and Enthusiasm." It is impossible to make an

audience a crowd without appealing to their emotions. Can you imagine the

average group becoming a crowd while hearing a lecture on Dry Fly Fishing, or on

Egyptian Art? On the other hand, it would not have required world-famous

eloquence to have turned any audience in Ulster, in 1914, into a crowd by

discussing the Home Rule Act. The crowd-spirit depends largely on the subject