Create Public Opinion by individual and concerted action, that is our next duty.  Truth spreads, not like the devastating torrent, but like the tide.  From individual to individual as from pebble to pebble it slowly creeps in and spreads the silent power of its rising waters.  “No one ever talks freely about anything without contributing something, let it be ever so little, to the unseen forces which carry the race on to its final destiny.  Even if he does not make a positive impression he counteracts or modifies some other impression, or sets in motion some train of ideas in some one else, which helps to change the face of the world.”  Godkin “Problems of Modern Democracy.” 221-224.

By the continued repetition of truth and the persevering refutation of falsehood we will help to create around us, in our limited sphere of action, a sane Public Opinion.  But it is above all by the radiance of our moral life that truth, particularly religious truth, will spread.  Religion, as we know, is of the moral order; its dogmas, precepts and sacraments reach out into that domain.  Paul Bourget, the celebrated French writer sums up one of his most striking novels in this phrase:  “At Forty-three” which he calls the noon hour of life—­“man must live what he believes or he will eventually believe as he lives.”  To live up to our principles is always the best proof of our belief in them.

Concerted action will extend the benefits of this individual action to the creation of Public Opinion in the Community, in Society at large.  As all great powers, Public Opinion is courted; this courtship is “Propaganda.”  Truth requires propaganda as life needs transmission.  An efficient propaganda takes myriad forms but its purpose is always the same, i.e., give to others our ideas and through them organize the public mind.  Distribution of literature, lectures, the press, the novel, the cinema, bureaus of information, active participation in public life are vital factors of an efficiently organized propaganda.  The recent Northcliffe propaganda, followed by the Hearst propaganda are typical illustrations of how the public mind of a Country was swayed from a pro-British to an Anti-English attitude.

The Direction of Public Opinion is the ultimate triumph of propaganda.  This is obtained when our principles pass into the warp and woof of the social textures which are always in the making on the great loom of our nation’s life.  Ideas have their full value when they are extended to social and political issues.  It is only then that they influence a nation as such.  For our lives are knitted with the lives of others, and their action and reaction upon them form our public life.  “In the formation and guidance of the public opinion which ultimately determines public action, Catholics bear responsibility and must take their part.” (Cardinal Bourne, at the Catholic Congress of England, 1920.)