Only recently, Prof. W. Z. Ripley of Harvard University, one of the foremost national authorities on business organization and practice, exposed certain aspects of big business which tended to undermine public confidence in large corporations. He pointed out that the stockholders' supposed voting power is often illusory; that annual financial statements are sometimes so brief and summary that to the man in the street they are downright misleading; that the extension of the system of non-voting shares often places the effective control of corporations and their finances in the hands of a small clique of stockholders; and that some corporations refuse to give out sufficient information to permit the public to know the true condition of the concern.

'But when the example of the leader is not at hand and the herd must think for itself, it does so by means of cliches, pat words or images which stand for a whole group of ideas or experiences. Not many years ago, it was only necessary to tag a political candidate with the word 'interests' to stampede millions of people into voting against him, because anything associated with 'the interests' seemed necessarily corrupt. Recently the word Bolshevik has performed a similar service for persons who wished to frighten the public away from a line of action.' Good thing this doesn't happen in modern times. That would be DEPLORABLE and WOKE.

Bernays makes a case for establishing layers of propagandists that can act to transmit marching orders from the top down. The invisible govenors issue a command. The public relations teams of the corporations deliver the orders. The teacher or pastor or parent drive the orders home. Each layer of leadership may not even know they are being led. All of this, says Bernays, should happen within an ethical framework similar to that other well respected and highly ethical profession - lawyers!