for two to three years of their lives, which has tuned their minds to
vibrate in harmony with his precepts, and those who know and appreciate
this fact at its true value have only to strike the necessary chords
in order to evoke a response sufficient to overpower any other ethical
conception which those who have not organised their forces beforehand
can appeal to.

The recent set-back experienced by the Socialists in Germany is an
illustration of my position. The Socialist leaders of that country
are far behind the responsible Governors in their knowledge of the
management of crowds. The latter had long before (in 1893, in fact)
made their arrangements to prevent the spread of Socialistic propaganda
beyond certain useful limits. As long as the Socialists only threatened
capital they were not seriously interfered with, for the Government
knew quite well that the undisputed sway of the employer was not for the
ultimate good of the State. The standard of comfort must not be pitched
too low if men are to be ready to die for their country. But the moment
the Socialists began to interfere seriously with the discipline of the
Army the word went round, and the Socialists lost heavily at the polls.

If this power of predetermined reaction to acquired ideas can be
evoked successfully in a matter of internal interest only, in which the
"obvious interest" of the vast majority of the population is so clearly
on the side of the Socialist, it must be evident how enormously greater
it will prove when set in motion against an external enemy, where the
"obvious interest" of the people is, from the very nature of things, as
manifestly on the side of the Government; and the Statesman who failed
to take into account the force of the "resultant thought wave" of a
crowd of some seven million men, all trained to respond to their ruler's
call, would be guilty of treachery as grave as one who failed to strike