PUBLIC OPINION by WALTER LIPPMANN TO FAYE LIPPMANN ...

peace."
Mr. Spencer--, statistician.
The two sets of phrases are equally noble, equally true, and almost
reversible. Would Clarence and Wilmot have admitted for an instant
that they intended to default in our duty pledged on the fields of
France; or that they did not desire international peace? Certainly
not. Would Marie and Spencer have admitted that they were in favor of
entangling alliances or the surrender of American independence? They
would have argued with you that the League was, as President Wilson
called it, a disentangling alliance, as well as a Declaration of
Independence for all the world, plus a Monroe Doctrine for the planet.
2
Since the offering of symbols is so generous, and the meaning that can
be imputed is so elastic, how does any particular symbol take root in
any particular person's mind? It is planted there by another human
being whom we recognize as authoritative. If it is planted deeply
enough, it may be that later we shall call the person authoritative
who waves that symbol at us. But in the first instance symbols are
made congenial and important because they are introduced to us by
congenial and important people.
For we are not born out of an egg at the age of eighteen with a
realistic imagination; we are still, as Mr. Shaw recalls, in the era
of Burge and Lubin, where in infancy we are dependent upon older
beings for our contacts. And so we make our connections with the outer
world through certain beloved and authoritative persons. They are the
first bridge to the invisible world. And though we may gradually
master for ourselves many phases of that larger environment, there
always remains a vaster one that is unknown. To that we still relate
ourselves through authorities. Where all the facts are out of sight a
true report and a plausible error read alike, sound alike, feel alike.
Except on a few subjects where our own knowledge is great, we cannot
choose between true and false accounts. So we choose between
trustworthy and untrustworthy reporters. [Footnote: See an
interesting, rather quaint old book: George Cornewall Lewis, _An
Essay on the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion_.]
Theoretically we ought to choose the most expert on each subject. But
the choice of the expert, though a good deal easier than the choice of
truth, is still too difficult and often impracticable. The experts
themselves are not in the least certain who among them is the most
expert. And at that, the expert, even when we can identify him, is,