286 | MP conclusion

newspapers with a circulation of 50,000 and over, 14,347,000
supported Landon, 6,996,000 Roosevelt, and 1,651,000 were
neutral. In the election, 25 million persons voted for
Roosevelt, and 15 million for Landon. It seems that only
followers of Roosevelt can regard this as an example of the
triumph of common-sense. Another interpretation is equally
possible. The propaganda of the printed word may have been
beaten by Roosevelt's 'propaganda of deeds'. The enormous
sums which the Roosevelt administration had spent on relief
may have carried more weight than the arguments of his
opponents. The two interpretations will seem alike only to
those who ignore the direct and indirect cost of Roosevelt's
policy.

A combination of material interests and group tradition
seems to account for the comparative failure of Lloyd
George's propaganda among the British workers during the
last war. Although the British Government possessed an
almost complete monopoly of the instruments of propaganda,
they could not destroy the latent hunger for peace among the
British workers. When the question of attending the
Stockholm Conference was voted upon at the Labour Party
Conference in August 1917, a majority of 1,296,000 voted for
attending (1,860,000 for and 550,000 against).

2. Propaganda and objective facts

I found it rather hard to give examples for the rule that
successful propaganda requires the support of common-sense,
and of objective facts. Each time I discovered that I had