ALL propaganda are seen to generate counter-
irritants of their own. We observed this process
with regard to the German propaganda in
America in the years 1914-15. The more the
Germans explained their cause, the more hor-
rified we grew. It did not occur to us that we
were herein getting sight of an unsuspected
natural law, which may be expressed thus:
Any statement that exactly suits the view of
some organization is never quite true. The
better the fit, the more obvious to the rest of the
world is the untruth. People argue instinctively
that a certain view must be false, because it suits
the British, or the French, or the Jews, or the
Jesuits, or the Socialists, too snugly. Propa-
ganda defeats itself; and to this natural law we
owe the preservation of society. Otherwise, the
world would become all one thing. For instance:
The Masons are historically hostile to the Ro-
man Church. The Masonic order is, therefore,
singled out by the Catholics for special reproba-
tion, and vice versa. Each party thus points out
a camp on a hill to which its enemies may resort,
and thus consolidates the numbers of its foes.

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