no objective standards here. There are conventions. Take two newspapers published in the same city on the same morning. The headline of one reads: ‘Britain pledges aid to Berlin against French Aggression. France Openly Backs Poles.’ The headline of the second is: ‘Mrs. Stillman’s Other Love.’ Which you prefer is a matter of taste, but not entirely a matter of the editor’s taste. It is a matter of his judgment as to what will absorb the half hour’s attention a certain set of readers will give to his newspaper.”
The American stage continually bows to public demand and consciously ascribes to the public the changes it undergoes. The character of advertising has definitely yielded to public demand and fake advertising has been to a great extent eliminated. Motion pictures have responded, too, to public taste and public pressure, both as to the kind of picture presented and, in isolated instances, to the type of action permitted to appear.
It is therefore apparent that these and the other institutions which modify public opinion carry on against a background which is also in itself a controlling factor. What the real character of this controlling background is we shall now consider.