mentality of the populace ; their penetrative effect was decisive in the truest sense.
Compare with them the futile stutterings of Bethmann-Hollweg, whose speeches may have been more intellectual, but really they merely proved the man’s inability to speak to his nation.
Lloyd George proved his equality, nay, his immeas¬ urable superiority to Bethmann-Hollweg by the fact that the form and expression of his speeches were such as to open the hearts of his people to him and to make them pay active obedience to his will. The very primitiveness of those speeches, their form of expression, and his choice of easily understood, simple illustration, are proofs ofthat Welshman’s towering political capacity.
Mass assemblies are necessary because whilst attend¬ ing them the individual who feels on the point of joining a young Movement and takes alarm if left by himself receives his first impression of a larger community, and this has a strengthening and encouraging effect on most people. He submits himself to the magic influ¬ ences of what we call “mass-suggestion”. The desires, longings and indeed the strength of thousands is accumulated in the mind of each individual present. A man who enters such a meeting in doubt and hesita¬ tion leaves it inwardly fortified ; he has become a member of a community. The National Socialist movement may never ignore this.