Page:May Walden - Woman and Socialism (1909).pdf/16

 16 and wrote literature that furthered their own interests.

When feudalism was broken up by the rise of capitalism, that is, when the land owners were displaced by the merchants and manufacturers, all things were changed to suit the capitalists.

These changes in society from one period to the next above it are called revolutions. Politics, art, literature, religion, political science, philosophy, education, and other institutions have all passed through changes following industrial changes in society.

None of these changes is more strikingly shown than in that which is called Public Opinion. People's Ideas are formed very largely by what they hear others say whom they look upon as authorities, or by what they read in books or papers for which they have great respect. At the present time when newspapers are so cheap and plentiful, the information that is contained in them, and the opinions that are expressed by them, have a powerful effect in determining people's beliefs on certain questions.

Now these newspapers and periodicals, which are collectively spoken of as "the press" are, almost without exception, owned and controlled by the present ruling class—the capitalists—who are very careful to form a public opinion that suits their own interests. These interests are embodied in the principle that capitalist private property is sacred. This has been taught for so long a time that people take it for granted that it is true, and that there is no need to prove it. Upon this belief there has been built a great