But infectious diseases, on the other hand, were once as private as
the processes of a man's digestion. The history of the notion of
privacy would be an entertaining tale. Sometimes the notions violently
conflict, as they did when the bolsheviks published the secret
treaties, or when Mr. Hughes investigated the life insurance
companies, or when somebody's scandal exudes from the pages of Town
Topics to the front pages of Mr. Hearst's newspapers.

Whether the reasons for privacy are good or bad, the barriers exist.
Privacy is insisted upon at all kinds of places in the area of what is
called public affairs. It is often very illuminating, therefore, to
ask yourself how you got at the facts on which you base your opinion.
Who actually saw, heard, felt, counted, named the thing, about which
you have an opinion? Was it the man who told you, or the man who told
him, or someone still further removed? And how much was he permitted
to see? When he informs you that France thinks this and that, what
part of France did he watch? How was he able to watch it? Where was he
when he watched it? What Frenchmen was he permitted to talk to, what
newspapers did he read, and where did they learn what they say? You
can ask yourself these questions, but you can rarely answer them. They
will remind you, however, of the distance which often separates your
public opinion from the event with which it deals. And the reminder is
itself a protection.




CHAPTER III

CONTACT AND OPPORTUNITY