Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1920-11-05
Canvass OF 5,l54 Editors Shows
4,466 Communities Against
SociaIistiC Experiment.
POSITION GRO W C
Eighty seven Per Cent IN 1920 a.
Against 50 Per Cent In 1919
Think Public Is Opposed
to Radcaiism.

ton than II was q year ago, according
10 the newspaper editors Of the cOun
try Out of 5.154 editors replying Il
Service Company Of New York, 4,466
or SO per cent. gave 1t as their judg
ment that the people Of their commu
mites were overwhelmingly agains
the Government competing in business
with lis own citizens
In 1919 the Press Service Company
conducted similar canvass OF editors
on the government operation Of rail
roads That questionable showed thai
SO per cent of the editors considered
their communities against Govern
ment operation of public utilities,
Apparently. then, II editors estimate
public opinion accurately. that opin
ion In year, considered by commu
mites. has swung per cent farther
away from sociaiistic experimental
Eleven Million Circulation.
The combined circulation Of the pa
pers whose editors replied Is LAPS.
817. which means. according to the
usual estimated ratio between circula
ton and readers. constituency Of al
least 100000 And this CONSTITUENT
cy Is pretty evenly scattered through.
out the country. no considerable sec.
ton Of any state being unrepresented
The estimate of opinion based on this
thoroughly diffused ~ pei cent Of the
country's population may, therefore,
be considered q fair representation OF
the people as whole.
Another feature of the result 10 ita
evident lack of partisan bias. The
major political affiliations of the pa.
pers represented are fairly evenly di.
vided, being 1857 Republican and
1850 Democratic. There are also Lass
independent and 1872 miscellaneous,
including labor organs, etc
How little the results are affected
by the politics Of the papers Is shown
In an analysis 10y sections. In the
Southern section for instance, where
replies came from 65 Republican pa.
pers and 3S9 Democratic, the per.
centage against Government operation
was So, in the Great Lake section,
with conditions reversed, 478 Repub-
lican and los Democratic the oppo-
sition was 81 per cent
Replies from the West, Middle West
and Southwest show that 1t is a mis-.
take to consider those sections vastly
more favorable to radical Government
experiments than the East. The rad.
lcals can get little comfort out of the
80 per cent Of thumbs DOWN. per
cent above the average--in the South.
west, including Arkansas, Louisiana,
Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Tex
us Texas, once supposed to be much
given to Government regulation ex
periments, returned 80 per cent of un.
favorable replies. Out of the PA edi-
tors replying from that state only
three edited Republican papers The
81 per cent opposition of the North
west, including Iowa, Minnesota, Mon
tana, Nebraska North Dakota, South
Dakota and Wyoming, and the SO per
cent veto of the Far West group, In
Guiding Arizona, California, Idaho,
Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Colo
RADIO, Utah and Washington, are sig
nificant Of the prevailing conservative
sentiment on this question even In
the more radical sections.
Judgment Apparently Unbiased.
The QUESTIONABLE closes with a re-
quest for the editors personal opin.
ion on certain concrete cases as fol.
lows.
DO you personally believe that the
Federal Government should own and
operate competitive industries TO pro-
vide: (a) Fertilizer? % Clothing7
(c) Automobiles? Id Farm imple-
ments7 (e) Foodstuffs?
Substantially all the editors who
gave estimates Of their readers opin-
plying to this last question. Proof of
considerable effort to avoid personal
bias Ia found In the fact that In many
cases the editor differed from the
opinion he credited to his community
The percentage Of mos" ran: (a)
7s; 90 SO; (c) SO; td) 80; (e) 70.
While the questions were based on
general principles involved in the
participating In competi-
tive business. the so-called Muscle
Shoals Bill now before Congress was
used as a concrete example Of a Gov
operation scheme Under this
bill Government-owned corporation
would be given broad powers to oper-
ate and develop Government plants
and properties 1t would produce at
Muscle Shoals various fertilizer prod
nets and sell them In competition with
producers and merchants ln the fer.
illzer business
Tho strength Of the opposition TO
Government operation Ii indicated by
he replies from Alabama, where the
Muscle Shoals war plant Is and where,
II course. there IL intense interest
nd local pride In getting it's expected /,
eace-time operation under way at the |
arliest possible date Fifty editors +
rom that state replied, Of whom 3s /,
iere opposed to Government opera
ION, 8 In favor and doubtful