Putnam County herald. (Cookeville, Tenn.) 1903-1922, 1920-10-21
PUBLIC OPPOSES
GOVT OPERATION
Canvass Of 5,154 Editors Shows
%466 Communities Against
SseiaIistic Experiment
OPPOSITION WING
giehty-sevsn Per Cent In 1920 -
Against Is Per Cent In 1918
Think PvbIIe 10 oppossd
to Radicalisn.

The American public Is more II
tsnssly opposed to Government opera
ten than It was year ago. according
to the newspaper editors Of the coun
try. Out Of 5,154 editors replying Il
a QUESTIONABLE sent out by the Pros
Service Company Of New York, 4.466
or SO per cent, gave 1t a. their judg
ment that the people Of their c0mmu
mites were overwhelmingly against
the Government competing 10 business
with its own citizens.
In 1919 the Press Service Company
conducted q similar canvass Of editors
on the government operation Of rail
roads. That questionable showed thai
g per cent Of the editors considered
their communities against Govern
msnt operation Of public utilities. 80
Apparently, then, Il editors estimate
public spinieo' accurately. that opin'
lon In Q year, considered By comfnu
mites, has swung per cent farther
away from socialistie experimental
Eleven aAtsatsn cirsuiatisn.
Thss combined circulation OF the 20
psrs whose editors replied 10 11,428,'
3l7, which means. according to the
usual estimated rat1s bstwsSn circula'
ton and readers, . constituency Of nj
least 44.O00.O00 And this constituent
e 10 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 - per cent Of the
country's population may. therefore.
be considered fair representation Of
the people n q whole.
Another feature Of the result Is ita
evident lack Of partisan bias. The
major political Affiliations Of the pa.
pers represented are fairly evenly d.
vided, being 1857 Republican and
1880 Democratic. There are also 1.4S'
Independent and 462 miscellaneous
including labor organs, etc.,
How little the results are affected
by the politics Of the papers Is shown
in an analysis by sections. In the
Southern section, for instance, where
replies came from IS Republican pa
pers and $50 Democratic, the per.
centage against Government operation
was SS; In the Great Lake section,
with conditions reversed, 478 Repub.
lican and 1855 Democratic. the oppo
sition was 81 per cent
Replies from the West, Middle West
and Southwest show that 1t Is mis-
take to consider those sections vastly
more favorable to radical Government
experiments than the East. The rad
icals can get little comfort out Of the
% per cent of thumbs down. pei
cent above the saverage-in the South
west, Including Arkansas, Louisiana,
Missouri. Kansas Oklahoma and Tex
as. Texas, once supposed 70 be much
given TO Government regulation OK.
perinents, returned 81 per cent Of un
favorable replies Out Of the 244 sdi.
TORS replying from that state only
three edited Republican papers The
81 per cent opposition OF the North
vest, including low b, Minnesota. Mon
tana. Nebraska. North Dakota, South
Dakota and Wyoming, and the SO pei
cent veto Of the Far West group, In.
Guiding Arizona, California, Idaho
Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Colo
RADIO, Utah and Washington. are sig
niflcant Of the prevailing conservative
sentiment on this question even In
the more radical sections.
Judgment Apparently Unbiased.
The QUESTIONABLE closes with re-
h. nnfn. |
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? (b) Clothing7
(c) Automobiles? (d) Farm imple-
ments7 (e) Foodstuffsi
Substantially all the editors who
gave estimates of their readers Opn.
Ions also expressed their own by re-
plying to this last question. Proof Of
effort to avoid personal
bias is found in the fact that in many
cases tho editor differed from the
opinion he credited to his community
The percentage of mos ran: (a)
7e; (b) 50; (c) SO; td) 80; te) 70.
While the questions were based on
general principles involved 10 the
participating In competi-
live business, the so-called Muscle
Shoals Bill now before Congress was
used as q concrete example of Gov
eminent operation scheme. Under this
bill a Governmsnt-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
ucts and sell them In competition with
producers and merchants In the fer
tilizer business.
Tho strength Of the opposition to
operation IL indicated by
tho replies from Alabama. where the
Muscle Shoals war plant 10 and where.
pf course. there 10 intense interest
md local pride In getting Its exp scted
peace-time operation under way at the
Earliest possible date. Fifty editors
from that state replied. Of whom "a
~ ere OppOssd 10 Cove eminent Ous,ru-