Mansfield mirror. (Mansfield, Wright County, Mo.) 1908-1957, 1920-12-23
PUBLIC OPPOSES
Govt OPERATION
Canvass Of 5,154 Editors Shows
1855 Communities Against
SociaIistic Experiment.
OPPOSITION CROW N G
EIphty..even Per Cent In 1920 AZ
Against 50 Per Cent In 1919
Think Public 10 Opposed
to Radiealism.

The American public Is more In
tensely opposed to Government opera
tiOn than 1t was a year ago, according
to the newspaper editors of the c0un'
try. Out Of 5,154 editors replying TO
a questionable sem out by the Press
Service Company Of New York. 4,466.
or SO per cent, gave 1t as their judy
ment that the people of their cOmmu-
mites were overwhelmingly against
the Government competing In business
with Its own citizens.
In 1919 the Press Service Company
conducted a similar canvass of editors
on the government operation OF rail-
roads. That QUESTIONABLE showed that
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 opln-
ion In a year, considered by commu
mites, has swung 3 per cent farther
away from sociallstic experiments.
Eleven Million Circulation.
The combined circulation Of the pa.
pers whose editors replied is l1,42S,-
Sl7, which a according to the
usual estimated ratio between circula-
ton and readers. a constituency of at
least 100000 And this constituent
cy Is pretty evenly scattered through
out the country, no considerable sec
ton of any state being unrepresented.
M 80 .sftnn hncnd IN this
thoroughly diffused "A per cent Of the
cOuntry's population may, therefore,
be consider ed a fair representation of
the people as IA whole.
Another feature of the result Is its
evident lack of partisan bias. The
major political affiliations Of the pa
pers represented are fairly evenly d.
vided, heing 1857 Republican and
1850 Democratic. There are also 1,4S5
independent and 4G2 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 50 Republican pa
pers and $3.50 Democratic, the per-
centaye against Government operation
was SO, In the Great Lake section,
with conditions reversed, 41S Repub-
lican and 1915 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
icals cun get little comfort out of the
SO per cent of thumbs down. per
cent above the average-in the South
west, including Arkansas, Louisiana,
Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Tex
as. Texas, once supposed to be much
given to Government regulation ex-
periments, returned 81 per cent Of I'M
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 80 per
cent veto of the Far West group, in
Guiding Arizona, California, Idaho,
Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Colo
RADIO, Utah and Washington, are sig
nifcant of the prevailing conservative
sentiment on this question even In
the more radica! 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? () Clothing?
(c) Automobiles? (d) Farm imple-
ments? (e) FOodstuffs?
Substantially all the editors who
gave estimates Of their readers opin-
Ions also expressed their wv by re-
plying to this last question. Proof Of
considerable effort to avoid personal
bias Is 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)
70; (b) SO; (c) SO; (d) 80; (e) 70.
While the questions were based on
general principles involved in the
Government participating in cOmpeti-
tive business, the so-called Muscle
Shoals Bill now before Congress was
used as a concrete example Of a Gov
eminent operation scheme. Under this
bill a aforementioned 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
Government operation 10 indicated by
the replies from Alabama, where the
Muscle Shoals wal plant 10 and where,
Of course. there IL intense interest
and local pride In getting it, expected
peace-time operation under way at the
earliest possible date. Fifty editors
from that state replied, Of whom 80
were opposed to Government opera.
t,on q In IN vor and 4 doubtful