The Raymer enterprise., 1920-11-04
PUBLIC OPPOSES
Govt OPERATION
Canvass Of 5,l54 Editors Shows
A,466 Communities Against
SeolaIistic Experiment
oPPosITloM WING
elehty-ssvsn PR Cent h 1890 40
Against q Per Cent n 1919
Think Public 10 Opposed
b Radlcallsm.

The American public b more In
tensely opposed to Government opera
ton than It was q year ago. according
. the nswspaper editors Of the coun.
~. Out Of 6,lA editors replying to
. QUESTIONABLE sent out BY the Press
Service Company Of New York, 4,466
Or So per cent gave 1t a their judg-
ment that the people Of their commu'
nitiss were Overwhelmingly against
the Government competing In business
With IT. own citizens.
In 1919 the Press Service Company
conducted similar canvass Of editors
on the government operation Of rail.
roadA That QUESTIONABLE showed that
% per cent Of the editors considered
their communities against Govern.
ment operation Of public utilitisa
Apparently. then. II editors estimate
public opinion accurately, that opin.
Ion In Z year, considered by commu.
nitisa has swung 8 per cent farther
away from socialistie experiments
Eleven Mlillsn Circulation.
The combined circulation Of tho pa.
pers whose editors replied is ll.428..
s17, which means, according to the
usual estimated ratio between circula.
don and readers Z constituency Of at
least A,000,000. And this constltuen.
| e 3 pretty evenly scattered through.
cut The country, no considerable soc.
don Of any state being unrepresented.
The estimate sf epinien based on this
thoroughly difussd a per cent Of the
eeuntry's population may, therefore.
b considered . fair representation Of
the people a. q whole.
Another feature Of the result . IT.
svidsnt lack Of partisan bias The
mater Political al1liations Of tho pa
pers represented arc fairly evenly d..
vidsd, being 1857 Republican and
l,9t0 Democratic. There are also LASS
Independent and 462 miscellaneous,
including labor organs. etc.
How little the results are affected
b the politics Of the papers q shown
IN IN analysis By sections. In the
Southern section, for instance, where
replies came from eo Republican pa
pers anl - Democratic, the per.
csntass against Government operation
was %; In the Great Lake section.
with conditions reversed, 47S Repub.
lican and 1b5 Democratic. the oppo-
dtion was 81 per cent
Replies from the West, Middle West
and Southwest show that It is . mis-
take to consider those sections vastly
more favorable to radical Government
experiments than the East The rad
icals can ct little comfort out Of tho
. per cent Of thumbs dewn-2 per
cent above the avsrage-in the South
west, including Arkansas, Louisiana,
Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Tex
a. Texas, once supposed to bs much
| oven to Government regulation Ok
| psrinsnts, returned % per cent Of un
| favorable replies. Out Of the PA edi
tors replying iron that state only
three edited Republican papers. The
q pr cent opposition Of the North
west including Iowa, Minnesota, Mon
tana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Soutl
Dakots and Wyoming, and the 50 pei
cent veto Of the Far West group, In
euling Arissaa, California. Idaho
Nevada, New Mexico. Oregon, Colo
: rads, Utah and Washington, are sig
niAcant Of the prevailing conservative
sentiment on this question even Il
he mere radical sections.
i judgment Apparently Unbiased.
The qusstionnaire closes with re
ausst for the editors personal opin
len o certain concrete cases as fol
lows:
10 you personally believe that tn
Federal Government should own AM
| spsrate competitive Industries to pro
: VIDE, (a) Tertilissri (b) Clothing
u (c) Autemobilssi (d) Farm imple
!. mentsi To- Fsodstuns7
: Substantially oil the editors VIII
nave estimates Of their readers opir
: lens also expressed their own BY RI
2 plying to this last question. Proof 0
considerable effort to avoid persona
!. | bias d found In the fact that In man
|. cases the editor differed from th
spinion be credited to his communlt!
The percentage Of mos" ran: "a
1 ~; (b) %; (c) 90; (d) S2; te) 70.
d While tho questions were based Q
..l general principles involved in th
! Government participating In compel
dive business, the so-called Musc|
Shoals Bill now before Congress We
used q 1 concrete example Of Go
eminent operation scheme. Under th
4. bill I 0cyernmsnt-ownsd corporate
.. weuld b. given broad powers to ope
= ats and develop Government plan
n. and properties II would produce
e Muscle Shoals various fertilizer pro
= ucts and sell thsm In competition vii
II producors and merchants 10 the Il
4. tilises business
The strength Of the opposition
III Government operation u indicated
~ The replies from Alabama, whore 4
Vi Muscle Shosls war plant ID and whsI
ri Of course. there d intenss !nters
= ana local pride In getting it, expect
= psacs-tms operation under way 1t 4
earliest possible data Fifty sditc
!, frsm that stats replied. ef whom