Connecticut western news., 1920-11-25
Canvass of 5,154 Editors Shows 4,466 Communities Against
 SociaIistic Experiment.
PPOSlTION WING
Eighty-seven Per Cent In 1920 as Against S3 Per Cent in 1919 Think Public Is Opposed
 to Radicalism.

tensely opposed to Government opera
 tiOn than 1t was year ago, according
 to the newspaper editors of the coun.
 try. Out of 5,154 editors replying to
 a questionnaire sent out by the Press
 Service Company of New York, 4,466
 or S6 per cent, gave 1t as their judg-
 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 questionnaire showed that
 S3 per cent of the editors considered
 their communities against Govern ment operation of public utilities. !. Apparently, then, If editors estimate public opinion accurately, that opin- ion in year, considered by commu- nities, has swung 3 per cent farther away from socialistic experiments.
 Eleven Million Circulation.
 The combined circulation of the pa pers whose editors replied Is Il, ,428,- SIT, which means, according to the usual estimated ratio between circula- tion and readers, a constituency of at least 44,000,000. And this constituent cy Is pretty evenly scattered through out the country, no considerable sec tion of any state being unrepresented. The estimate of opinion based on this thoroughly diffused A per cent of the country's population may, therefore, be considered a fair representation of the people as a whole.
 Another feature of the result is it's 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 1,485 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 65 Republican pa pers and 3S9 Democratic, the per 4sntage against Government operation was ss in the Great Lake section, with conditions reversed, ATS Repub- Sean and 155 Democratic, the oppo- sition was 87 per cent.
 =.tzs from the West, Middle West and Southwest show that it is a mis- more favorable to radical Government experiments than the East. The rad icals can get little comfort out of the 89 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 92 per cent of un- favorable replies. Out of the PA edi- tors replying from that state only three edited Republican papers. The S2 per cent opposition of the North west, including Iowa, Minnesota, Mon- tana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, and the 83 per cent veto of the Far West group, in- cluding Arizona, California, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, Colo rado, Utah and Washington, are sig nificant of the prevailing conservative sentiment on this question even in the more radical sections.
 Judgment Apparently Unbiased.
 The questionnairs closes with a re- quest for the editors personal opin- lon 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) Clothing2 Co Automobiles? (d) Farm imple- ments? (e) Foodstuffs?
 Substantially all the editors who gave estimates of their readers opin- 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 the editor differed from the opinion he credited to his community. The percentage of mos" ran: (a) 76; (b) S3; (c) S6; (d 82; (e) 79.
 While the questions were based on general principles involved in the Government participating in competi- i've business, the. so-called Muscle Shoals Bill now before Congress was lsed as concrete example of a Gov ,rnment operation scheme. Under this pill Government-owned corporation would be given broad powers to oper- ite and develop Government plants | md properties. It would produce at | Muscle Shoals various fertilizer prod 1 tets and sell them in competition with | producers and merchants In the fer | ilizer business.
 Tho strength of the opposition to Government operation is indicated by | he replies from Alabama, where the | duscie Shoals war plant Is and where, If course. there is intense interest | md local pride in getting It's expected | operation under way at the l earliest possible date. Fifty editors | rom that state replied, of whom 3S |