The St. Johns herald., 1920-11-11
Canvass of 5,154 Editors Shows 4,466 Communities Against
 SociaIiStiC Experiment.
OPPOSITION GROWING
Eiahty-seven Per Cent In 1920 as Against S3 Per Cent In 1919 Think Public is Opposed
 to RadicaIism.

The American public Is more in- tensely opposed to Government opera ton than it was a year ago, according to the newspaper editors of the coun- try. Out of 5,154 editors replying to a uuestionnaire sent out by the Press Service Company of New York, 4,466, or S6 per cent, gave it as their judg- ment that the people of their commu- mites were overwhelmingly against the Government competing in business with its own citizens.
 Tn 1919 the Press Service Company conducted a similar canvass of editors on the government operation of raI- roads. That questionnaire showed that ,S3 per cent of the editors considered their communities against Govern lment operation of public utilities. Apparently, then, If editors estimate public opinion accurately, that Opin- Ion in a year, considered by commu- lnities, has swung 8 per cent farther away from socialistic experiments.
 Eleven Million Circulation.
 The combined circulation of the pa- pers whose editors replied is 11.428,- l817, which means, according to the usual estimated ratio between circula- ltion and readers, a constituency of at least 44,OO0OOO. And this constituent Icy is pretty evenly scattered through out the country, no considerable sec Ition 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- lpers 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 389 Democratic, the per centage against Government operation was SS; in the Great Lake section, with conditions reversed, AIS Repuh- lican and 15J Democratic, the oppo- sition was 87 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 departments than the East. The rad icals can get little comfort out of the lS9 per cent of thumbs down. per lcent above the average-in the South west, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Tex ias. Texas, once supposed to be much given to Government regulation ex- periments, returned 92 per cent of un- favorable replies. Out of the PA Ndi- tors replying from that steSe only three edited Republican papers. The .S2 per cent opposition of the North west, including Iowa, Minnesota, Mon- ltana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, and the S3 per cent veto of the Far West group, in- .cluding Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Colo 'radO, Utah and Washington, are sig niacant of the prevailing conservative sentiment on this question even in the more radical sections.
 Judgment Apparently Unbiased.
 The Questionnaire closes with a re- quest for the editors personal Opin- ion on certain concrete cases as fol- lews:
 Do you personally believe that the Federal Government should own and operate competitive industries to pro- vide: (a) Fertilizer? (b) Clothing? (c) 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 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) 7e; Cb) s3; (c) 86; (d) S2; (e) 79.
 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 Gov ernment operation scheme. Under this bill a GoVernment-owned corporation would be given broad powers to oper- ate and develop Government plants