The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1920-11-04
PUBLIC OPPOSES
GOVT OPERATION
Canvass of 5,154 Editors Shows
4,466 Communities Against
SoCiaIistiC Experiment.
0 P p POSITION CROWN
eiehty.seven Per Cent In 1920 as
Against SO Per Cent In 1919
Think Public Is Opposed
TO Radlcallsm.
OPPOSITION WING

Think Public Is Opposed
to RadlcaIIsm.
The American public is more In.
tensely opposed to Government opera.
tion than 1t was q year ago. according
TO the newspaper editors Of the coun.
try. Out Of 5,154 editors replying to
a QUESTIONABLE sent out by the Press
Service Company Of New York, 4,4G0,
or 50 per cent gnve 1t as their tudg-
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
50 per cent of the editors considered
their communities against Govern
ment operation of public utilities.
Apparently, then, If editors estimate
public opinion accurately, that opln.
Ion In a year, considered by commu.
mites, has swung 3 per cent farther
away from sociaIstlc experimental
Eleven Million Circulation.
The combined circulation of the pa.
pers whose editors replied Is ll,428,. |
ol7, which means, according to the |
usual estimated ratio between circua.
tion and readers, 8 constituency of at
least 100000. And this constituen.
cy Is pretty evenly scattered through.
out the country, no considerable Sec 4
tion of any state being unrepresented.
The estimate of opinion based on this
thoroughly dffused a per cent of the
country's population may, therefore,
be considered fair representation OF
the people as a 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, being 1857 Republican and
1850 Democratic. There are also 1885
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 $50 Democratic, the per-
centage against Government operation
was 50; in the Great Lake section, 4
with conditions reversed, 478 Repub-
lican and 1855 Democratic, the oppo- n,
sition was 81 per cent. II
Replies from the West, Middle West III
and Southwest show that 1t is a mis- HI
AXE to consider those sections vastly III
more favorable to radical Government III
experiments than the East The rad. HI
calls can get little comfort out of the III
% per cent of thumbs down. per HI
ent above the average-in the South Ill
vest, Including Arkansas, Louisiana, HI
lissourl, Kansas, Oklahoma and Tex Ill
$. Texas, once supposed to be much III
iven to Government regulation ex- III
erlments, returned 92 per cent of I'M Hi
lyorable replies. Out Of the 244 edi- HI
'rs replying from that state only III
lree edited Republican papers. The III
per cent opposition of the North III
est, Including Iowa, Minnesota, Mon. Hi
ma, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Ill
akota and Wyoming, and the SO per
mt veto Of the Far West group, In
lding Arizona, California, Idaho. III
eyada, New Mexico, Oregon, Colo III
do, Utah and Washington, are sig.
icant of the prevailing conservative Ill
nttment on this question even In Ill
more radical sections. III
Judgment Apparently Unbiased. iii
The QUESTIONABLE closes with re-
est for the editors personal opln.
on certain concrete cases as fol.
7s: Hi
do you personally believe that the
leral Government should own and
rate competitive Industries to pro-
e: (a) Fertillzer2 (b) Clothlng2 iii
Automobles2 (d) Farm imple.
nts2 (e) FOodstuhs2 Il
all the editors who I=
e estimates of their readers opin- :
also expressed their own by re-
ng to this last question. Proof of
effort to avoid personal III
Is found ln the fact that in many Ill
IS the editor differed from the I'LL
hon he credited to his community. IIt
percentage Of NOS ran: (a) ilI
CD SO; (c) Sc; Cd So; (e) 10
lille the questions we're based on
eral principles involved In the
ernment participating in competi-
business, the so-called Muscle
MS Bill now before Congress was
as q concrete example OF a Gov
lent operation scheme. Under this iii
Government-Owned corporation
ID be given broad powers to oper.
and develop Government plants
properties. 1t would produce at
,le Shoals various fertilizer prod
and sell them IN competition with Hi
ucers and merchants 10 the fer Hi
r business.
@ strength Of the opposition TO
rBmeut operation IS indicated bv
'eplies from Alabama. where the iii
ie Shoals war plant is and where.
ourse. there Is intense interest
0cal pride In getting Its expected
'-time operation under way at the Ill
st possible date. Fifty editors u
that state replied. OF whom IS Ii
opposed to Government opera
5 In favor and doubtful ill I