Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1920-10-28
PUBLIC OPPOSES
Govt OPERATION
Canvass OF 5.154 Editors Shows
4,466 Communities Against
SociaIistic Experiment.
OPPOSITION GRO WING
EiaFty. seven Per Cent In 1920 az
Against 80 Per Cent In 1919
Think Public 10 Opposed
to RadicalIsm.
OPPOSITION WING

Tic AH1cTiCdD 70 'ho'S -
tensely opposed to Government opera
tioD than II was year ago, according
to the newspaper editors OF the coun'
try Out of 5,154 editors replying to
u questionable sent out by the press
Service Company of New York. 4,466,
or SO per cent. gave 1t as their )ndS-
ment that the people Of their commu.
mites we're overwhelmingly against
The Government competing 10 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 thar
So Der cent of the editors considered
their communities against Govern
meni operation Of public utilities.
Apparently, then. If editors estimate
,public opinion accurately, that opin-
ion In a year. considered by commu'
mites. has swung 3 per cent farther
away from socialistic experimental
Eleven Million Circulation.
The combined circulation Of the pa
pers whose editors replied Is 11.42S..
Sl7. which means. according to the
usual estimated ratio between circua.
ton and readers. a constituency OF al
least 100000 And this constituent
CIV Is pretty evenly scattered through.
out the country, no considerable sec
ton Of any state being unrepressnted,
The estimate Of opinion based Oh this
thoroughly diffused "a per cent Of the
countrys population may. therefore,
be considered fair representation OF
tie people as a whole
Another feature Of the result Ia 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 l,4so
independent and 400 miscellaneous.
including labor organs, etc.
How little the results are affected
by the politics of the papers 10 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-
centageAgalnst Government operation
was So; in the Great Lake section,
with conditions reversed, 47S Repub-
lican and 155 Democratic, the oppo-
sition was 81 per cent
REPLIES from the West Middle West
and Southwest show that 1t Is mis-
take to consider those sections vastly
more favorable to radical Government
experiments than the East. The rad
icals can get little comfort out Of the
30 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 90 per cent Of un.
favorable replies. Out of the 244 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 50 per
cent veto Of the Far West group, In
Guiding Arizona, California, Idaho.
Nevada, New Mexico Oregon, Colo
RADIO, Utah and Washington, are sig
HlHCdHt Vi tH0 III CNu SShoOA 'oh''S
sentiment on this question even In
the more radical 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 (b) Clothing2
(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)
70; tb) SO; (c) SO; (d) 80; te) 10.
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 concrete example of Gov
ernment operation scheme. Under this
bill Government-owned 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 is Indicated by
tho replies from Alabama, where the
Muscle Shoals war plant is and where,
Of course. there Is intense interest
and, local pride in getting Its expected
peace-time operation under way at the
earliest possible date Fifty editors
from that state replied, Of whom Ss
we're opposed to Government opera.
ton, Q In favor and doubtful.