The daily morning oasis., 1920-11-05
PUBLIC OPPOSES
GOVT OPERATION
Canvass of 5,154 Editors Shows
4,466 Communities Against
SociaIiStic Experiment.
OPPOSITION WING
EInhty-seven Per Cent In 1920 as
Against 80 Per Cent in 1918
Think Public 10 Opposed
to Radicalism.

Ino American PUBIC Is nOTe III
tensely opposed to Government opera
tion than 1t was year ago, according
to the newspaper editors of the c0un-
try. Out Of 5,l54 editors replying to
q QUESTIONABLE sent out by the Press
Service Company of New York. 4,466,
or SO per cent gave 1t as their judg-
ment that the people of their commu-
mites were overwhelmingly against
the Government competing In business
with It's own citizens
In 1919 the Press Service Company
conducted q similar canvass Of editors
on the government operation OF rail-
roads That QUESTIONABLE showed that
SO Der 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 q year, considered by commu-
mites, has swung 3 per cent farther
away from socialistic experimental
Eleven Million Circulation.
The combined circulation of the pa
SIT, which means, according to the
usual estimated ratio between circula-
tion and readers, q constituency of at
least 100000. And this constituent
icy 10 pretty evenly scattered through
out the country, no considerable Sec
ition of any state being unrepresented
The estimate of opinion based on this
IL Of
icOuntry's population may, therefore,
Ibe considered a fair representation of
the people as a whole
Another feature of the result is its
levident lack of partisan bias The
major political affiliations Of the pa
Ipers represented are fairly evenly di-
lvided, being 1857 Republican and
1850 Democratic. There are also 1,4S5
independent and 1852 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 So Republican pa
pers and 389 Democratic, the per-
lcentage against Government operation
was 49, in the Great Lake section,
with conditions reversed, 478 Repub-
lican and 155 Democratic. the oppO-
sition was 81 per cent
Replies from the West Middle West
and Southwest show that II 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
SO 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
itana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South
Dakota and Wyoming, and the 80 per
cent veto Of the Far West group, in
Guiding Arizona, California, Idaho,
Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Colo
RADIO, Utah and Washington, are sig
nifcant of the prevailing conservative
sentiment on this question even in
the more radical sections
Judgment Apparently Unbiased
The QUESTIONABLE closes with re-
quest for the editors personal epin-
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) Fertilizerl (b) Clothing?
(c) AutomobilesP (d) Farm imple
ments? (e) Foodstuffs?
Substantially all the editors who
give 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)
76; (b) SO; (c) SO; (d) 81; (e) 70.
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
srnment operation scheme. Under this
oill GOvernment-Owned corporation
would be given broad powers to oper-
ate and develop Government plants
and properties Ii 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
the replies from Alabama, where the
Muscls Shoals war plant is and where
of course there is intense interest
and local pride in getting its expected
Dsace-time operation under way at the
earliest possible date Fifty editors
from that state replied, of whom Sc
were opposed to Government opera
ton, s In favor and 4 doubtful
Lohn, photographer, 81 Morley Ave