The Holbrook news., 1920-11-05
PUBLIC OPPOSES
 GOVT OPERATION
Canvass of 5,154 Editors Shows 4,466 Communities Against
 SociaIiStic Experiment.
OPPOSITION GROWING
EIshty-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 tion than it was year ago, according | to the newspaper editors of the coun try. Out of 5,154 editors replying tC 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 commit mites were overwhelmingly against the Government competing in business with its own citizens.
 Tn 1919 the Press Service Company conducted 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 a year, considered by cOmmu- mites, has swung 8 per cent farther away from socialistic experiments.
 Eleven Million Circulation.
 The combined circulation of the pa perS whose editors replied is 11,42S,t S17, which means, according to the usual estimated ratio between circula- tion and readers, a constituency of at least 44,000,00O. And this constituent cy is pretty evenly scattered through out the country, no considerable sec ton of any state being unrepresented. The estimate of opinion based on this Op country's population may, therefore, be considered a fair representation of the people as 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 di- vided, being 1857 Republican and 1850 Democratic. There are also 1,4S5 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 S8; in the Great Lake section, with conditions reversed, AIS Repub- lican and 155 Democratic, the oppo- sition was S7 per cent.
 Replies from the West, Middle West and Southwest show that it is a 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 S9 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 82 per cent opposition of the North west, including Iowa, Minnesota, MOn- tana, 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 niflcant 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- lows:
 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; (b) 93; Co 86; (d) S2; (e) 79.
 While the questions were based on general principles involved In the Government participating Tn competl- IlV6 DuSlDeSSb Cu6 SO-Cdlleu MuSClo 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-s ate and develop Government plants and properties. It would produce at Muscle Shoals various fertilizer prod ucts and sell them in competition with producers and merchants In the fer tllizer business.
 Tho strength of the opposition to Government operation is indicated by the replies from Alabama, where the Muscle Shoals war plant Is and where, of course, there is intense interest and local pride in getting it's expected peaee-time operation under way at the earliest possible date. Fifty editors from that state replied, of whom 3a were opposed to Government opera ton, in favor and doubtful.