The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1920-11-03
PUBLIC OPPOSES
Govt OPERATION
Canvass of 5,154 Editors Shows
1896 Communities Against
SociaIistic Experiment.
OPPOSITION GROWING
EIshty-seven Per Cent In 1920 az
Against SO 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 to
a questionnaire sent out by the Press
Service Company Of New York, 4,466,
or Sc per cent. gave ii as their judg-
ment that the people of their commu-
mites were Overwhelmingly against
! the Government competing 10 business
with its own citizens.
In 1919 the Press Service Company
conducted similar canvass of editors
on the government operation OF rail-
roads. That QUESTIONABLE showed that
SO 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 year, considered by commu-
mites, has swung per cent farther
away from socialistic experiments.
Eleven Million Circulation
The combined circulation Of the pa
pers whose editors replied Is 1.428.-
817. which means, according to the
usual estimated ratio between circula-
tion and readers, constituency Of at
least 100000. And this constituent
cy Is pretty evenly scattered through
out the country, no considerable Sec
tion 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 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 d.
vided, being 1857 Republican and
1850 Democratic. There are also Lass
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 3s9 Democratic, the per
4 centage against Government operation
was SS; in the Great Lake section.
with conditions reversed, 47S Repub-
i lican and 155 Democratic, the oppo-
sition was 81 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
experiments than the East. The rad
i icals can get little comfort out of the
80 per cent of thumbs down. per
1 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. retur yer cent of un-
favorable reptile The 244 edi-
tors replying state only
three edited Re apers. The
81 per cent oppc .l 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
Guiding Arizona, California, Idaho,
Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Colo
RADIO, Utah and Washington, are sig
nificant of the prevailing conservative
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) Clothing?
(c) Automobiles? (d) Farm imple-
ments? (e) Foodstuffs?
Substantially all the editors who
gave estimates of their readers opIn-
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)
rs; (b) s3; tc) SO; I'D 80; tc) 70.
While the questions were based on
general principles involved In the
Government participating in competf-
tive business, the so-called MGscle
Shoals Bill now before Congress was
used as a concrete example of Gov
erament operation scheme. Under this
bill 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.
The 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 3S
we're opposed to Government opera
n