New-York tribune., 1922-10-22
Fairness Of the Wet-Dy Poll
William II. Anderson Returns to the Attack and tn
Literary Digest" Replies to Criticisms
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: The Tribune has said editori-

Sir: The Tribune has said editori-
ally:
j "The Anti Saloon League. long de-,
/ termined to discredit The Literary
/ Digest's' prcnibition poll, has finally
| made the charge that the poll was
| deliberately sdoctored' In favor OF
! the vets"
This statement is untrue as we'll III
unfair, for explicitly avoided that
kind Of charge. / did say that the
fact that only 67 per cent Of the
church voters received ballots, whereas
"The Digest" claimed to have sent them
to 5S.7 per cent Of the electorate of tho
state, and the fact that fewer than
one-fifth Of the church voters having
telephones received ballots, whereas
THE Digest" claimed to have sent to
all telephone subscribers, prove con-
clusively either that ballots according
to the claimed quota were not mailed
to the church voters or that they we're
lost or abstracted altar being mailed.
And | specifically said that "eisheS et
these could have happened without cen
surable knowledge on the part ef ahe
responsible editoria! mansgemea. Of
| The Digest"
The Tribune says that sit was felt
that the subscribers lists of The Di-
sest.' which furnished great proper
tion Of the names bailoted, contained
rather more dgys than did other sim
liar lists" "The Digest said, for I
had them called especially. that they
sent out ten million ballots, and the
most that is claimed for "The Digest"
subscription list is that it is something
over million, which is not "a fair pro-
portion of the number of names ball
| loted."
| further information is in hand to
show that Digest" subscribers did nor
receive the ballots. For example. / am
q Digest" subscriber, in addition to
being in two telephone books, and did
| not receive ballot.
The Tribune says:
About the only conclusion that
can be drawn from the meager fig
| ures made public by the Anti-Saloon
League Is that many church men,
| .bers did not receive ballots. The
| same can undoubtedly be shown Of
other groups. This fact can be made
| to appear significant. however. only
II 1t can be shown that a smaller
| proportion Of ballots was received by
church members than by others and
| That there Is 8 greater number of
absolute drys among church mem
osrs than among other groups.''
This bears fairly conclusive internal
evidence that the man who wrote il
never read the Anti-saloon League
statement at all, but read only the
"meager figures which The Tribune
ppblished from the leagues complete
statement; for example, mere percent.
ages without any actual figures to
show the reliability of those per.
centages.
The figures which The Tribune did
not print show that of 3,s47 pastor,
asked to take count in their congre.
CATIONS replies were received the frs,
week covering 377 churches. This is
larger proportion than "The Digest,
got back from it's ballots in ten weeks
after unparalleled advertising, both
paid and free. and "The Digest" itself
says:
"A careful balancing Of the whole
poll .> justifes the
observation that variations and di.
vergences have way Of neutraliz.
| Ing each other, and experts recog.
nize that in the general averags
| there is an indication of almos,
uncanny accuracy"
| The pastors of these churches re.
ported 29,as& adults of voting age IN
tnelr congregations on September IT
Ihe original letters from these pastor,
are on file in our general Office. The
ao't per cent claimed by "The Digest
: 70 nave been sent to the electorate ot
new York State, If sent ballots by tn.
! Jaw OF averages enthroned by eth,
Y p'gest' itself, would be 1893. Thes.
pastors reported 1892 telephones
ACCORDING to "The Digest" statemen,
every one should have received a bal
.ot. However, the fact is that onl,
i,sso received ballots, so they had ,
r chance to vote at all,
e F" can hardly be claimed that thes,
: "sures are especially meager in view
n OF the fact that in ten weeks, dru,,
( ming with the assistance Of the press
:. OF the state, "The Digest only manage,
TO get back about $4,000 adverse vote
$ on TWO out of its three proposition
= out OF approximately million votes
q which, according to its claims. 4 sen
o. 10 the electorate of New York state
. AS these letters were sent an,, :
; pastors Of denominations comr,;t..
: 80 prohibition and its enforcement :,
sexton OF THAR general denomination !
soaies' and as the churches OF prae
'eaily all of these pastors are one,
' 20 she Anti-saloon Leassae for avn an
: auai presentation and subscrint,or
: M Is hardly necessary to offer anv as
aitional preof that there ia n vreata
! number Of absolute drys in this rrou