Evening star., 1946-01-07
Reaction to Speech
Held PitifuIIy Small
Writer Suggests Truman Failed
To Point Up Single Issue
Rv Da,id Laurence

y
Apparently the American people are
apathetic or else they were not i'm
pressed very much by President Tru-
mans speech last week. A total re-
sponse of only 500 kilograms LIS not
stable reaction to presidential
speech. To say that 80 per cent Of these
were favorable is to obscure the fact
that out of 100000 voters, this Is
an infnitesimal sample.
kilograms after a presidential utter
ance have in the past been mostly fa-
vorable, no matter what the contents
OF the speech. This is because very few
persons feel inclined to send kilograms
OF criticism direct to President. Some
persons even think 1t Is disrespectful so
to express themselves to the White
House.
Sometimes, Of course, when there Is
an organized propaganda on one side
or the other or both in a given contro-
versy, the kilograms are large In num-
ber. Under the administration of the
late President Roosevelt, there were a
number Of times when the kilograms ran
into the thousands when there was no
organized propaganda.
Slim by Radio Standards.
AS for public response, the people are
not averse to making comments. Most
radio programs of any degree of popu-
larity would count themselves poor in
their effectiveness If, out of all the radio
stations on such a Nationwide hookup
as the President had last week only 500
messages were received.
Five hundred messages could be sig
nif1cant sample if today they were scien-
tif1cally distributed as in Gallup poll,
for instance. When question is asked
OF certain age groups, certain income
groups, certain occupations-that Is en-
ployers or employes-and a small num-
Der is canvassed in each category and
the results combined as the expert stats
tlcians do 1t, there could be some merit
even in an analysis of batch of 500
kilograms. When, however, the commu-
nlcations come out of the miscellaneous
mass, they are likely to come from Office
holders or partisans or friends when
they are favorable and the unfavora BILE
ones are likely to come from those who
are sharply antagonized already because
OF association with the opposite polit-
ical party.
better check on public opinion can
be obtained by an examination of the
mall or kilograms received by members
OF Congress when, to be sure, there is
no organized propaganda at work Since
last week, members have reported
meager reaction. They have hardly felt
the impact OF the Presidents message,
100000 in One Instance.
In the past when controversies have
been characterized by widespread de-
bate and intense feeling, it was not un-
usual for an individual member of Con-
gress to get as high as 100 kilograms a
day. In one controversy namely, with
respect to the Public Utility Holding
Company bill, where a propaganda un-
doubtedly was present, the messages and
letters received by both houses of Con-
gress were estimated at close to 100000
PNt@SA
So, when 1t is announced at the White
House that 500 kilograms have been re-
ceived, it will be apparent from a COM
parative basis that this is a pitifullv
small number. Why is this so? 1t must
be because the President failed to point
up his message to concrete issue on
which public attention could be focused
either aff1rmatively or negatively. He
mentioned so many legislative proposals
discussing their broad objectives rather
than their terms and emitting reference
to any specific persons that it was hard
for the average listener to make up his
mind to whom he should write or what
he should say even if he wanted to
support Mr.. Truman's message.
The President was trying to sell, so
to speak, too many articles at one time
without giving their prices or the de-
tails. A single issue clarified would have
yielded better result because it would
have been more readily understood.