Evening star., 1948-11-19
Abandonment Of Polls
Would Mean Return
OF Pressure Groups
Surveys Of Public Opinion
Needed by Congress to.
Spike Bloc Propaganda
Bv David Laurence

People know that the forecasts
Of the weather are not infallible,
but millions still lay plans for the
next day or for several days ahead
on the basis of weather reports
whether to drive car or take a
train, whether to cut the hay or
plan to harvest a crop.
The weatherman will be the first
to concede that his forecasting Is
not scientifically accurate in every
respect. But he has been accurate in
so many instances that there is a
healthy respect for his forecasts.
Something of the same attitude
will develop with respect to the
making of polls and surveys on
public questions. Unfortunately,
there are lots of folks who are ready
to cross of all the pollsters and all
forms Of market research as mean
ingless. There are people who do
not know much about market re-
search or surveys or the tremen-
dously important part they have
played in governmental operations
for many years.
Value Proved in Past.
It is obviously too expensive to
count noses whenever the Govern
ment wants to find out facts about
certain activities. The sampling
method has proved very valuable
in the past and will continue to
prove even more so in the future.
The art of scientific sampling has
spread to many countries through
out the world, and just because
polling has not been satisfactory IN
connection with elections Is no
reason to- discard the market-re-
search results which have been OBJ
tanned through surveys.
This does not mean that all sur
veys in the marketing world have
been accurate, either. Many Of them
are faulty. Often leading questions
are asked which lead to a result
that can be manipulated to suit the
maker Of the survey. But, as IN all
businesses, honesty and objectivity
are constantly being applied In or
der to get the best answers-namely,
results that will be persuasive.
The maker Of new product will
certainly not want to risk large
sums of money before sampling 1t
in particular communities in order
to get customer reaction.
For years the large automobile
companies have been conducting
surveys to find out Just what people
objected to about the gadgets that
were put on cars, and what new
gadgets they wanted. This form OF
research has added millions and
millions of dollars to the production
Of the United States through better
and better products.
Reflect Actual Thinking.
1t would be a tragic mistake for
large segments of the public to
cross of polls and market surveys
as useless. While it has been demon
strated that polls cannot forecast
the behavior of the electorate on
election day, they can surely reflect
the actual thinking of the public
on certain issues on a given day.
This information has proved valu-
able in the past in overcoming the
claims of pressure groups. II polls
were abandoned, pressure groups
would come back into power and
America would be governed by them.
When q pressure group claims
that 1t represents millions and mil
lions Of persons and that public
sentiment is all its way, Congress IN
past years has often been inclined
to pay attention to those claims.
With the public-opinion surveys,
however, there has been a skep-
ticism built up concerning the
claims of pressure groups. Again,
It is not necessary to take the re-
suits of such surveys of public
opinion on particular issues as con-
elusive, but only as advisory-as
raising a doubt concerning the
claims of pressure groups.
America needs public-opinio
polling much more today than ever
before because pressure groups and
large blocs and factions maintaining
huge lobbies and spending vast
sums of money for propaganda are
moving in on a centralized govern
ment. Public-opinion polling affords
the only antidote for such misrepre-
sentations as are heard from day
to day in the National Capital con-
cerning the state of public opinion
on given issues.
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