Show PUBLIC OPPOSES OPERATION canvass of editors shows communities against Soola socialistic listic experiment opposition GROWING NG eighty seven per cent in 1920 as a against 83 per par cent in 1919 think publio public la Is opposed to radicalism the american public Is IB more intensely opposed to government operation than it was a year ago according to tho the newspaper editors ot of the country out of editors replying to a questionnaire sent out by the press service company ot of new york or 89 80 per cent gave it as their judg ment that the people of their communities were overwhelmingly against the government competing in business with its own citizens in 1919 the press servace company conducted coa ducted a sIn similar allar cantafi canvass of editors on the government I 1 operation of rail roads that bat questionnaire showed that 63 per cent of the tha editors considered their communities against government operation of public utilities apparently then it if editors estimate public opinion accurately that 0 opan pin ion in ID a year considered by tittles has swung 8 3 per cent farther away from socialistic experiments experiment eleven million circulation the combined circulation of the pa pers per whose editors replied to ll which means according accord lne to the e usual estimated ratio between ciraula lion and readers a constituency of at least and this constituent cy Is pretty evenly scattered through out dut the country no considerable section of any state being rho iho estimate of opinion based on thip thoroughly diffused 44 per cent of tile th count rys population may therefore be considered a fair representation of the people as a a whole another feature of the result Is 1 lt it evident lack of partisan bias the major political affiliations of the pa poris pers represented are fairly eveni evenly di 11 being 1857 republican and lago democratic there are also 1485 1 independent and miscellaneous including labor organs etc how little the tha results art 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 05 republican pa pers and democratic Democrat le the per pei against government operation ras 88 in the great lake section with conditions ra versed lican and democratic the appo was 87 per cent replies from the west middle west tad southwest show that it Is a mistake to consider those sections vastly more favorable to radical government experiments than the east the rail rad leals cau can got get little comfort out of the 89 per cent of thumbs down 2 per cent cant above the average in the south west including arkansas Loul slann missouri kansas oklahoma and texas texas once a supposed to be much government given to government regulation experiments perl peri ments returned turned ra 92 per cent of unfavorable replies out of the ea editors replying from that state only three edited republican papers papera the th e 82 per cent opposition of the foith west including iowa montana nebraska south dakota and wyoming and the 83 per cent veto of the far west group including arizona california icho idaho nevada now new mexico oregon colorado utah and washington are sig sg ant of the prevailing conserva conservative the sentiment on this question even in the more mor radical sections judgment apparently the questionnaire closes with a re quest tor for the editors personal opinion on certain concrete cases as follows do you personally believe that the federal government should own and operate competitive industries to pro vide a fertilizer b clothing c automobiles d farro farm ample menta a foodstuffs substantially III all tile the editors who alio gave estimates ot of their readers ions also expressed their own by je ie plying to this last lait question proof ot of considerable effort to avoid personal bias Is found in the fact that in man cases the editor differed from the opinion he credited to his community the percentage porcen tago of nos ran W d 70 76 b 83 c 88 86 d 82 4 e 3 70 79 while the questions were based on oil general principles involved in tile the government participating in compete tive business the so called musel muscle 0 shoals bill now before congress was used as a concrete example of a government operation scheme under this bill a government owned corporation would be given broad powers to operate and develop government plants and properties it would produce at muscle shoals various fertilizer prod nets and sell gell them tham in competition will producers and merchants fijn in the fer business tho strength of the opposition to Goern rolt operation Is indicated bi b tho lapillo from alabama where the muscle 0 shoals war plant Is and u n d where of course there Is intense e interest In teresi and local bilde in getting its ts expected expect eI peacetime peace time operation under ady liay at if clr earliest po pot Bible isible date fifty editors etli tort from that state replied of whom 31 were opposed to government opera tion 8 in favor and 4 doubtful i |