What Were They Saying?

Four years ago, when Emil Hurja was a Democratic statistician quietly estimating how many votes his boss would get for the Presidency, his staff in Washington included a young man named James Twohey. It was Mr. Twohey's job to analyze newspaper opinions, turn them into charts and figures for Mr. Hurja.

Last week Emil Hurja, still in Washington, was publishing a magazine, The Pathfinder. And James Twohey, having tried his hand at various private surveys, brought out his own weekly Analysis of Newspaper Opinion, using the same statistical methods he developed under Mr. Hurja. Twohey thinks his news statistics give at least a cursory indication of public opinion.*

After studying newspapers that represent approximately one-fifth of the circulation of all U. S. dailies, Analyst Twohey found that editorial support for Secretary Hull's neutrality revision plan had fallen from 89% three weeks ago to 76% last fortnight. From 73% in the first week of World War II, the desire of U. S. editors to keep out of Europe's quarrel had later dropped to 51% (while 21% roundly abused Hitler), risen again by month's end to 79%.

Virtually all editorial comment favored France and Britain: none favored Germany. Criticism of British censorship grew stronger. Support of President Roosevelt's policies declined on all fronts: in domestic affairs from 64% to 55%, from 76% to 72% in foreign relations.

*For further news last week on U. S. public opinion, see p. 25.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.