Description

Vol. III No. 13
8 pages

What Home Folks Think

PUBLIC! opinion poll is, in a way, a modern Town Meeting. It gives the individual a chance to stand up, sound off, and be counted. The modern method of polling is highly scientific and the polls are accurate. For instance, in the last presidential election the largest margin of error in four national polls (conducted by different research organizations) was 1.7%; one of the polls was off by only 0.3%. Results of polls are carefully studied by leaders in business and government. During the past few years public opinion in the US has gradually changed from an attitude of “hands off foreign squabbles” to recognition of its obligations and self-interest in international affairs. Until the change took place, Congress was clearly divided into two camps on the subject of isolationism. Public opinion polls gave a voice to the wishes of the man in the street – and Congressional sentiment changed. The importance of such polls is now recognized to the extent that before certain legislation is even proposed it is tested on the public. Public opinion polls enable citizens to register their likes and dislikes between elections. That is democracy in action. Recently the results of hundreds of national opinion polls were collected in a book, Mandate from the, People. To show the direction in which the thinking of Americans is headed, Army Talks presents from the book a summary of subjects in which the soldier has an interest. Some of the results are encouraging, some are surprising. While no single poll may be vised as a crystal-ball, taken together they may very well reveal the shape of tomorrow’s world.

Printed in France