Abstract

Polls, Propaganda, Politics

The article analyzes questions raised by two public opinion polls in the U.S. regarding elections during the months of May, June and July of 1944. The Gallup Poll published results on twenty-seven questions not directly concerned with political candidates, nominations, or voting. The public-opinion specialists rated sixteen of the twenty-seven as genuinely neutral dealing with such issues as beer on navy ships, Germany's plans for another war, the desirability of holding the line on prices and wages. Ten of the remaining eleven Gallup questions were judged as probably helpful to the Republican side. Only one question was considered that the Democrats would like to have publicized to help their campaign. Questions asked by the journal "Fortune" poll during the same period were designed to provide information for the journal's management readers. Of the eighteen queries, "Fortune" interviewers put to a sample of the general public, fifteen were found to be helpful to neither side in the election.