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The article focuses on proceedings of the 10th annual conference of the American Association for Public Research that held at Madison, Wisconsin-based Hotel Loraine, from April 13-16, 1955. Several papers discussed in this conference include Stuart Dodd, director of the Washington Public Opinion Laboratory (WPOL), who presented a paper entitled "Formulas for Spreading Opinions-A Report of Controlled Experiments on Leaflet Messages in Project Revere", in which he described the origin, purposes and findings of the three-year study which WPOL had conducted for the Air Force. The article also presents other paper by speaker Samuel W. Blizzard who reviewed his experiences in a current theological seminar project designed to explore the use of social science in training parish ministers, and, more specifically, to inquire into how the sociologist-faculty member can help in this training. Blizzard described the milieu in which a social scientist operates as a theological seminary faculty member, noting that seminars course emphasis is away from the social sciences, the theological party line must be understood by the incoming sociologist faculty member.

The article presents the proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Conference of American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) that was held on May 18-21, 1967 at Bolton Landing, New York. The conference was divided into fifteen formal sessions and three round tables. The new format also consists a presentation program of the best papers from a recent AAPOR competition for graduate students. In addition to the informative meetings, numerous social events were also organized. Also, the AAPOR Award of 1967 for distinguished achievement in the field of public opinion was presented to Hans Zeisel, a social researcher. Some of the topics on which papers were presented at the conference are: variations in the application of theory to attitude and opinion research; interviewing: special situations and problems; polling and the political process; socio-medical research in sensitive areas; predicting purchasing behavior: alchemy or science? and; computer-assisted analysis of survey data.

The author of this article says that three years ago, Toledo, Ohio, supplier of more than a hundred parts to the motor industry, was commonly regarded by its customers as a sore spot on the industrial horizon. The power strike shortly thereafter gave Toledo a bad name nationally, and pitched Toledoans into the depths of despair. First followed a scramble to secure manufacturing facilities outside of Toledo, the town that could not beat back unionism. People at this time did not perceive, what they now know to be a fact, that these conditions were not peculiar to one city but applicable to industry at large. As a direct result, the Toledo Associates, unique in the field of press relationships, was formed in August 1935 to tell the story. A governing committee of five was selected from the ranks of members to plan and approve the work. In early days of the work, conferences were held with working reporters on local newspapers to get their slant on desirable services in opening up industrial news sources and on the type of features and current stories which would be available from time to time.

The 1974 American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Conference was held between May 30-June 2, at the Hotel Sagamore in Bolton Landing, Lake George, New York. It was the twenty-ninth annual conference on public opinion. A stimulating program of twenty-two formal sessions, four methodological open discussions, and eighteen luncheon round-table discussions was organized by conference chairman John P. Robinson under the general theme "Continuities in Public Opinion Research." The AAPOR Award for distinguished achievement was presented this year to Bernard Berelson. The methodological open discussions, a 1974 innovation for AAPOR was developed to encourage critical review of the central methodological issues of public opinion research. While varying in format, they seek to encourage member discussion of short papers presented by the discussion leaders and invited panelists.

The article presents a text of the conference proceedings of the twenty-seventh annual conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) held at the Marlborough Blenheim Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey from May 18 to 21, 1972. A stimulating program of twenty formal sessions and thirteen luncheon round-table discussions was organized by conference chairmen Ronald Gatty and Robert S. Lee under the general theme Continuity in Public Opinion Research. Two sessions were sponsored by WAPOR, arranged by Philip Hastings on the theme of Continuity in International Family Planning Research. The luncheon round tables, a 1968 innovation for AAPOR conferences, were designed to permit discussion of fragmentary results and hypotheses. They have now evolved into a popular avenue for member participation and spirited discussion of important issues, free from the formal structure of delivered papers. As noted in the program, the topics can also be more responsive to the profession's responsibilities and concerns in the rapidly changing social, political, and economic world. The AAPOR Award for distinguished achievement was presented to Jean Stoetzel. A reproduction of the award immediately follows the table of contents of the Proceedings.

This article announces on the joint conference between European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research and the World Association for Public Opinion Research, to be held at Vevey, Switzerland, during the first week of September 1953. The conference, which is now being devised, will include various sessions on questionnaire construction, readership research, research on the impact of communications and a number of other subjects, papers for which are being prepared now.

The first Balkan conference met in Athens, Greece in 1930 as the result of an invitation issued by the International Bureau of Peace in Geneva on May 12, 1930. It led the way to new conferences of a general nature and to reunions concerned with special fields of activity and interest. Journalists pioneered in the effort to promote goodwill. They came together on every possible occasion. The meeting of the Balkan council and the exchange of official visits between two Balkan countries, or special invitations from one Balkan country to the newspapermen of another, created opportunities for close contact. Common professional backgrounds and an unconventional way of facing facts enabled them to understand one another easily and to make friends. Although the trips and receptions were regularly financed by their respective governments, journalists soon stepped out of the official frames. Schemes of cooperation between them were not planned ahead by any agency.

The first National Conference on Educational Broadcasting, held in Washington D.C. on December 10-12, 1936, was sponsored by eighteen national organizations for the primary purpose of giving an overview of current practice in the use of radio for educational purposes. Outstanding leaders in various aspects of broadcasting were invited to discuss the problems with which they were particularly concerned. The conference was divided into two parts: general sessions at which everyone was expected to be present, and conference sections at which specific problems were discussed for the benefit of those especially interested. Among the conference sections, of which some twenty were crowded into a single morning and two afternoons, was one dealing directly with the subject, "Radio and Propaganda." What may prove to be the most widely used piece of propaganda of the entire conference was injected so inconspicuously that its significance was not recognized at the time. In the section on "Talks Programs," Thomas H. Reed, chairman of the Committee of Civic Education by Radio of the National Advisory Council on Radio in Education and the American Political Science Association, introduced by title a report, "Four Years of Network Broadcasting," which was too long to be read, but which was made available in printed form.

Fifty national patriotic organizations, twenty-seven national peace organizations, forty-three national organizations with active peace committees, forty-three organizations whose activities increase international understanding, and countless local patriotic and peace committees are endeavoring in one way or another to influence the U.S. public opinion in behalf of peace. The man on the street must be confused, to say the least, at the number of these groups striving to win his support. However, this mass of activity is not so confusing as it may at first seem, for it can be separated into five general groups of thought which are emphasized as the most effective methods of preserving peace. In Group A, one finds veterans and patriotic organizations the most active supporters of the program for military and naval preparedness. Virtually all of the national peace organizations are found in Groups B, C, D, and E. Although there is much overlapping between these groups and although there are additional views held by each one, these five distinguishing trends are apparent. American public opinion is therefore being mobilized and at the same time divided into one or more of these several groups.

The article presents information on the proceedings of the 23rd American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) conference. The 1968 AAPOR Conference was held May 8 to 11 at the Miramar Hotel, Santa Barbara, California. It was the twenty-third annual conference on public opinion but the twenty-second since the organization was formally named the American Association for Public Opinion Research at Williams College in 1947 and elected Clyde Hart as its first president. The conference program was a joint effort of AAPOR and the World Association for Public Opinion Research. In contrast to previous years, there was rather extensive press coverage of the conference proceedings. Thirteen formal Sessions and twenty luncheon round-table discussions comprised the exceptional program planned by scholars Herbert L Abelson for AAPOR and Martin J, Brouwer for WAPOR.

This section introduces the articles featured in the 1971 issue of the Public Opinion Quarterly. The three articles which follow were presented in somewhat different form at the 1970 American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Conference. The session was requested by the Executive Council of AAPOR to illuminate issues arising from four cases reported to and investigated by the Standards Committee. The four complaints charged an assortment of ethical infractions, from biased questionnaires to connivance in government propaganda. In each instance the Committee requested explanation from the accused. No judgments were made and no conclusions reached, but the issues cannot be avoided. as made clear in the articles, as well as in day-to-day events, polls are now an integral part of the political process. All three writers perform variations on the theme that increased use of and reliance on polls demands greater responsibility. Meyer, the journalist, calls for better communication; Congressman Nedzi explores the legislative route, hoping thereby to stimulate other approaches; Field, the poller, says that every member of AAPOR must recognize it is his problem and advocates steps toward further professional responsibility.

The article presents information about the Fourth Annual Conference on Public Opinion Research that took place in Ithaca, New York from June 19-22, 1949. The year 1948-49 was a crucial one in the brief history of public opinion research. Meetings of the American Association for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University were the first full gathering of the professionals in the field of opinion research after the November, 1948 setback. The most salient feature of the Ithaca meetings was the obvious determination of the conferees gathered there to leave nothing undone which could lead to greater perfection, greater reliability, more meaningful interpretations of the fruits of their research labors. The article also contains a condensation of proceedings of their conference documents which in a variety of ways points up directions in which the academicians on one side and the commercial practitioners on the other must continue to work together for the common development of the profession.

This article constitutes the first in a series on the problem of standards in public opinion research, which is being planned in cooperation with the Committee on Standards of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). It recapitulates discussion of the subject till 1949, analyzes the institution of standards from a sociological point of view, and suggests certain concrete steps for the future. The author takes up three elements in this study. First the record of what AAPOR discussions have apparently come to by 1949, as a result of events and of the three past conferences. Secondly, some observations on the nature of codes of standards and finally some suggestions on implementation. The author concludes that either AAPOR or its critics will sooner or later turn out a code of standards for public opinion researchers. There is little choice as to types of implementation that can be chosen by researchers and specialists. AAPOR has no choice, if it is to continue and to have prestige, but to be a scientific body.

PLANS are now under way to establish a world association of public opinion reporting agencies. A member of the world association Planning Committee discusses the possible functions of the world organization, and indicates the current development of these functions. Stuart C. Dodd is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Social Science Research Section of the American University of Beirut. His experience includes directing opinion survey work for the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Sicily and the Near East during World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the main sources of strength of the two major political parties? In what areas of the country are the battle-lines most sharply drawn? What trends in sectional voting have occurred since the beginning of the New Deal? What are the possibilities of fundamental partisan realignment in the near future? An experienced observer of politics and government discusses these and other vital questions. Arthur N. Holcombe is Professor of Government at Harvard University, and author of such authoritative books as The Middle Classes in American Politics and Political Parties of Today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of the business of government, therefore, depends largely upon the effectiveness of its letters. Each government letter containing irrelevant details and unnecessary repetition may cause a taxpayer to conclude that the government is wasting his money. Each letter that bears incorrect information, or fails to contain all necessary information, adds weight to the familiar charge of inefficiency in government. Each involved, too-detailed, or confusing letter suggests red tape. Each letter written, no matter how unintentionally, with a curt, commanding, or arbitrary tone may convince the reader that the government, which presumably exists for his good and betterment, is in fact high-handed and dictatorial. This article does not represents criticism, for indeed many of the letters which were examined were excellent representatives of the efficient organizations from which they were sent. Surveys which the writers have also made of the correspondence of private business organizations show that government compares favorably with private industry as regards both quality of letters and efforts toward increasing their effectiveness. The examples cited in this article serves to demonstrate how easily correspondents, through ineptness or lack of thought, may damage an agency's reputation and reduce its effectiveness.

The article focuses on the author's experiences as the first general secretary of the National Association of Local Government Officers in England. His responsibility was to inform the general public regarding the facts of municipal and county administration in England. The service conditions of local government officers in the past were uneven and without form or plan. The experience has been invaluable. Negotiations which the author had conducted with councils for the improvement of salaries, or to ward off a threatened attack on existing salaries, taught him a great deal about the mentality of those who had the economic welfare of local government officers in their keeping. There was a complete absence of any sense of the national importance of the public health services, of the administration of education, or even of child welfare, maternity care, and decent housing. Because there was no known formula for measuring the economics of a decent life, local government appeared to have no value except to provide a job for men and women who were lucky to have been appointed.

This analysis covers the reaction of the Japanese public to key issues in Japanese-American relations of the 1960's and the immediate future, as seen in the author's national survey of early 1970, related surveys of the past decade, and the writer's lengthy field research since 1952. It was originally prepared for discussion at the 1971 annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Washington, D.C., March 29-31, 1971. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines competing claims about the size and significance of shifts in party identification, concluding that the evidence supports neither Burnham's "disaggregation" hypothesis nor those who contend that the time is ripe for a new party of the "liberal left." On the contrary, his analysis suggests that file Republican party is the most likely beneficiary of such changes as are occurring among the electorate, and that in fact an increase in Independents portends a brighter future for a Republican southern strategy than for a left-oriented new party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the American Association for Public Opinion Research organization (AAPOR). One can easily understand and forgive a certain amount of confusion about the age of the organization when one considers that this is the twenty-third annual conference on "Public Opinion Research," held twenty-two years after the first one in Central City, Colorado. How then is AAPOR now 21? Because that first conference was not an AAPOR conference. It was a planning conference out of which evolved a committee which wrote a constitution for the incipient AAPOR which constitution was formally adopted and AAPOR established at Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1947, with Clyde W. Hart as its first president and Elmo C. Wilson as vice president. Thus in 1948 AAPOR was one year old, and today in 1968 it is 21 years old. The story of how the seeds of a public opinion research association were planted high in the Rockies at Central City and carried east to Williamstown where that association became AAPOR-much like the story of how jazz came up the river from New Orleans-has often been told.

In this, his Presidential address to the American Association for Public Opinion Research on May 7, 1966, Professor Bauer makes a strong plea for greater use of sample surveys to collect a greater variety of basic social statistics. He believes that this will enable us to plot trends, the better to measure progress toward the attainment of social goals and values. He points up emphatically the pioneering role that unofficial research can and should play, especially in the area of controversial innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that in 1959 the Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to inaugurate a program of research on the changing position of the Afro-American. The first major study begun under this grant is an investigation of Afro-American political participation in the South. The directors of this study developed a research plan that called, among other things, for a South-wide study of Afro-American and White political attitudes. Since the creation of an ad hoc multi-state survey staff for a single study would have been an impossible task at worst and an inefficient use of time, energy, and funds at best, the sampling and interviewing responsibilities were contracted out to the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan. A full-scale region-wide survey of both Afro-American and White opinions on Afro-American political participation has never before been conducted in the South.

This articles presents news briefs related to developments in the field of social science research as of March 1962. Announcement has been made of the formation of a new New York-based research firm Certified Statistics Associates which "is prepared to work with managerial executives and research directors in evaluating documentation on current projects and to originate experimental designs for new projects." Raymond Franzen is the principal associate of the agency. Washington-based Bureau of Social Science Research Inc. has announced two new research projects. A "study of the characteristics of the users of the Information Searching Service in Metallurgy at Western Reserve University" is being conducted by Ivor Wayne and Albert D. Biderman. An analysis of the graduate training of 1958 college graduates, conducted by Laura M. Sharp, will explore three areas: "the patterns of timing for graduate study following graduation; relationships between undergraduate major and minor fields and the field of graduate study; and proportion of graduates from each school and/or type of school enrolling for advanced education."

This article presents information on recent developments related to public opinion. The Coordination Center for Southeast Asian Studies, at 35 Suriwongse Road, Bangkok, Thailand has been established. The Center is a coordinating, contracting and service agency for market and public opinion research companies and organizations in Southeast Asia. Work has been completed on a study entitled "Doctors and Family Planning," by the Bureau of Applied Social Research. The study, which was directed by researchers Mary Jean Cornish, Florence Ruderman and Sidney Spivack, involved interviews with 551 doctors on their attitudes toward and behavior with regard to, family planning. The Bureau has initiated a national study of health institutions designed to identify principal ways in which the medical profession, the nursing profession and hospital organizations vary among countries. A review and synthesis of available research literature will be supplemented by "considerable informant interviewing." Field work will be performed in Geneva, Switzerland, London, England and at various research and health centers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

This article presents several news items on issues concerning social research in the U.S., as of December 1, 1960 Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research has announced the completion of its various studies. The Advertising Reseauli Foundation (ARF) has announced the completion and availability of a study sponsored by the U.S. News and World Report and performed by Crossley Surveys Inc., which compares results of similar mail and personal interview questionnaires administered to probability samples in Cleveland, Ohio. The study bears upon market and family characteristics of subscribers to the sponsoring magazine, and copies may be obtained upon application to that publication or to ARF. The Survey Research Center at Berkeley, California, has announced the appointment of William Nicholls as its assistant director. Prior to joining the Center, Nicholls was a research associate at the Bureau of Applied Social Research.

This article presents views of David Wallace, president of the organization American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), which he delivered to the members of the American Association for Public Opinion Research and their guests at the fourteenth annual conference on May 6, 1959, in Lake George, New York. Wallace served as president of the AAPOR during the 1958-1959 term. He is currently interrupting his research career for a year of study at Columbia University, New York, and lecturing at the New School of Social Research. He was formerly on the staff of the Ford Motor Co. He said that one thing AAPOR might properly do to advance field was to encourage the release and publication, of the many, many private studies that are now entombed in files. In feeling out the matter with the research head of one of the more active advertising agencies, he found no great reluctance under the heading of the "confidential" nature of the studies. He further said that he thought that many clients would agree to release, but a stumbling block was the agency itself.

This article focuses on "News and Notes" section, published in the issue of the periodical "Public Opinion Quarterly" as on December 1957. The section is compiled from voluntarily submitted material, which the editor hopes will be copious and varied. The Bureau of Social Science Research, an organization in Washington (D.C.), is acting as a clearing-house for research materials in connection with Hungarian refugees. A central file of current research output in this field has been established, and it is hoped that all bonafide organizations and individuals engaged in such research will participate, both by depositing their materials with the Bureau and by availing themselves of the data already deposited. Attitude research in modernizing countries will be the subject of a special issue of the periodical "Public Opinion Quarterly" now in the planning stage. Members of the organization American Association for Public Opinion Research are invited to suggest candidates for a 1958 Julian Woodward Award.

Announcement was made in October 1937 for the creation of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, a non-profit organization to help the intelligent citizen detect and analyze propaganda. The Institute is the outgrowth of experimental work in dealing with the propaganda problem undertaken during recent years by a number of American educators. The Institute issues a monthly letter to circulate privately to educators and students, publishers and journalists, businessmen, ministers, and others. These letters, the first of which appeared in October, deal chiefly with methods whereby subscribers may become proficient in organizing and analyzing propaganda. The charter of the Institute forbids it to engage in propaganda or otherwise to attempt to influence legislation. Money for the initial work of the Institute was provided by the late Edward A. Filene as perhaps his last public service.