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Cross-section surveys of public opinion are now being conducted continuously in five countries-the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Australia and Sweden. Through these surveys it has become possible for the first time to measure and to report the views of the common man on the same issue at the same time in five nations of the globe with a combined population of nearly 200,000,000. Sampling surveys as a means of systematically discovering public opinion make no claim to perfection or infallibility. But through their development it has become possible to chart the main trends of public opinion in the five nations and to study the impact of war events on public thinking. The American Institute, oldest of the five, has been measuring and reporting American opinion for seven years. It receives its entire financial support from more than one hundred daily newspapers, of all shades of political belief.