HOW NOW, MR. GORER ?
Sta,—Possibly it was desirable to devote two columns of The Spectator to celebrating the downfall of the public opinion poll-takers, Gallup and Roper. But is Mr. Gorer the right man to do it? In the foreword to his recently published book, The Americans, he writes : " I have gained a great deal of information from a systematic survey of the admirable public opinion polls carried out by Mr. Elmo Roper for Fortune over the last ten years. I have not wanted to fill the text with statistical tables and therefore have made few quotations directly from this source ; but a great number of the statements in this book could be given statistical verification by reference to these Fortune polls." Therefore when he says in The Spectator that "the discrediting of public opinion polls is likely to have an altogether salutary effect on contemporary social science " may we expect it to have a salutary effect on Mr. Gorer as well? When he wrote his book apparently the claim that his statements agreed with the findings of Dr. Roper was an im- portant recommendation. Are we now to assume that in so far as they do they are wrong? Or that Dr. Roper (and Dr. Gallup), like many unfortunates before them, were all right until they proved to be all wrong? If Mr. Gorer thinks consistency is an important qualification for a person who claims to be a social scientist he should explain why he was so impressed by public-opinion polls but now finds that he was mistaken. In other words he should confess his own fallibility as well .-as celebrate that of Drs. Gallup and Roper.—Yours faithfully. W. E. STYLER. Black Hill, High Lea Road, New Mills, nr. Stockport.
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