the results of which cannot be disputed, although they contrast sharply with the misstatements, half-truths, and distortions put forth by the. oleo interests. I am sure you are familiar with the Gallup-poll figure which once showed that 69 percent of the population favored the repeal of oleo taxes. I do not for a moment question the correctness of that figure. Indeed, we ourselves have sponsored a poll which in part verifies it. Our poll, however, goes further than the Gallup-poll question. The data which we secured explains and modifies the results of that earlier poll. We found that the public's reaction to the Gallup question on oleo tax repeal was similar to organized labor's first reaction to the TaftHartley Act. And before proceeding further with this statement, Mr. Chairman, I would like at this point, with your permission, to ask the chairman to put on as a witness, to be "split in" in the middle of my testimony, Mr. Benson, the president of Benson & Benson, an organization of Princeton, N. J. This is one of the great information- and fact-gathering organizations in the field of public opinion. And, may I say also, Mr. Benson is connected with the Gallup poll. I would like to have him present his testimony, after which I will proceed to make comments on it. The CHAIRMAN. Whenever you are ready. Mr. HOLMAN. Mr. Benson, will you please take the stand? The CHAIRMAN. Pull up a chair there, Mr. Benson. Will you identify yourself for the reporter, please? STATEMENT OF LAWRENCE E. BENSON, PRESIDENT, BENSON & BENSON, INC., PRINCETON, N. J. Mr. BENSON. I am Lawrence E. Benson, president of Benson & Benson, Inc., an independent research organization located in Princeton, N. J. Mr. Chairman, I am appearing at this meeting today for the sole purpose of presenting the findings of an impartial public opinion poll conducted by our organization. We were asked to conduct an independent survey dealing with issues involved in the butter-oleo problems, and to do it on an independent basis. The particular survey results that I am presenting today, have to do with various issues on which we were seeking public opinion, and these results are really what we might consider part of a bigger study that is contemplated and actually in the process now. Because of the time factor, however, we felt that it would not be possible to complete this larger survey, larger in the sense that the sample we were obtaining would be of greater number, in sufficient time. The CHAIRMAN. Do you intend to tell us the technique of your survey? Mr. BENSON. Yes; I thought I should do that. However, this bigger is in process now, so for all purposes the survey being presented today must be considered a test, or a preliminary survey. survey In this test survey, we followed the same principles of modern scientific research that are used by leading public-opinion polling organizations today. The study was designed to obtain impartial objective evidence and information on the various issues. The technics used briefly were these: A cross-section sample was designed, which would be representative of the entire population of the country. By that I simply mean that we wanted to be sure that all of the adult population 21 years of age and over, were represented in our sample in the true proportions in which the component groups are found in the population. Groups such as men and women, people of various ages, people in different socio-economic groups, people residing in different sized cities, and in different regions of the country were all included. We even stratified the sample to make sure that we got the correct proportion of people from the States in which colored oleomargarine can already be sold, and States in which it cannot. We designed the questions, working out in our own way the wording of the questions, and put each question to a test in actual trial interview, to be sure that they were clearly understood by respondents, that they were simple enough for the average person to comprehend, and that they were as totally unbiased and as impartial as we could possibly make them. The questionnaires, then, after we had tested them, and after we were satisfied that they would work and were impartial, were sent to interviewers throughout the United States, who did the actual interviewing in this survey. These people were assigned to quotas of the actual types of people whom they were to interview, so that when the results were returned, we would have a cross-section of the actual component groups within the population. The interviewing was done between May 1 and May 9. When the questionnaires were all returned to us, they were coded and tabulated. The CHAIRMAN. Would it be appropriate for me to ask how many interviewers there were and how many interviewed? Mr. BENSON. Yes. There were 59 interviewers used throughout the entire Nation. This was set up on a national population basis. And the total number of interviews which these results are based upon are 608 cases, 608 interviews. Perhaps it would be well for me to make a statement in regard to how reliable I think those findings are. In my opinion the chances are, putting it statistically, about 96 in 100 that the results of this survey would not vary by more than 6 or 7 percentage points from what would be found in the larger survey we are now doing, or if a total census were taken. That, of course, assumes that they are done at the comparable time and that there is no trend in events that happened which would cause a trend in public opinion. The survey dealt with these subjects: 1. Public attitude toward repeal of oleo taxes. 2. Public knowledge about taxes on oleo. 3. People's opinions regarding the coloring of oleo. 4. Public opinion on the need for protection. 5. Certain facts about present usage of butter and oleo. We have prepared some charts here that I might use in presenting the findings. First I would like to show you the findings in connection with usage of oleomargarine and butter. The question we asked was this: Are you or your family using butter or oleomargarine, or both, in your home at the present time? These are the results: 47 percent said they used both butter and oleo; 32 percent said they used butter only; and 21 percent said they used oleo only. The next question had to do with the over-all attitude toward the problem of repealing the tax, and that question was worded in this manner: A Federal law places a tax of a quarter of a cent a pound on white margarine, and 10 cents a pound on margarine colored yellow. Some people say that the 10-cent tax on yellow margarine is unfair to consumers like yourself, because it raises the price, and therefore should be done away with. Other people say that the tax should be kept on, to protect you, so that you won't be given margarine when you ask for butter in the store, or when being served in a restaurant. And then, after those two statements, people were asked: Do you think the 10-cent tax should be done away with, or kept on? In answer to that, we found these results: 68 percent of the people said yes; 20 percent said no. Twelve percent of them had no opinion. And, as Mr. Holman has mentioned, those results were quite comparable to a report of the Gallup poll findings on a survey about a month ago; although the question was not exactly the same, it got at the same basic opinion. The next question is actually a series of questions, which has to do with what people know about oleo taxes. This series of questions was asked in this way: As far as you know, are there any special taxes on butter or margarine? Which have special taxes, butter, margarine, or both? These are three separate questions. So far as you know, is the tax on yellow margarine different or the same as the tax on white margarine? Now, in answer to that combination of questions, we found that 45 percent of the people did not know there is any tax on oleo. We found that 30 percent of them knew that there was a difference between the tax on white and yellow, and 25 percent of the total population did not know that there was any difference in the tax on white and on yellow oleo. We went a step further, then. The CHAIRMAN. Let me see that chart that has the over-all figures on removing the tax. Does that question not imply that they did know that there was a tax to be removed? Mr. BENSON. That is not the question, sir. The question put to the public was different from that. That is just a condensation of how people feel about it, for chart presentation. Would you like to have me read the question again? Mr. BENSON (reading): A Federal law places a tax of one-quarter of a cent a pound on white margarine and 10 cents a pound on margarine colored yellow. We stated the fact first, and then we stated the arguments, briefly, on both sides, or at least two of the arguments that have been proposed. Some people say the 10-cent tax on yellow margarine is unfair to consumers like yourself, because it raises the price, and therefore should be done away with. Other people say that the tax should be kept on to protect you, so that you won't be given margarine when you ask for butter in a store, or when being served in a restaurant. The CHAIRMAN. Then this next question, as to what people know about oleo taxes, really goes to what they knew about it before you informed them there was an oleo tax. Is that right? Mr. BENSON. That is it exactly. Now, when we probed this matter of knowledge about taxes on oleo further, we did it by asking another question in that tax series, of the people who said that they knew that the tax on white and yellow was different. And this was the question we asked: About how much do you think the tax is on a pound of white margarine? And then: Yellow margarine? And the results with that series of questions showed that in the case of yellow margarine 12 percent of the total population actually know that the tax is 10 cents a pound; in other words, had absolutely the correct figure. Six percent, in addition, made guesses that the tax ranged anywhere from 1 to 35 cents. They were wrong guesses, of course. And the balance, 82 percent, did not know what the tax was on yellow margarine. In the case of the tax on white oleo, we found that only 3 percent knew that the tax was a quarter of a cent a pound. An additional 11 percent made a wrong guess. They mentioned figures ranging from one-tenth of a cent to 15 cents a pound. And, of course, the balance, 86 percent, did not know what the tax was on white oleo. The CHAIRMAN. It seems to me that is a rather high percentage of people who knew the exact amount of the tax on oleo. Mr. BENSON. The 12 percent? The CHAIRMAN. The 12 percent. I mean, how many people know exactly what the tax is on cigarettes, among those who smoke them every day? How many people know what the exact amount is on liquor, among those who drink liquor every day? Mr. BENSON. Well, you may be right. The next question that we asked had to do with: would people know the difference between yellow oleo and butter if sold in the stores? That question was phrased this way: Some people say that if margarine colored yellow like butter is sold in stores, many people won't know whether they are getting butter or margarine. Do you think most people would know which they were getting? In answer to that question, 67 percent of the people told us: yes, they thought the people would know what they were getting. 76269-48--17 Twenty-three percent said they did not think people would know what they were getting, and 10 percent expressed no opinion. The CHAIRMAN. What is the labeling factor, there? Mr. BENSON. I am coming to that. We then analyzed this. We asked the 67 percent and the 23 percent why they felt that way, and of the 67 percent, who answered "yes," 32 percent of those people felt that the public would know because of Government controls which involved labeling, packaging, and so on. In addition, 33 percent of the total also mentioned that the difference in the physical properties of margarine would let them know; such things as taste, color, texture, and so on. Now, as for the "no" answers, 21 percent of the people, in other words, practically all of this 23 percent, gave that very same reason. They gave physical properties as being the reason why people would not know what they were getting; in other words that people could not tell from the taste, color, texture, and so on. Another question that we asked had to do with the matter of serving oleo in restaurants. One of the first questions we asked in that series read like this: When eating in a restaurant, would it matter to you whether you were served butter or margarine? Forty-nine percent of all the people said that it would matter to them whether they were served butter or margarine, and 51 percent said no. We had also several other questions on that subject, which had to do with the question of when they were eating in a restaurant: Do you think you should be informed as to whether you are being served butter or margarine? And to that question, 66 percent of the public said yes, and 34 percent said no; which is shown in the chart here. This other question, having to do with the possibility that some restaurants may pass off oleo and claim it was butter, was worded in this way: If margarine were sold already colored yellow, do you think that restaurants would serve you margarine but claim it was butter? To that, 55 percent of the people said they thought at least some restaurants would, and 30 percent said no, and 15 percent said they didn't know. We also asked another question, which had to do with whether it made any difference to the general public if their margarine, instead of being colored white or yellow, were colored some different color. That question was worded in this way: Would it make any difference to you if your margarine, instead of being yellow or white, were some different color? And in answer to that, we found that 52 percent of them said it would make no difference, and 48 percent of the public said it would make some difference. The CHAIRMAN. Would you mind reading the question again? Mr. BENSON (reading): Would it make any difference to you if your margarine, instead of being yellow or white, were some different color? |