OPINION: Situation Wanted

The public-opinion pollsters, said President Truman on Election Day, "are going to be red-faced tomorrow." He was right. Not since the Literary Digest fiasco of 1936 had opinion-samplers come such a cropper.

On the day before election, the Gallup poll gave Dewey 49.5% of the total vote, Truman 44.5%. On the day after election, red-faced Dr. George H. Gallup had two alibis: "Truman recaptured many votes from Wallace. Also, a lot of the 'undecided voters' in the poll voted for Truman." Poll-taking, he added, was still "an infant science."

Redder-faced still was FORTUNE'S...

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