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CHAPTER 8
Public Opinion and Voting
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
8-1 Explain how public opinion polls are conducted, problems with polls, and how they are
used in the political process.
8-2 Describe the political socialization process.
8-3 Discuss the different factors that affect voter choices.
8-4 Indicate some of the factors that affect voter turnout, and discuss what has been done to
improve voter turnout and voting procedures.
 SUMMARY OVERVIEW
Public opinion is the sum total of a complex collection of opinions held by many people on issues
in the public arena. Public officials commonly learn about public opinion through election results,
personal contacts, interest groups, and media reports. The best way to measure public opinion
between elections, however, appears to be through the use of public opinion polls. A public
opinion poll is a survey of the public’s opinion on a particular topic at a particular moment.
Public opinion pollsters have devised scientific polling techniques for measuring public opinion
through the use of samples.
Early polling efforts relied on straw polls. The opinions expressed in straw polls, however,
usually represent an atypical subgroup of the population, or a biased sample. Today, polling is
used extensively by political candidates and policymakers. Polls can be quite accurate when they
are conducted properly. A sample must consist of people who are typical of the population. The
most important principle in sampling is randomness. A random sample means that each person
within the entire population being polled has an equal chance of being chosen.
Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

104 Chapter 8: Public Opinion and Voting
Public opinion polls are fundamentally statistical. The true result of a poll is not a single figure,
but a range of probabilities. Sampling error is the difference between what the poll shows and
what the results would have been if everyone in the relevant population had been interviewed.
Based on their differing statistical models, some polling firms consistently publish results more
favorable to one or the other of the two major parties than the results released by other pollsters—
a phenomenon known as a house effect.
To obtain accurate results, pollsters want to ensure that there is no bias in their polling questions,
and they must be aware that opinion polls of voter preferences cannot reflect rapid shifts in public
opinion unless they are taken frequently. The reliability of polls was called into question by the
use of exit polls in the 2000 presidential elections.
Today, a frequently heard complaint is that, instead of measuring public opinion, polls can end up
creating it. To gain popularity, a candidate might claim that all the polls show that he or she is
ahead in the race, and thus help to create a “bandwagon” effect. The media also sometimes
misuse polls. Many journalists base their political coverage during campaigns almost exclusively
on poll findings. Media companies often report only the polls conducted by their affiliated
pollsters. One tactic in political campaigns is to use push polls, which ask “fake” polling
questions that are actually designed to “push” voters toward one candidate or another.
Most people acquire their political attitudes, opinions, beliefs, and knowledge through a complex
learning process called political socialization, which begins during early childhood and continues
throughout life. Most political socialization is informal. The strong early influence of the family
later gives way to the multiple influences of school, church, peers, television, co-workers, and
other groups. People and institutions that influence the political views of others are called agents
of political socialization.
The family’s influence is strongest when children can clearly perceive their parents’ attitudes.
Education also strongly influences an individual’s political attitudes. From their earliest days in
school, children learn about the American political system. They also learn citizenship skills
through school rules and regulations. Generally, those with more education have more knowledge
about politics and policy than those with less education. A majority of Americans hold strong
religious beliefs, and these attitudes can also contribute significantly to political socialization.
The media also have an impact on political socialization. Television continues to be a leading
source of political information for older voters. Opinion leaders, major life events, peer groups,
economic status, and occupation may also influence a person’s political views.
What persuades voters to choose certain kinds of candidates? For established voters, party
identification is one of the most important and lasting predictors of how a person will vote.
Voters often base their decisions on the perceived character of the candidates rather than on their
qualifications or policy positions. When people vote for candidates who share their positions on
particular issues, they are engaging in policy voting. With respect to policy voting, economic
issues historically have had the strongest influence on voters’ choices.
Socioeconomic factors also influence how people vote. These factors include educational
attainment, occupation and income, age, gender, religion and ethnic background, and geographic
region. Ideology is another indicator of voting behavior.
Some historical restrictions on voting, including religion, property ownership, and tax-payment
requirements, disappeared early on in the history of the republic. Restrictions based on race and
gender continued, however. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1870) guaranteed
suffrage to African American males. Yet, for many decades, African Americans were effectively
denied the ability to exercise their voting rights. Today, devices used to restrict voting rights, such
as the poll tax, literacy tests, the grandfather clause, and white primaries, are explicitly outlawed

Chapter 8: Public Opinion and Voting 105
by constitutional amendments, by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, or by Supreme Court decisions.
Furthermore, the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) gave women the right to vote, and the Twenty-
sixth Amendment (1971) reduced the minimum voting age to eighteen.
Some restrictions on voting rights, such as registration, residency, and citizenship requirements,
still exist. Most states also do not permit prison inmates or felons to vote. Attempts to improve
voter turnout and voting procedures include simplifying the voter-registration process, allowing
voting by mail, early voting, and updating voting equipment. Just because an individual is eligible
to vote does not necessarily mean that the person will go to the polls on Election Day. Voter
turnout is affected by several factors, including educational attainment, income level, age, and
minority status.
 CHAPTER OUTLINE
 AMERICA AT ODDS Should Felons Be Allowed to Vote?
8-0 Introduction
• Public opinion is a vital component of our political system in America.
 THE REST OF THE WORLD How Foreign Countries View

Each Other
8-1 Measuring Public Opinion

• Public opinion is the sum total of a complex collection of opinions held by many
people on issues in the public arena.
• The best way to measure public opinion between elections appears to be through
the use of public opinion polls.
8-1a Public Opinion Polls

• A public opinion poll is a survey of the public’s opinion on a
particular topic at a particular moment.
• Public opinion pollsters have devised scientific polling techniques for
measuring public opinion through the use of samples—groups of people
who are typical of the general population.
8-1b Early Polling Efforts

• Since the 1800s, magazines and newspapers have spiced up their articles
by conducting straw polls of readers’ opinions.
• The problem with straw polls is that the opinions expressed usually
represent an atypical subgroup of the population, or a biased sample.
8-1c Polling Today

• Today, polling is used extensively by political candidates
and policymakers.
• Polls can be quite accurate when they are conducted properly.

Types of Polls
Sampling
• A sample must consist of people who are typical of the population.
• The most important principle in sampling is randomness.
• A random sample means that each person within the entire population
being polled has an equal chance of being chosen.
What Polls Really Tell Us
• There are still concerns about the general reliability of polls, however,
that poll takers must be made aware.
• Public opinion polls are fundamentally statistical.
o The true result of a poll is not a single figure, but a range of
probabilities.
• Sampling error is the difference between what the poll shows and what
the results would have been if everyone in the relevant population had
been interviewed.
Statistical Modeling and House Effects
• If the pollster uses a flawed model to adjust for the fact that it is almost
impossible to obtain a body of respondents that truly reflects the
population at large, the poll results will be off as well.
WEIGHTING DIFFICULTIES.
HOUSE EFFECTS.
• Based on their differing models, some polling firms consistently publish
results more favorable to one or the other of the two major parties than
the results released by other pollsters—a phenomenon known as a
house effect.
Bias in Framing Questions
• How poll questions are phrased can affect how people answer them.
AN EXAMPLE: THE BIRTH CONTROL CONTROVERSY.
YES AND NO QUESTIONS.
INADEQUATE INFORMATION.
Timing of Polls
• Opinion polls of voter preferences cannot reflect rapid shifts in public
opinion unless they are taken frequently.
Exit Polls
• The reliability of polls was called into question by the use of exit polls in
the 2000 presidential elections.
• Based on exit polls conducted by the Voter News Service (VNS), a
consortium of news networks, the outcome of the presidential race in
Florida was called wrong—not just once, but twice.
• In 2008, the television networks were careful about making predictions
based on exit polls.

Misuse of Polls
• Today a frequently heard complaint is that, instead of measuring public
opinion, polls can end up creating it.
o A candidate might claim that all the polls show that he or she is
ahead in the race; people who want to support the winner may
back this candidate despite their true feelings.
o This is often called the “bandwagon” effect.
• Many journalists base their political coverage during campaigns almost
exclusively on poll findings.
• Media companies often report only the polls conducted by their affiliated
pollsters.
 ELECTIONS 2012 The Accuracy of the Polls in 2012
 Perception versus Reality The Reliability of Public Opinion Polls

The Problem of Push Polls
• One tactic in political campaigns is to use push polls, which ask “fake”
polling questions that are actually designed to “push” voters toward one
candidate or another.
AN EXAMPLE: JOHN MCCAIN.
PUSH POLLS AND LEGITIMATE POLLS.
8-2 How Do People Form Political Opinions?

• Most people acquire their political attitudes, opinions, beliefs, and knowledge
through a learning process called political socialization.
o This process begins during early childhood and continues throughout a
person’s life.
• Most political socialization is informal.
• There are several agents of political socialization.
8-2a The Importance of Family

• A child first sees the political world through the eyes of his or her family,
which is perhaps the most important force in political socialization.
• The family’s influence is strongest when children can clearly perceive
their parents’ attitudes.
8-2b Schools and Churches

• From their earliest days in school, children learn about the American
political system.
o They say the Pledge of Allegiance and learn about national
holidays.
o In the upper grades, young people learn about government and
democratic procedures through civics classes and participation in
student government.
o They also learn citizenship skills through school rules and
regulations.

• Generally, those with more education have more knowledge about

politics and policy than those with less education.
• A majority of Americans hold strong religious beliefs, and these attitudes
can also contribute significantly to political socialization.
8-2c The Media

• The media have an impact on political socialization.
• The most influential is television, which continues to be a leading source
of political information for older voters.
8-2d Opinion Leaders

• Well-known citizens often are able to influence the opinions of their
fellow citizens.
o These people may be public officials, religious leaders, teachers,
or celebrities.
8-2e Major Life Events

• Often, the political attitudes of an entire generation are influenced by a
major event (for example, the Great Depression, World War II, the
Vietnam War, or the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001).
8-2f Peer Groups

• Once children enter school, the views of friends begin to influence their
attitudes and beliefs.
• From junior high school on, the peer group—friends, classmates, co-
workers, club members, or religious group members—becomes a factor
in the political socialization process.
o Most of this socialization occurs when the peer group is involved
with political activities or other causes.
8-2g Economic Status and Occupation

• A person’s economic status and occupation may influence his or her
political views with respect to government programs and policies.
8-3 Why People Vote as They Do
8-3a Party Identification

• For established voters, party identification is one of the most important
and lasting predictors of how a person will vote.
• A large number of voters call themselves independents; many
independents, however, actually support one or the other of the two
major parties quite regularly.
8-3b Perception of the Candidates

• Voters often base their decisions on the perceived character of the
candidates rather than on their qualifications or policy positions.

8-3c Policy Choices

• When people vote for candidates who share their positions on particular
issues, they are engaging in policy voting.
• Historically, economic issues have had the strongest influence on
voters’ choices.
8-3d Socioeconomic Factors

• Socioeconomic factors include: educational attainment, occupation and
income, age, gender, religion and ethnicity, and geographic location.
• Some factors have to do with circumstances into which individuals are
both; others have to do with personal choices.
Educational Attainment
• As a general rule, people with more education are likely to vote
Republican, although in recent years, voters with postgraduate degrees
have tended to vote Democratic.
Occupation and Income
• Businesspersons tend to vote Republican and have done so for
many years.
• Recently, professionals have been more likely to vote Democratic than in
earlier years.
• Manual laborers, and especially union members, are more likely to vote
for the Democrats.
• In the past, the higher the income, the more likely it was that a person
would vote Republican, but this pattern is breaking down.
Age
• One age-related effect is that people’s attitudes are shaped by the events
that unfolded as they grew up.
• In addition, younger voters are noticeably more liberal on issues dealing
with the rights of minorities, women, and gay males and lesbians.
Gender
• In some elections, a gender gap (the difference between the percentage
of votes cast for a particular candidate by women and the percentage of
votes cast for the same candidate by men) is a major determinant of voter
decision making.
Religion and Ethnic Background
REGULAR CHURCH ATTENDANCE.
• In recent years, a religious variable that has become important in
determining voting behavior has to do with white Christians.
• Regardless of denomination, white Christians who attend church
regularly have favored the Republicans by substantial margins.
• Jewish voters are strongly Democratic.

AFRICAN AMERICANS.
• Most African Americans are Protestants, but African Americans are one
of the most solidly Democratic constituencies in the United States.
• Latino voters have supported the Democrats by margins of about two to
one, though Cuban Americans are strongly Republican.
MUSLIM AMERICANS.
• Today, Muslims are the most Democratic religious group in the nation.
Geographic Region
• In today’s presidential contests, states in the South, the Great Plains, and
parts of the Rocky Mountains are strongly Republican.
• The Northeast, the West Coast, and Illinois are firmly Democratic.
• Many of the swing states that decide elections are located in the
Midwest.
• This pattern is almost a complete reversal of the one that existed a
century ago, when the Solid South was solidly Democratic.
• The ideologies of the two parties have likewise undergone something of
a reversal.
o One hundred years ago, the Democrats were seen as less likely
than the Republicans to support government intervention in the
economy.
o The Democrats were also the party that opposed civil rights.
8-3e Ideology
• For many Americans, where they fall in the political spectrum is a strong
indicator of how they will vote.
o Liberals (about 21 percent of the population) vote for Democrats
and conservatives (about 40 percent of the population) vote for
Republicans.
o In most elections, the candidates compete aggressively for the
moderates (about 35 percent of the population) because they
know their “base” is secure.
The Vital Center
• The position between the political extremes has been called the vital
center.
• Without it, necessary compromises may be difficult, if not impossible,
to achieve.
Ideology in Recent Elections
THE CONSERVATIVE TRIUMPH.
• The severe polarization in Congress and in American politics generally
made it hard for the vital center to play a role in the midterm elections
of 2010.
IDEOLOGY AND THE 2012 ELECTIONS.

8-4 Voting and Voter Turnout
8-4a Factors Affecting Voter Turnout

• In the past, legal restrictions based on income, gender, race, and other
factors kept a number of people from voting.
• In the last decades of the twentieth century, these restrictions were
almost completely eliminated, and yet voter turnout (the percentage of
those who actually turn out to vote from among those eligible to vote) in
presidential elections still hovered around 55 percent.
• Turnout has increased somewhat in more recent presidential elections.
8-4b The Legal Right to Vote

Historical Restrictions on Voting
• Those who drafted the Constitution left the power to set suffrage
qualifications to the individual states.
o Most states limited suffrage to adult white males who owned
property, but these restrictions were challenged early on.
o By 1828, laws restricting the right to vote to Christians were
abolished in all states, and property ownership and tax-payment
requirements gradually began to disappear as well.
• The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) guaranteed suffrage to African
American males.
o Nevertheless, literacy tests, poll taxes, white primaries, and
the grandfather clause were used to prevent African Americans
from voting.
Voting Rights Today
• Today, literacy tests, poll taxes, white primaries, grandfather clauses and
the like, for restricting voting rights are explicitly outlawed by
constitutional amendments, Court decisions, or the Voting Rights Act of
1965, which make it illegal to interfere with anyone’s right to vote in
any election.
• The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920.
• The Twenty-sixth Amendment reduced the minimum voting age
to eighteen.
• Current requirements for voting include minimum age (eighteen years
old), U.S. citizenship, and (depending on the state) voter registration and
residency.
• Most states do not permit prison inmates or felons to vote.
8-4c Attempts to Improve Voter Turnout

• The National Voter Registration Act (the “Motor Voter Law’) of 1993
simplified the voter-registration process.
o The act requires states to provide all eligible citizens with the
opportunity to register to vote when they apply for or renew a
driver’s license.
o The law also requires that states allow mail-in registration.

• In 1998, Oregon voters approved a ballot initiative requiring that all

elections in that state, including presidential elections, be conducted
exclusively by mail.
 JOIN THE DEBATE Voter Fraud—A Real Problem or Much Ado

about Nothing?
8-4d Attempts to Improve Voting Procedures

• Because of serious problems in achieving accurate vote counts in recent
elections, steps have been taken in an attempt to ensure more accuracy in
the voting process.
• The Help America Vote Act of 2002 provided funds to the states to help
them purchase new electronic voting equipment.
Problems in 2006
Voting Systems in Recent Elections
• Because of problems reported in 2006 with electronic systems, more than
half of all votes cast in 2008 and 2010 used old-fashioned paper ballots.
o As a result, vote counting was slow.
• In 2012, the development of voter-verified paper audit trail printers led to
the reintroduction of electronic machines in many states.
• One feature of recent elections was that a number of states allowed early
voting at polling places that opened weeks before Election Day.
8-4e Who Actually Votes

Educational Attainment
• Education appears to be the most important factor affecting voter
turnout.
• The more education a person has, the more likely it is that he or she will
be a regular voter.
Income Level and Age
• Older voters generally turn out more regularly than younger voters do,
though participation tends to decline among the very elderly.
• Wealthy people tend to be overrepresented among regular voters.
Minority Status
• Racial and ethnic minorities traditionally have been underrepresented
among voters.
• In several recent elections, however, participation by these groups,
particularly African Americans and Hispanics, has increased.
o In part because the number of Latino citizens has grown rapidly,
the increase in the Hispanic vote has been even larger than the
increase in the black vote.

Immigration and Voter Turnout

• The United States has experienced high rates of immigration in recent
decades, and that has had an effect on voter turnout figures.
o That is why turnout figures probably should be based on the
number of people who are actually entitled to vote (the vote-
eligible population), rather than expressed as a percentage of the
voting-age population.
 AMERICA AT ODDS Public Opinion and Voting
 CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. What was your first political impression—that is, the first political event or issue you can
recall? Has that first impression affected your views toward government and politics?
How have other agents of political socialization helped to shape the way you think about
political issues, policymakers, and government?
2. Have the twenty-four-hour news cycle and today’s candidate-centered campaigns
rendered the concept of party identification useless as a way of understanding why people
vote as they do?
3. What do you think about the “house effect” when it comes to public opinion polling? Is it
surprising that different polling firms might report different results? What factors could
be contributing to these differences? Are house effects always a reflection of partisan or
political bias? Should polling organizations have partisan ties?
 LECTURE LAUNCHERS
1. Is it likely that a gender gap will continue to characterize voter decision making in
presidential elections?
2. Though the source of the statement is in doubt, it is part of American folklore that a
politician once remarked, “A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to
the polls.” True enough. What else does low voter turnout indicate?
 IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
1. Find examples of polls that measure public opinion about particular political issues in
newspapers or on the Internet. Compare the polling methods that were used and the way
the questions were phrased. Discuss the reliability of the results. Do you agree with the
opinions that are expressed in the polls? Should public policy be based on poll results?
2. Analyze voting by groups in the 2012 presidential elections. How important were
socioeconomic factors in determining the outcome? Is it likely that the Democratic and
Republican presidential nominees will win similar percentages of votes from these
groups in 2016?

 KEY TERMS
agents of political socialization People and institutions that influence the political views
of others.
biased sample A poll sample that does not accurately represent the population.
gender gap The difference between the percentage of votes cast for a particular candidate by
women and the percentage of votes cast for the same candidate by men.
grandfather clause A clause in a state law that had the effect of restricting the franchise (voting
rights) to those whose ancestors had voted before the 1860s. It was one of the techniques
used in the South to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote.
literacy test A test given to voters to ensure that they could read and write and thus evaluate
political information. This technique was used in many southern states to restrict African
American participation in elections.
media Newspapers, magazines, television, radio, the Internet, and any other printed or electronic
means of communication.
peer group Associates, often close in age to one another; may include friends, classmates, co-
workers, club members, or religious group members. Peer group influence is a significant
factor in the political socialization process.
political socialization The learning process through which most people acquire their political
attitudes, opinions, beliefs, and knowledge.
poll tax A fee of several dollars that had to be paid before a person could vote. This device was
used in some southern states to discourage African Americans and low-income whites
from voting.
public opinion The views of the citizenry about politics, public issues, and public policies; a
complex collection of opinions held by many people on issues in the public arena.
public opinion poll A survey of the public’s opinion on a particular topic at a particular moment.
push poll A campaign tactic used to feed false or misleading information to potential voters,
under the guise of taking an opinion poll, with the intent to “push” voters away from one
candidate and toward another.
random sample In the context of opinion polling, a sample in which each person within the
entire population being polled has an equal chance of being chosen.
sample In the context of opinion polling, a group of people selected to represent the population
being studied.
sampling error In the context of opinion polling, the difference between what the sample results
show and what the true results would have been had everybody in the relevant population
been interviewed.
Solid South A term used to describe the tendency of the southern states to vote Democratic after
the Civil War.
straw poll A nonscientific poll in which there is no way to ensure that the opinions expressed are
representative of the larger population.
vital center The center of the political spectrum; those who hold moderate political views. The
center is vital because without it, it may be difficult, if not impossible, to reach the
compromises that are necessary to a political system’s continuity.

vote-eligible population The number of people who are actually eligible to vote in an
American election.
voting-age population The number of people residing in the United States who are at least
eighteen years old.
white primary A primary election in which African Americans were prohibited from voting. The
practice was banned by the Supreme Court in 1944.
 WEB LINKS
Go to http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/ for recent polls conducted and analyzed by the Roper
Center for Public Opinion Research.
The results of recent polls and an archive of past polls can be found at the Gallup Web site at
http://www.gallup.com.
For information on public opinion, go to http://www.electionstudies.org/, the Web site of
American National Election Studies.
Poll data and material on major issues can be found at http://www.publicagenda.org/.
Election predictions and analysis can be found at
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/
For a comprehensive collection of election polls, go to the Real Clear Politics Web site at
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/.
PollingReport organizes public opinion data from various sources by keyword. The Web site is
http://www.pollingreport.com/.
HuffPost Pollster publishes pre-election poll results combined into interactive charts. Go to
elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster. Additional maps and electoral vote counts can be found at
HuffPost Politics Election Dashboard.
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press conducts monthly polls on politics and
policy issues. Go to www.people-press.org/.
 INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
Political Theatre 2.0 DVD
Ronald Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” Speech on behalf of Senator Goldwater: 1964
Suggested Reading
Asher, Herbert. Polling and the Public: What Every Citizen Should Know. 7th ed. Washington,
DC: CQ Press, 2007. Print.
Niemi, Richard G., and Herbert F. Weisberg (eds). Classics in Voting Behavior. Washington, DC:
CQ Press, 1992. Print.

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The fur business of Canada has its beginning
when the company trader strikes a bargain with the
Eskimo for his season’s catch of the white fox of the
arctic and other skins.
The Hudson’s Bay Company has more than two
hundred trading posts where Indians, Eskimos, and
white trappers exchange furs for goods. Eighteen of
the stations lie near or north of the Arctic Circle.
Most of the fine fox skins now marketed in
Canada come from animals raised in captivity on fur
farms. Occasionally a cat may act as a substitute
mother for a litter of fox kittens.
Winnipeg has long been an important city in the Canadian fur
trade, and here the world’s greatest fur organization has its
headquarters. I refer, of course, to the Hudson’s Bay Company,
which for more than two hundred and fifty years has been bartering
goods for the furs of British North America. It was founded when the
British had scarcely a foothold in Canada, and its operations won for
them their dominion over the northwestern part of our continent. In
the beginning it was but one of many trading enterprises of the New
World. To-day it has adapted itself to the tremendous changes in our
civilization and it is bigger, stronger, and richer than ever.
Massachusetts Colony was not fifty years old when the
Nonsuch, loaded to the waterline with the first cargo of furs, sailed
for England from Hudson Bay. The success of the voyage led the
dukes and lords who backed the venture to ask King Charles II for a
charter. This was granted in 1670, and thus came into existence, so
far as the word of a king could make it so, “The Governor and
Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson’s Bay,”
exclusive lords and proprietors of a vast and but vaguely known
region extending from Hudson Bay westward, with sole rights to fish,
hunt, and trade therein.
It remained for the Company to make good the privileges
conferred by the charter and maintain the profits, which at that period
sometimes amounted to one hundred per cent. a year. For nearly a
century the company’s ships and forts did battle with the armed
forces of the French. For another long period its factors and traders
had to meet the attacks of rival companies. At times the company
was nearly wiped out by the heavy losses it sustained. For almost
two centuries it furnished the only government of the Canadian
Northwest, and without the use of a standing army it administered a
vast region, out of which provinces and territories have since been
carved.
The “Company of Adventurers” has now become a fifteen million
dollar corporation, paying regularly five per cent. on ten million
dollars’ worth of preferred stock. A fleet of river, lake, and ocean
steamers has succeeded the Nonsuch. The early trading posts,
stocked with crude tools, weapons, and ornaments for the Indians,
have been supplemented by a chain of eleven department stores,
extending from Winnipeg to Vancouver, and at the same time the
number of trading posts exchanging goods for furs is greater than
ever. There are about two hundred of these posts, eighteen of which
are near or north of the arctic circle. The Company no longer actually
governs any territory, and it is selling to settlers the remainder of the
seven million acres in the fertile belt it has received from the
Dominion since the surrender of its ancient rights in the Northwest.
The story of the Hudson’s Bay Company is a large part of the
history of Canada. Many books have been written about it, and
countless romances built upon the lives of its men stationed in the
wilds. Here at Winnipeg the company has an historical exhibit where
one may visualize the life of the trappers and the traders, and gain
an idea of the adventures that are still commonplaces in their day’s
work. The company museum contains specimen skins of every kind
of Canadian fur-bearing animal. The life of the Indians and the
Eskimos is reproduced through the exhibits of their tools, boats,
weapons, and housekeeping equipment.
The success of the Hudson’s Bay Company has rested upon its
relations with the Indians. The organization is proud of the fact that it
has never engaged in wars with the tribes. The business has always
been on a voluntary basis, and the Indians have to come to the
Company posts of their own free will. At first the traders’ stocks were
limited, but through centuries of contact with civilization the wants of
the red man have increased and become more varied. They now
include nearly everything that a white man would wish if he were
living in the woods.
The first skins brought in from Hudson Bay were practically all
beavers. This led to the exchange being based on the value of a
single beaver skin, or “made beaver.” Sticks, quills, or brass tokens
were used, each designating a “made beaver,” or a fraction thereof.
The prices of a pound of powder, a gun, or a quart of glass beads
were reckoned in “made beaver.”
Early in its history the Company decided that Scotchmen made
the best traders and were most successful in dealing with the
Indians. Young Scotchmen were usually apprenticed as clerks on
five-year contracts, and if successful they might hope to become
traders, chief traders, factors, and chief factors. Men in these grades
were considered officers of the company and received commissions.
Mechanics and men engaged in the transport service were known as
“servants” of the company, and the distinction between “servants,”
clerks, and officers was almost as marked as in the various military
ranks of an army. To-day, Canada is divided into eleven districts,
each of which is in charge of a manager, and the old titles are no
longer used.
A trader had to be a diplomat to preserve friendly relations with
the Indians, an administrator to manage the Company’s valuable
properties in his charge, a shrewd bargainer to dispose of his stock
on good terms, and at times soldier and explorer besides. The
Company’s charter authorized it to apply the laws of England in the
territories under its jurisdiction, and its agents frequently had to
administer justice with a stern hand. It early became the inflexible
policy to seek out a horse thief, incendiary, or murderer among the
Indians and impose punishment, and it was the trader who had to
catch his man and sometimes to execute him.
It was the activities of its rivals, and especially of the Northwest
Company, that resulted in the establishment of the inland stations of
the Hudson’s Bay Company. As long as it had a monopoly, the
Company was content to set up posts at points convenient for itself,
and let the Indians do all the travelling, sometimes making them go
as much as one thousand miles to dispose of their furs. The
opposition, however, carried goods to the Indians, and thus
penetrated to the far Northwest and the Mackenzie River country.
This competition compelled the older organization to extend its posts
all over Canada, and finally, in 1821, led to its absorption of the
Northwest Company. To-day the chief competitor of the Hudson’s
Bay Company is the French firm of Revillon Frères.
The merger with the Northwest Company was preceded by
years of violent struggle. The younger concern was the more
aggressive. It tried to keep the Indians from selling furs to the
Hudson’s Bay traders. Its men destroyed the traps and fish nets, and
stole the weapons, ammunition, and furs of their rivals. Neither was
above almost any method of tricking the other if thereby furs might
be gained. Once some Hudson’s Bay men discovered the tracks of
Indians returning from a hunt. They at once gave a great ball, inviting
the men of the near by post of the rival company. While they plied
their guests with all forms of entertainment, a small party packed four
sledges with trade goods and stole off to the Indian camp. The next
day the Northwest men heard of the arrival of the Indians and went
to them to barter for furs, only to find that all had been sold to the
Hudson’s Bay traders. At another time two rival groups of traders
met en route to an Indian camp and decided to make a night of it.
But the Northwest men kept sober, and, when the Hudson’s Bay
men were full of liquor, tied them to their sleds and started their dog
teams back on the trail over which they had come. The Northwest
traders then went on to the Indians and secured all the furs.
The Hudson’s Bay Company sends all of its raw skins to London,
where they are graded and prepared for the auction sales attended
by fur buyers from all over the world. It does not sell any in Canada.
Nevertheless, the Dominion is an important fur-making centre.
During a recent visit to Quebec, I spent a morning with the manager
of a firm which handles millions of dollars’ worth of furs every year. It
has its own workshops where the skins are cured and the furs
dressed and made into garments. The name of this firm is Holt,
Renfrew and Company. Let us go back to Quebec and pay it a visit.
Imagine a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of furs under one
roof! Picture to your minds raw skins in bales, just as they were
unloaded from an Indian canoe, and then look again and see wraps
and coats made from them that would each bring five thousand
dollars when sold on Fifth Avenue. If your imagination is vivid
enough you may see the American beauties who will wear them and
know how the furs will add to the sparkle of their eyes and at the
same time lighten the purses of their sweethearts and husbands.
We shall first go to the cold storage rooms. Here are piles of
sealskins from our Pribilof Islands. Put one of these furs against your
cheek. It feels like velvet. In these rooms are beavers from Labrador,
sables from Russia, and squirrels from Siberia. There are scores of
fox skins—blue, silver, black, and white. Some of them come from
the cold arctic regions and others from fox farms not twenty minutes
distant by motor. Take a look at this cloak of silvery gray fur. A year
ago the skins from which it was made were on the backs of hair
seals swimming in the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.
As we go through the factory, some of the secrets of fur making
are whispered to us. For example, this bale contains fifteen hundred
skins of the muskrat. The animals which produced them will change
their names after a trip to the dyers. They will go into the vats and
when they come out they will be Hudson Bay seals, and eventually
will find their way into a black coat with a wonderful sheen. Years
ago the muskrat skin was despised. Now it is made into coats that,
under the trade name of Hudson seal, bring nearly as much as those
of real seal.
Here are two Russian sables, little fellows of beautiful fur, that
together will form a single neck piece. The undressed skins are
worth seven hundred dollars the pair. As we look, the manager
shows us two native sables that seem to be quite as fine. He tells us
they can be had for eighty-five dollars each, or less than a quarter of
the price of the Russian.
The most valuable fur in the world to-day is the sea otter, of
which this firm gets only three or four skins in a year. But, in contrast,
over there is a whole heap of Labrador otters, beautiful furs, which
will wear almost for ever and will look almost as well as the sea otter
itself. But you can have your choice of these at forty dollars apiece.
They are cheap chiefly because the Labrador skin is not in fashion
with women. Fashion in furs is constantly changing. Not many years
ago a black fox skin often brought as much as fifteen hundred
dollars. To-day, so many are coming from the fur farms that the price
has fallen to one hundred and fifty dollars. Scarcity is one of the chief
considerations in determining the value of furs, and fashion always
counts more than utility. The rich, like the kings of old, demand
something that the poor cannot have, and lose their interest in the
genuine furs when their imitations have become common and cheap.
The dyer and his art have greatly changed the fur trade. It is he
who enables the salesgirl to wear furs that look like those of her
customers. For example, here is a coat made of the best beaver. Its
price is four hundred dollars, and beside it is another made of dyed
rabbit fur, marked one hundred and fifty dollars. It is hard for a novice
to tell which is the better. All sorts of new names have been devised
by the furriers to popularize dyed skins of humble animals, from
house cats to skunks, in order to increase the supply of good-looking
and durable furs. Reliable dealers will tell you just what their
garments are made of, but the unscrupulous pass off the imitations
as the genuine article.
The business of dyeing furs was developed first in Germany,
when that country led the world in making dyes. Now that New York
is competing with London as a great fur market many of the best
German dyers are at work there. From the standpoint of the
consumer, the chief objection to dyed fur is that the natural never
fades, while the dyed one is almost certain to change its hue after a
time.
Now let us go into the rooms where the furs are made up. It is
like a tailor shop. Here is a designer, evolving new patterns out of big
sheets of paper. There are the cutters, making trimmings, stoles,
neck pieces, and coats. Each must be a colour expert, for a large
part of the secret of fashioning a beautiful fur garment is in the skillful
matching of the varying shades to give pleasing effects. Were the
skins for a coat sewn together just as they come from the bale, the
garment resulting would be a weird-looking patchwork. Even before
the skins are selected, they must be graded for the colours and
shadings which go far to determine their value. There are no rules
for this work; it takes a natural aptitude and long experience. In the
London warehouse of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the men of a
single family have superintended the grading of all the millions of
skins handled there for more than one hundred years.
Turn over this unfinished beaver coat lying on the bench and
look at the wrong side. See how small are the pieces of which it is
made and how irregular are their shapes. It is a mass of little
patches, yet the outer, or right side, looks as though it were made of
large skins, all of about the same size and shape. A coat of muskrat,
transformed by dyeing into Hudson seal, may require seventy-five
skins; a moleskin coat may contain six hundred. But in making up
either garment each skin must be cut into a number of pieces and
fitted to others in order to get the blending of light and dark shades
which means beauty and quality.
The Eskimo woman and her children wear as
every-day necessities furs which if made into more
fashionable garments would bring large sums. Usually
the whole family goes on the annual trip to the trading
post.
As Saskatchewan was not made a province until
1904, Regina is one of the youngest capital cities in
Canada. It was for many years the headquarters of
the Mounted Police for all the Northwest.
CHAPTER XXIII
SASKATCHEWAN
We have left Winnipeg and are now travelling across the great
Canadian prairie, which stretches westward to the Rockies for a
distance of eight hundred miles. This land, much of which in summer
is in vast fields of golden grain, is now bare and brown, extending on
and on in rolling treeless plains as far as our eyes can reach. Most of
it is cut up into sections a mile square, divided by highway spaces
one hundred feet wide. However, an automobile or wagon can go
almost anywhere on the prairie, and everyone makes his own road.
Sixty miles west of Winnipeg we pass Portage la Prairie, near
where John Sanderson, the man who filed the first homestead on the
prairies, is still living. This part of the Dominion was then inhabited by
Indians, and its only roads were the buffalo trails made by the great
herds that roamed the country. To-day it is dotted with the
comfortable homes of prosperous farmers, and the transcontinental
railways have brought it within a few days’ travel of the Atlantic and
the Pacific seaboards.
A hundred and fifty miles farther west we cross the boundary into
Saskatchewan, the greatest wheat province of the Dominion. It has
an area larger than that of any European country except Russia, and
is as large as France, Belgium, and Holland combined. From the
United States boundary, rolling grain lands extend northward through
more than one third of its area. The remainder is mostly forest,
thinning out toward Reindeer Lake and Lake Athabaska at the north,
and inhabited chiefly by deer, elk, moose, and black bear. There are
saw-mills at work throughout the central part of the province, and the
annual lumber cut is worth in the neighbourhood of two million
dollars.
Except at the southwest, Saskatchewan is well watered. The
Saskatchewan River, which has many branches, drains the southern
and central sections. This stream in the early days was a canoe
route to the Rockies. For a long time afterward, when the only
railway was the Canadian Pacific line in the southern part of the
province, the river was the highway of commerce for the north. It was
used largely by settlers who floated their belongings down it to the
homesteads they had taken up on its banks. Now the steamboats
that plied there have almost entirely disappeared. The northern part
of the province is made up of lakes and rivers so numerous that
some of them have not yet been named. The southwest is a strip of
semi-arid land that has been brought under cultivation by irrigation
and now raises large crops of alfalfa.
A small part of southwestern Saskatchewan, near the Alberta
boundary, is adapted for cattle and sheep raising. The Chinook
winds from the Pacific keep the winters mild and the snowfall light,
so that live stock may graze in the open all the year round.
Elsewhere the winters are extremely cold. The ground is frozen dry
and hard, the lakes and streams are covered with ice, and the
average elevation of about fifteen hundred feet above sea level
makes the air dry and crisp. The people do not seem to mind the
cold. I have seen children playing out-of-doors when it was twenty-
five degrees below zero. The summers are hot, and the long days of
sunshine are just right for wheat growing.
After travelling fourteen or fifteen hours from Winnipeg, we are in
Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan, on the main line of the
Canadian Pacific, about midway between Winnipeg and the Rockies.
I visited it first in 1905, when the province was less than a year old.
Until that time all the land between Manitoba and British Columbia,
from the United States to the Arctic Ocean, belonged to the
Northwest Territories. It had minor subdivisions, but the country as a
whole was governed by territorial officials with headquarters at
Regina. As the flood of immigrants began to spread over the West,
the people of the wheat belt decided that they wanted more than a
territorial government and so brought the matter before the Canadian
parliament. As a result the great inland provinces of Saskatchewan
and Alberta were formed. They are the only provinces in the
Dominion that do not border on the sea.
Regina was then a town of ragged houses, ungainly buildings,
and wide streets with board sidewalks reaching far out into the
country. One of the streets was two miles long, extending across the
prairie to the mounted police barracks and the government house.
Regina was the headquarters of the Northwest Mounted Police until
that organization was amalgamated with the dominion force as the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the city is still a training camp
for recruits. Saskatchewan was not then old enough to have a state
house, and the government offices were in rooms on the second
floors of various buildings. Most of the provincial business was done
in a little brick structure above the Bank of Commerce.
The hotels of the town were then packed to overflowing, even in
winter, and in the spring and summer it was not uncommon to find
the halls filled with cots. I had to sleep in a room with two beds, and
with a companion who snored so that he shook the door open night
after night. It was of no use to complain, as the landlord could tell
one to go elsewhere, knowing very well that there was no elsewhere
but outdoors.
To-day Regina is ten times as large as it was twenty years ago. It
is a modern city with up-to-date hotels, ten banks, handsome
parliament buildings, and twelve railway lines radiating in every
direction. It is the largest manufacturing centre between Winnipeg
and Calgary, and an important distributing point for farm implements
and supplies.
The dome of the capitol building, which was completed in 1911,
can now be seen from miles away on the prairie. This is an imposing
structure five hundred and forty-two feet long, situated in the midst of
a beautiful park on the banks of an artificial lake made by draining
Wascana Creek. The city has many other parks, and the residence
streets are lined with young trees, planted within the last twenty
years. Forty miles to the east is a government farm at Indian Head,
where experiments are made in growing and testing trees suited to
the prairies. Fifty million seedlings have been distributed in one year
among the farms and towns. Out in the country the trees are planted
as windbreaks and to provide the farmers with fuel. They have
greatly changed the aspect of the prairies within the last two
decades.
The grain lands of western Canada begin in
Manitoba in the fertile Red River valley, which is world
famous for the fine quality of its wheat. From here to
the Rockies is a prairie sea, with farmsteads for
islands.
American windmills tower over Saskatchewan
prairie lands that were largely settled by American
farmers. The province is still so thinly populated that it
has only five people to every ten square miles.
The wheat harvest, like time and tide, waits for no
man and when the crop is ready it must be promptly
cut. The grain is usually threshed in the fields and
sent at once to the nearest elevator.
While in Regina I have had a talk with the governor-general of
Saskatchewan in his big two-story mansion that twenty years ago
seemed to be situated in the middle of the prairie. When I motored
out to visit His Excellency, although I was wrapped in buffalo robes
and wore a coon-skin coat and coon-skin cap, I was almost frozen,
and when I entered the mansion it was like jumping from winter into
the lap of summer. At one end of the house is a conservatory, where
the flowers bloom all the time, although Jack Frost has bitten off all
other vegetation with the “forty-degrees-below-zero teeth” he uses in
this latitude.
From Regina, the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway runs
west to Calgary. Were we to travel by that route, we should pass
through Moose Jaw and Swift Current, two important commercial
centres for the wheat lands. The story is told that Lord Dunsmore, a
pioneer settler, once mended the wheel of his prairie cart with the
jaw bone of a moose on the site of the former city, and thus gave the
place its name. Moose Jaw is a live stock as well as a wheat
shipping point. It has the largest stock yards west of Winnipeg. An
extensive dairying industry has grown up in that region.
North of Regina are Prince Albert and Battleford, noted for their
fur trade and lumber mills, and also Saskatoon, the second largest
city of the province, which we shall visit on our way to Edmonton. At
Saskatoon is the University of Saskatchewan, which was patterned
largely after the University of Chicago. It has the right to a Rhodes
scholarship; and its departments include all the arts and sciences.
As sixty per cent. of the people are dependent upon agriculture,
farm courses receive much attention. A thousand-acre experimental
farm is owned by the university and the engineering courses include
the designing and operation of farm machinery. Even the elementary
schools are interested in agriculture, a campaign having been
carried on recently to eradicate gophers, which destroy the wheat.
The children killed two million of these little animals in one year,
thereby saving, it is estimated, a million bushels of grain. A
department of ceramics has been organized at the university to
experiment with the extensive clay deposits of the province, the
various grades of which are suited for building brick, tile, pottery, and
china. Saskatchewan’s only other mineral of any importance is lignite
coal, although natural gas has been discovered at Swift Current.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE WORLD’S LARGEST WHEATFIELD
For the past two weeks I have been travelling through lands that
produce ninety per cent. of Canada’s most valuable asset—wheat.
The Dominion is the second greatest wheat country in the world,
ranking next to the United States. It is the granary of the British
Empire, raising annually twice as much wheat as Australia and fifty
million bushels more than India. The wheat crop is increasing and
Canada may some day lead the world in its production. These
prairies contain what is probably the most extensive unbroken area
of grain land on earth. In fact, so much wheat is planted in some
regions that it forms an almost continuous field reaching for
hundreds of miles. The soil is a rich black loam that produces easily
twenty bushels to an acre, and often forty and fifty.
The Canadian wheat belt extends from the Red River valley of
Manitoba to the foothills of the Rockies, and from Minnesota and
North Dakota northward for a distance greater than from
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. New wheat lands are constantly being
opened, and large crops are now grown in the Peace River country,
three hundred miles north of Edmonton.
A man who is an authority on wheat raising tells me that the
possible acreage in the Canadian West is enormous. Says he:
“We have something like three hundred and twenty thousand
square miles of wheat lands. Divide this in two, setting half aside for
poor soil and mixed farming, and there is left more than one
hundred-thousand square miles. In round numbers, it is one hundred
million acres, and the probability is that it can raise an average of
twenty-five bushels to the acre. This gives us a possible crop of

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 AMERICA AT ODDS Should Felons Be Allowed to Vote?

 THE REST OF THE WORLD How Foreign Countries View

8-1 Measuring Public Opinion

8-1a Public Opinion Polls

8-1b Early Polling Efforts

8-1c Polling Today

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 ELECTIONS 2012 The Accuracy of the Polls in 2012

 Perception versus Reality The Reliability of Public Opinion Polls

8-2 How Do People Form Political Opinions?

8-2a The Importance of Family

8-2b Schools and Churches

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• Generally, those with more education have more knowledge about

8-2c The Media

8-2d Opinion Leaders

8-2e Major Life Events

8-2f Peer Groups

8-2g Economic Status and Occupation

8-3 Why People Vote as They Do

8-3a Party Identification

8-3b Perception of the Candidates

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8-3c Policy Choices

8-3d Socioeconomic Factors

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8-4 Voting and Voter Turnout

8-4a Factors Affecting Voter Turnout

8-4b The Legal Right to Vote

8-4c Attempts to Improve Voter Turnout

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• In 1998, Oregon voters approved a ballot initiative requiring that all

 JOIN THE DEBATE Voter Fraud—A Real Problem or Much Ado

8-4d Attempts to Improve Voting Procedures

8-4e Who Actually Votes

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Immigration and Voter Turnout

 AMERICA AT ODDS Public Opinion and Voting

 CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

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