Furthermore, he explained, unlike 1948 when they "made the big mistake of assuming that there would be no major trends toward the end of the campaign," the pollsters are watching these trends carefully. Both Gallup and Roper took last minute polls this year.

In 1948, Stouffer said, about one out of seven voters made up his mind in the last two weeks and three quarters of them voted for Truman.

"Red Hot" Campaign

He added, however, that it does not follow that the same pattern will be true this year, because Eisenhower, unlike Dewey, has put on a "red hot" campaign right up to the end.

Stouffer feels that although there is tremendous public interest in the forecasting work which polls do, "it is really of minor importance in comparison to the polls' other functions."

"The big thing which polls do is to provide information, accurate to within a few percentage points, which tell us how various groups in the population vote and how slowly or rapidly they make up their mind.

"They provide the best single source for understanding how such issues as 'don't take it away' or 'communism' effect particular types of people."

He added that "there is no doubt in my mind that as times goes on, polls will become one of the greatest reservoirs of source data for economists, historians, sociologists and political scientists.