COMMENT.

The article is a response from the author on the comments made by sociologist Earl R. Babbie. In his paper Babbie criticizes the design on the ground that it is not entirely suited to the problem in question and, more specifically, it provides too few cases of Jews. This problem was recognized in advance and the then-director of the Detroit Area Study, made arrangements with certain members of the Jewish community in Detroit to obtain the necessary funds. As a guide to future investigators, the author feel Babble misses one important point. Once a large scale project involving any number of people is underway, it acquires a momentum of its own and the investigator often finds that be can bait it only at the risk of total disaster. Like a juggler, he sometimes finds that be has to choose quickly between allowing one ball to get away or all,and faced with that choice will usually relinquish the one. The sample closely resembles the universe in terms of occupation, education, income, frequency of temple attendance, party preference and family size, to cite but a few of the more important instances.