POLITICALLY INTELLIGENT

One month from today the Presidential election of 1916 will be history. Will this campaign and its issues mean more to Harvard undergraduates than the recent parliamentary election in Canada or not? The present campaign is the first that men now in College have been able to view maturely and to a certain degree intelligently.

Among a very few classes of men the idea that politics does not offer a field for gentlemanly activity is still prevalent. However, undergraduates need not fear that a live interest in elections and political questions will be considered ungentlemanly by their friends in polite society. If they fail to understand now, they will soon find out that men on the outside world consider it "commeil faut" to discuss the policies of political parties. Many financiers, railroad magnates and money kings actually have strong political opinions and work earnestly for their respective parties. So the undergraduate need not feel that he is conspicuously different from others, if he makes an effort to be politically well informed. In fact the best educated citizens pride themselves on their knowledge of current politics. The feeling that a real gentleman should hold himself aloof from the vulgar activities of politics has disappeared long ago.

The large majority of the students who are not yet eligible to vote ought to consider the straw ballot today as important as the election on November 7th will be for the eligible voters. It is not a single day too early for these men to form serious political opinions. The next year or two years, will glide by rapidly and the responsibilities of citizenship and the vote will present themselves all too quickly. A thoughtful choice of a candidate today, sustained by a careful investigation of the different candidates policies will help to form the habit of intelligent voting in the future.

The political sentiment of Harvard, which the straw-vote decides, interests the entire country, and carries a certain amount of influence. The outside world knows that some of the future political leaders of this country are at present Harvard undergraduates, and it is interested to discover what are the political ideals and policies of these future Congressmen, Senators and diplomats.

For these reasons every member of the University should regard today's Presidential straw-ballot as a serious expression of Harvard opinion, and make his vote an intelligent one.