ORGANIZING OPINION.

Expressions of sentiment in the colleges on the most important public question of the day is a momentous experiment. One of the great weaknesses of our democracy is that our views, as a nation, are not organized. Certain groups, like the Chambers of Commerce, the American Legion, the Non-Partisan League, and the American Federation of Labor, occasionally carry on agitation and bring pressure to bear in order to influence legislation. And government in America has been defined as the result of the pressure of these organized opinions on the Central Legislative Body. But the great mass of American sentiment remains unorganized, and expresses itself only through admittedly inadequate mediums--individual communications, mass meetings called for special purposes, and the passing of occasional resolutions. Any movement of a new group to make its influence felt in the time between elections points to the solution of one of the most difficult problems in the government of a democratic state. The proposal to take a vote on the thirteenth of next January in the colleges of America on four phases of the question of ratification of the treaty may prove a landmark in the history of the organization of opinion.

A referendum ballot in seven hundred colleges and universities in all parts of the country would represent as far as is possible a cross-section of the sentiment of the nation. Such a vote would have far more significance than the straw ballots recently held at Harvard and Yale and elsewhere; a nation-wide vote would eliminate the possibility of the charge of sectionalism and would not represent only one social class.

Many advantages would accrue both to the state and to the colleges if the machinery by means of which the coming ballot is to be taken should be perpetuated. The Government would receive aid in determining, its policy from a well-informed part of its society. The colleges, for their part, would benefit from a greater discussion of vital problems, and a stimulus to such discussion would be provided by a permanent forum of college opinion.