THE POINT OF THE POLL

How representative of general public opinion the attitude of the University on Prohibition and the Bok peace plan was last year is still questionable. The results of the present CRIMSON presidential poll will be far more instructive, for their accuracy will meet with a certain and nationwide test in November.

Besides any light which the poll may throw on the coming election there are some very definite questions which it will go far toward answering. Is Harvard still a New England college in spirit and opinion despite a somewhat definite policy of attracting students from the West? A landslide for Coolidge might indicate just this. How radical the radical younger generation really is the La Follette and Foster showings will make apparent when compared with national returns. Finally, how many friends for Davis the utterance of President Eliot, President Garfield of Williams and other educators have made should be tangibly shown by the size of the Democratic vote.

In tests such as these lies the real value of the poll. Whatever the outcome its interest will be not in a forecast of the actual election, but rather in an analysis of Harvard sentiment as compared with that of the community as a whole.