Sixth Quadrennial Crimson Poll For President Held Next Week

For the sixth consecutive presidential year, the CRIMSON will hold a poll of all students in the University on Thursday, October 20. Returns from the College and the graduate schools will be tabulated separately in order to give an accurate picture of undergraduate opinion on the coming election.

This is the first CRIMSON poll of any sort to be conducted primarily through the Houses instead of at the usual balloting places in Sever and Harvard Halls. Ballot boxes will be placed in all of the Houses during the luncheon and dinner hours next Thursday, and a box will be available at some additional place for students not resident in the Houses. Polls will be provided in the Union for Freshmen, in Baker Library for the Business School, and in Austin or Langdell Hall for the Law School.

Four Candidates on Ballot

The names of four candidates will appear on the ballot: Herbert Hoover, Republican; Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrat; Norman Thomas, Socialist; and William Z. Foster, Communist. The names of the other three candidates will not appear but a space will be left where those or any other names may be written in. Voters will also be asked to specify what party they favored in the last election, in order to determine the amount of shifting which has taken place. Signatures will be required but will be kept strictly confidential and the ballots will be destroyed as soon as they are counted.

Record Vote Anticipated

Since political feeling in regard to the national election is running higher than in any election of recent years, a record vote is anticipated, and approximately 5000 ballots will be printed. Four years ago, when the Republican ticket carried the University by a slight majority over all other candidates, a total of 4080 votes were cast.

In the primary presidential poll conducted by the CRIMSON last spring. Roosevelt nosed out Newton Baker for the Democratic nomination by a scant eight votes, while Hoover was the Republican choice by an overwhelming margin.

Political clubs representing the two major parties have been active since the opening of College, and an organization devoted to the interests of Norman Thomas, the Socialist candidate, is in process of formation. Several speakers of national repute have already been brought to Cambridge and others will be at Harvard between now and election day. Representatives of both major parties are expected to address the Freshmen at the Union under the auspices of the political clubs and the Union Committee. Although no torch-light parades or other features of former presidential campaigns at Harvard have been planned as yet, it is considered not unlikely that they may make their appearance.

Between now and next Thursday, the CRIMSON will invite various members of the faculty to present their views on the coming election.

In order to secure a nation-wide expression of undergraduate opinion on the presidential election, the returns from the CRIMSON poll will be averaged in under the auspices of the Daily Princetonian with those of a large number of other polls being held in American colleges, and the grand totals announced about a week later