Oppressed With Two Weak Evils

The CRIMSON's presidential poll, conducted last week, brought out a lighter vote than four and eight years ago, but there is no reason to suppose that the results this year were not a fair sample of the opinion of the student body...That Harvard should go strongly Republican in normal times is to be expected; that it goes so strongly Republican this year seems to show that the younger generation are not so much disturbed by the depression as their elders.

The most striking fact revealed by the straw vote is the strength of the Socialist candidate. Norman Thomas doubtless possesses a personality which appeals to many college men, but the Socialist vote is more than a personal tribute to a popular character. Nor is it to be explained as a mere protest against the politicians in power during the depression. The size of the vote for Hoover shows that the unreflecting protest vote in Harvard is inconsiderable. The conclusion seems unescapable that the large vote for Thomas is the sign of an extraordinary increase of independent thinking among the students. It probably marks the development of a more critical spirit among educated young men than at any other time since the Progressive movement of two decades ago. Apparently, if the major parties wish to retain the allegiance of the rising generation of voters, at least one of them must become more progressive than ether has been in recent years. -The Alumni Bulletin.