THE TREATY REFERENDUM.

In the nation-wide intercollegiate ballot on the League and Treaty to be held today, the colleges are making a double contribution. They are conducting the first extensive referendum at a time when the sentiment of the country on the question of the Treaty is of great importance, not only to Americans, but to the entire world. And, further, they are making possible an estimation of the opinion of the college man; the man who must take the lead in the government of the United States during the next generation.

The voting today will be interpreted in many different ways. There will be a discussion of its sectional significance, of the point of view of the large and of the small college, and so on, ad infinitum. The forms in which the questions are submitted on the ballot are necessarily imperfect--it would not be possible to draw up a ballot representing all shades of opinion in the country--and will be construed by various factions in various ways. But on the real issue--Treaty or no Treaty--there can be no mistaking the verdict.

Proposition 1 is essentially the view of those who put President Wilson's personal pride before the welfare of the country and the world. Proposition 3 summarizes, in the same way, the narrow political vision of Senator Lodge and his associates. Proposition 2, if adopted, would mean that the United States with draws from the Society of nations and throws away all chance of paying dividends on the capital in men and ideals she invested in the war.

The people of the nation are tired of parliamentary bickerings and talk; the sentiment everywhere today is "get the Treaty through." Saturday was marked by a declaration of peace by the other great belligerent nations. We, as a country, are left dangling in mid-air. A tremendous majority for Proposition 4, as submitted on the ballot, alone can show that college men have appreciated the issue. They must not fail.