THE PEACE POLL

It is frankly the sole purpose, or should be the sole purpose, of the Phillips Brooks House Peace Poll to keep public attention sharply focused on the futility and cruelty of war and thus to combat the weathering effects of time; for any value of such a petition as anti-militaristic propaganda is obviated by the prevalence of peace. And, however much one may be tempted to discount the validity of the resulting opinions on the score of the irresponsibility of youth in college and in peace time, there can be no doubt that such movements are most vital to the maintenance of peace.

Comparisons between any two such movements are almost certain to be odious. But, briefly, it is obvious that the stark inevitability of the three alternatives set forth in this new petition is more startling, hence more conductive to realistic thinking than is the safe compromise promulgated by the Brown Daily Herald. Moreover, undergraduates will attach far more significance to such a poll, when it is conducted by the Intercollegiate Disarmament Council than when it is conducted by an undergraduate journal whose activity in a case of this sort is at best secondary to its main objectives.