(We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest, but assume no responsibility for sentiments expressed under this head.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Whether we wish to vote for the President on November 7 or for ex-Justice Hughes is a problem for our private judgment; we shall act according to our lights and not, we hope, according to our traditional or unexamined predilections. But whatever be our political opinions, there is one point on which as thinking and loyal citizens we can enthusiastically unite. It is in an attempt to secure the privilege for ourselves and future generations of college students of voting in presidential elections, without regard to the invidious question of whether or not we are entirely self-supporting, as the Massachusetts law, as it is applied at present, requires. Although most of us are inclined to concur in the reply which one of the Harvard men involved in last spring's election "frauds" is said to have made to the court's query as to his earning capacity, to wit, that it is unlimited, yet this stupid question should be asked, and so long as the suffrage is not hedged with pecuniary qualifications, the matter of self-support, to one who is pursuing an education, should have nothing to do with his freedom to exercise his constitutional right as a citizen of the United States.

By the Constitution the states shall determine their own election laws; so much is settled. There is much to be said for any state which, like Massachusetts, wishes to exclude, and in fact does exclude, from the electorate persons whose legal residence (and therefore, supposedly material interests) is not within the boundaries of the state. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for the exclusion of a large number of intelligent citizens from participating in the election of the president. Our local or material interests have, or should have, very little to do with our choice of him who is the servant of all the people of the United States. The president is the spiritual and executive head of the nation in his hands our destinies largely lie. As citizens of the United States we are equally interested in who, by our suffrage, shall reign in the White House, whether our legal residences be in Maine or California.

Accordingly I make the following suggestion, and I make it urgently. Let the Republican and Democratic clubs combine with the other political clubs in the University, and with all interested and patriotic members of the University, to petition the Massachusetts legislature to permit all citizens of the United States who have lived in Massachusetts for six months or a year, and who are legally eligible and registered voters of any state, to vote in Massachusetts for the president of the United States. Fraud could not possibly result from the passage of so wise and liberal a measure because the election of the president occurs simultaneously throughout the Union, and a man could not very well be in two states on the same day. In addition to this natural obstacle, there could easily be devised other artificial restraints upon the conscienceless.

Let it be clearly understood that we neither desire nor expect to vote for senators or members of the House of Representatives; they are the representatives of the people of Massachusetts. But the privilege of voting for the president is a thing so vital to all of us who are devoted to the higher interest of the nation and eager to play an honorable part in the great experiment of democratic government upon this continent that it appears more than probable that, with sufficient energy and able leadership, the legislature of Massachusetts will be prevailed upon to act favorably on a petition of this character from the many schools and colleges of the state, and by so acting, place once again the name of Massachusetts high upon the honor-roll of those whose loyalty and larger vision has made the Union great. BRENT DOW ALLINSON '17   President, International Polity Club.