The result of yesterday's straw vote on the presidential candidates has an element of the surprising in it. It was generally expected that Roosevelt would lead the Republican candidates, but it was not so patent that he would receive more votes than President Wilson. The large Roosevelt vote may be to some extent due to the advertising done by his supporters; or it may be due to the sympathy of the Atlantic seaboard with Roosevelt's views on military preparedness, and thus unrepresentative of the country at large.

At any rate, the straw vote shows a large sentiment in the University in favor of Roosevelt. Any idea that his vote is due to the fact that he is a Harvard man should be dispelled. In 1912 both the straw votes held were won by graduates of the University's chief rivals, Yale and Princeton. Roosevelt was second both times. Nor can this vote be taken as a final indication of what student Harvard will think of the Presidential candidates next fall. In 1912 Taft carried the spring straw vote, and Wilson was third; in October, after the split in the Republican party, those positions were reversed. The final observation that 1788 men voted, although ballot boxes were only in two places, is indicative of the fact that not all students are dead or indifferent to the most dramatic and important single feature of public life in the world--an American presidential campaign.