A nation-wide poll on the prohibition question is being conducted among the various colleges and universities of the United States by the National Student Federation of America, the results of which are expected to furnish one of the main topics of discussion at the Federation Conference to be held next December at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Although no political results of the discussion are contemplated, it is felt that the investigation will be of value in summarizing and crystalizing undergraduate opinion.

Four Liberal Clubmen on Committee

The poll is being directed by a committee of four from the Liberal Club which volunteered to collect, on behalf of the Federation, all available statistics, and whose offer has been accepted by Lewis Fox, the Federation's President. F. V. Field '27 is chairman of the New England branch of the Confederation.

The object of the ballots which have been sent out is to ascertain first whether student bodies favor present prohibition laws, modification or repeal, and second why individual students vote as they do. Only by collecting the reasons underlying votes can figures be interpreted when it comes to drawing up a report for the Federation. With this in view the Committee has, in sending out its ballots, asked four questions as follows:

First--Do you favor prohibition in its present form?

Second--Do you favor the repeal of laws relating to prohibition?

Third--Do you favor the change of prohibition laws to allow the sale of light wines and beer?

Fourth--What are the reasons for the decision you have reached?

College Journals to Help

Each college or university represented last fall at the conference of the Federation at Princeton has been invited to take part in the poll and it has been urged by the Committee that the newspaper of each institution conduct its own balloting and forward a detailed tabulation of the results to the Committee. Should the newspapers be unwilling to undertake the task, the poll might be taken by any other official body.

The Committee has requested in addition a short report dealing with the faculty and club rules relating to the matter, and discussing the actual drinking conditions, as far as they can be ascertained, in each college.

"It is the desire of the investigating Committee," said Paul Herzog '27, President of the Liberal Club and a member of the Committee in commenting on the poll, "to lay particular emphasis upon these reports rather than upon merely statistics. We intend to collect all our information gained this spring into a report which will be ready some time in the fall, and for such a purpose, the answers to the "why" question will naturally be of supreme importance."