Twenty-six out of thirty-one university presidents in this country say that student drinking is not general. That statement was made last week by a prominent dry before the Judiciary Committee of the Bouse of Representatives. What does it prove? With due respect for the judgment or those presidents, we cannot help feeling that their opinion is of slight value unless checked by facts. And so far as Yale is concerned, the News, through its questionnaire, proposes to have a look at the facts.

It is unfortunate that there are no statistics showing the extent of drinking in the university during past years. The News referendums of 1924 and 1926 concerned themselves with sounding out undergraduate sentiment on the Eighteenth Amendment, but did not attempt to investigate the amount of drinking. The only figures available for comparison, therefore, are those from senior questionnaires in Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. These indicate an extremely slight decrease in drinking at Yale between 1906 and 1920. After 1920 there are no figures. No one knows, however, whether this decrease occurred because of, in spite of, or without reference to prohibition.

Besides attempting to determine the present extent of drinking, one of the main objectives of the News questionnaire is to lay a foundation for future investigations. It will be interesting, for instance, to compare the figures on drinking four years hence with those compiled this week. And if there had been similar figures four years ago, the value of the present questionnaire for purposes of comparison would be greatly enhanced.

The questions, "Do most of the elders in your home environment drink," and "Did you drink before you came to college" were included in the questionnaire because home and preparatory school influences have much to do with the habits of the undergraduate. The Yale senior questionnaires for 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1920 showed, for instance, that sixty-three per cent of the drinking students began to drink before coming to college. Question three, "If you drink, name in order the three alcoholic beverages in which you most commonly indulge", was included because the News feels that while it is ascertaining the extent of drinking, it should also determine what liquor is most commonly imbibed. The last two questions, dealing with the Eighteenth Amendment, are substantially the same as those asked in previous referendums. In 1924 the majority was in favor of light wines and beer. In 1926 the undergraduates voted four to one against the Volstead Act, and favored government control of sale and manufacture of liquor.

It should be determined as accurately as possible whether Yale men are, in the majority, wet or dry. The air is clouded with talk. We hope the undergraduates share our desire to unshroud the facts. Yale News.