Fifteen million Americans are to have a opportunity to tell what they think of the New Deal. They will participate in a straw vote of a novel kind. It will be a secret ballot. It will be widely accepted as a reflection of the state of the public mind with respect to the policies of the Roosevelt Administration because it will be conducted by the Literary Digest, which in forecasting election results by this method has shown that it is remarkably accurate in telling how the American nation will vote. There would seem to be no reason why it should not be equally successful in revealing what the American people think.

The referendum includes two questions: "Do you approve on the whole the acts and policies of Roosevelt's first year?" and "For whom did you vote in 1932?" The person receiving a ballot makes two crosses, writes the name of his State, and drops the card in the mail box. Yet this simple operation may have results of profound significance. The New Deal is to be put to the acid test.

There is another aspect of the matter which suggests comment. The United States mails will be used for what, conceivably, may prove to be a vote condemning the Roosevelt policies. There will be no interference with such use, and with the publication of the findings. No such referendum as that about to be conducted in this country would be permitted in Hitler's Germany. So, in view of conditions in Germany and other lands across the sea, this Literary Digest referendum has addition interest and significance as a reminder that freedom of speech and opinion still exist in the United States. Boston Transcript.