Harmless

Collier's, subtitled " The National Weekly," has sent out an army of 1,000 canvassers. These canvassers visit the homes of all subscribers to the magazine, said to number 250,000. They are taking a poll on first choice for a successor to President Harding, and, incidentally, they are drumming up trade.

By doing its stunt thus early, Collier's has apparently forestalled The Literary Digest.

The Digest's famous polls on the presidency and on prohibition were of distinct value. The value was due to the tremendous scope of the polls and to the fact that they were taken at "psychological moments." Collier's poll is more properly a "stunt,' signifying--whatever editorial writers feel like signifying.

And the results of the poll (which will be carefully prolonged) offer fair copy for inside pages.

Incidentally, Henry Ford was leading at the end of the first week when 19,000 "ballots" were cast. The President was second. Follow: McAdoo, Johnson, Cox, Hughes, Smith, LaFollette, Hoover.

It has been suggested that at the end of about the fourth week, Judge Gary should come in a close second to Samuel Gompers' first. That would be a good story. It might get on the front page. A poll by the Delineator, Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, Pictorial Review, et cetera, would follow, giving the election, perhaps, to Mrs. George Follansbee Babbitt.