The Department of Labor has made a wise move, if, as a recent Washington despatch announced, it has issued an order exempting from the provisions of the three per cent immigration law, students from foreign countries coming to the United States to study in American schools, colleges and universities. Under the present immigration law, the annual quota of each foreign country must not exceed 3 per cent of the total number of its nationals which the last census gives as residents of the United States. In the long run, the enforcement of this rule is bound to keep out of the United States some of the prospective students who, by all accounts, are coming to the United States in steadily increasing numbers to study in our educational institutions. Provided the Washington authorities are given satisfactory evidence in each instance that the applicant is a bona fide student, and that he (or she) does not intend to take up a permanent residence in the United States, the public interest will not suffer if the three per cent quota is exceeded by a few hundreds or thousands.

Assuredly it is our duty, as it is our privilege, to let all who wish light to seek it in our universities, schools and institutes of technology.

This is the sort of world leadership which the United States is willing and eager to perform. And the ruling of the Department of Labor clears the way for its performance. --Boston Evening Transcript.