The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-04
GETTING OUT THE VOTE

The organizations which have under taken to get out the vote in the forth coming election deserve credit. It is a thankless, but very important, task. It is the first time that serious efforts have been made to induce every citizen polls and perform this duty. If any considerable number of citizens were deprived of the privilege of the fran chise, there would be great howl of protest And yet more than half the registered voters of the country were too apathetic, too lazy, too negligent, to, unpatriotic, too something or other, to perform this simple duty in the cleo ton of 1920.
 This work of getting out the vote is both partisan and neutral. For instance, the Republican women leaders are mak- ing a complete canvass of women voters to the end that they perform the duty of citizenship on election day. The Democratic Womens Clubs are perform ing similar service. All sorts of ex- cuses are given, but, boiled down, the situation in large measure is lack of in- terest. The Get -Out-The-Vote Club," with headquarters in Washington, plans a nationwide suffrage movement, with branches in every state, county and township, enlisting active workers re- gardless of f political affiliations. Six hundred and eight-six thousand Boy Scouts, aided by two million former Boy Scouts, have joined in the drive to cut down the percentage of vote-slackers. It is hoped that this combined work and influence will have substantial effect. The citizen who habitually neglects to vote is in sense just as much of a s,- TT as he who neglects to aid his country when attacks from an outside source are threatened. The fact is, it may we'll be perceived that the country cc1 be in more danger from failure by i it's citizens to perform their duty than from outside attack.
 In the election of 1920 the exhibition of indifference by the potential voters of the country was altogether discour- aging. Although the total vote cast in that election was the largest in the history of the country, a glance at the record is anything but reassuring. At that time there were 54,420,000 quail flied voters, and only 26,674,000 citi- zens voted in the presidential election, less than half, The majority disfran- chised themselves. In the South especially the percentage of voters in many of the leading states who failed to exercise the franchise was discouragingly large. In some of the Southern states the slack CTS were about six to one. In Missis- sippi, the ratio was greater than this. In the East and West disfranchisement is voluntary. Yet in Maine, for instance, where politics for the moment was at white heat, less than half the citizens of voting age participated in the 1920 cleo ton.
 It does seem that the vote in the No vember election should be notably large. There are three tickets in the field, and there is a possibility of the elections $ being thrown into congress because of failure of voters to exercise the fran chise. This is time when it should be hard for a non-voter to reconcile his failure to vote with his conscience, if he has any opinions on questions of pub lie policy or any interest in the welfare of the country. It is question of good citizenship. Men and women who have any convictions at all owe it to the coun- try to express them at the polls.
 THE DENAITY EOR MIIRnER