The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-08-29
HlGE. CROP
REA|]YFOR
PICKING
Twenty Million Qualified vot-
srs Of Country Never Have
Cast Ballot

Oe1Sb 21ltVS
Republican prognosticators al
ready are putting out sets OF
figures purporting to show that
John w. Davis is due to run third
in the coming election. Demo-
cratic statisticians are retaliating
by offering equally authoritative
fluctuations to prove that Calvin
Coolidge is due to trail the pro-
cession. It requires no skilled
arithmetician to see that if both
these sets of political dopesters are
right the sure winner of the cleo
tion-and perhaps of the Presi-
dency-inexorably must be Rob-
ert M. La Toilette.
One Figure Certain
But picking Presidential plums be-
fore they are mellowed by the fall
frosts has only this advantage ever
picking other unripe fruits, thar one
Is under no temptation to eat them.
Any resultant Indigestion is mental
rather than physical. And political
figures, whether dealing with
human or arithmetical equations
are likely to prove illusory, as they
are elusive. But keep your eye on
this one:
27,690,649
That bids fair to be the most i'm.
portant combination of numerals
in the coming campaign, AMI the
most proficient jugglers Of political
statistics are beginning to wake up
to the fact as the returns OF I'M
precedented votes cast in the trly
primaries come in. 1t is, paradox.
cally enough. the utter uncertainty
relating to this statistically certain
figure that is most disturbing the
hardest of old campaign tabulators
and shortly will have them tab
bling as babes to their first bauhles.
Host of NOn-VOters.
There were 27,690,64s American
citizens twenty-one years Of age
and over who neglected to vote in
4 the 1920 election, as against only
2e,TSl, 1873 who cast, or attempted
to cast their ballots for ons or
another of the seven candidates for
the Presidency. The non-voters out !
numbered the voters by nearly 81
million. Deducting from the total
the three million odd practically
franchised negroes in the South and
about the same number elsewhere
DISTINGUISHED for illiteracy and
other causes, therv remain a round
Of twenty millions OF qualified
voters who failed to record a chOice
for the Presidency in 1920: quite
enough, it would appear, to upset
any normal calculations if they, or
any considerable number of them
can be drawn to the polls this year.
The early primaries show that
some, at least have been stirred to
action. But to what purpose?
Progressive leaders long have had
this reservoir Of votes in mind. and
today are asserting that from 1t
upset every calculation their op.
ponents have made. The reason
the great bulk of this twenty mil
sives assert, was because neither
of the old parties offered them
anything worth the effort. This
worthwhile something, Progressivcs
believe. is in their platform. and
they are backing their belief by
their invasion of the solid South, |
where the proportion of non.voters
to the total Of those voting hereto.
fore has been highest, in some
parts as high as ten to one.
Scott But Get Busy,
To these Progressive hopes and
claims, Republican and Democratic
chieftains reply that the silent
twenty millions have, in truth, been
silent because they were quite salts
fled that, under either old party,
they had and would continue to
have sane and stable constitu-
tional government assuring them
fair measure of justice and pros
perity. Old party leaders laugh at
the new party claims and declare
that for every vote the La Toilette
Wheeler combination can obtain |
from this great untapped preserve.
two Starwarts of each of the old |
faiths can be called to the colors, |
and the ultimate result will be
worse defeat for the combination
than II 1t had stuck to better tested |
stamping grounds
Perhaps 1t should noted that both
old parties, instead of indulging in |
the usual summer campaign pyro- |
technics, are busy perfecting their |
machines to insure the appearance |
at the polls, on the first Tuesday |
in November, of every obtainable |
reserve. From all Of which may
be deduced the only entirely reason
able certainty of the imminent
political crop; that it will, in the
number of votes plucked by varied |
and skillful FUCKERS, largely exceed
any political crop heretofore har.
vested in these United States.