Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1928-03-09

discriminatory voters to the ballot
box on election day. May it not be
that our uplift organizations, in
their rabble-rousing campaigns to.
"harry the slackers to the polls" are
merely playing into the hands of the
boss and doing some of his work for
him? That question is worth more
consideration than it has received.
It is the theory of popular govern
ment that every adult citizen shall
have the privilege of voting; but |
take issue with the doctrine that
either the theory or the practice of
popular government requires every
one to exercise this privilege when
ever his rulers offer him the oppor-
tunity to do so. The safeguard Of
democratic government lies in the
preservation of the opportunity, not
in the hundred per cent exercise of
it. The great body of the voters
form a reserve which can be mob
ilized to express the will of the peo-
pie when momentous issues of prin-
ciple or of policy are at stake. But
it does not follow that we need, or
ought to expect, a full mobilization
when the issues are of relatively
sight consequence.
As a matter of fact, the people as
a whole appreciate that differentia-
ton and act upon it. Everywhere
their ratio of attendance at the polls
is in direct proportion to the in
tensity of the feeling aroused, and
this, again, is proportional to the
gravity of the issues that are before
them for decision. The people, in
fact, are wiser than those who so
vociferously undertake to remind
them Of their duty.
In this field we can learn some
thing from the experience of Europe.
Why do a larger percentage of the
people come to the polls there than
here? 1t is not that Europeans are
inherently more interested in politics
than Americans, and much less is it
true that the propaganda for getting
out the vote is more active there
than here. 1t is largely because cleo
tions do not come so frequently, and
when they do come they turn on
fundamental issues of policy with a
sharp cleavage between the pro-
grams of the various political
parties.
Systems Of proportional repre-
sentation, which are now used in
many of the continental European
countries, have also had something
to do with it. Under such procedure
a minority has an opportunity to
make its will felt. In the United
States, under the straight plurality
system, the voter who belongs to a
hopeless minority is doing a per-
fectly futile thing when he goes to
the polling booth-and he knows it,
To get such voters interested you
must give them a fighting chance
In Europe it is the issue that pro-
duces the election; in America the
election comes on a fixed date and
issues must then be dug up for the
occasion. It is small wonder that
the voter does not let himself get
wildly excited about issues which
have been produced in that way.
The organizations which arc
spending so much effort and money
in trying to make the country vi
brate with this "get-out- the-vote'
propaganda, and in promoting q
movement for compulsory voting
would therefore do well to ask them
selves the question whether an en-
terprise which confines itself to a
mere trumpeting of platitudes about
the duty of the sovereign citizen and
the menace of electoral inertia is
likely to contribute anything, in the
long run, to more enlightened ex-
preston Of the public will. By all
the indications it will not. They are
applying the stimuli at the wrong
spot. What we most need is to make
registration less of an irksome task,
the ballot simpler with provision
for the representation Of minorities),
elections less frequent, the issues
clearer, party cleavages more dis
tinct and vital, the party programs
less evasive, and above all, to organ
ize our campaigns Of civic education
SO that they will be more compre-
hensive, more persistent, and more
effective in reaching those sections
of the electorate which have enough
intelligence to understand what it is
all about.
One way to bring out the vote is
TO bring out the issues. "a civic ed
ucational program for adults, as well
as for children" writes Prof. Harold
F.. Gosnell as the result Of his ex-
pertinent in discriminating, would
undoubtedly have an immediate and
continuous effect upon the interest
shown in elections" We should,
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