Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-11-27
HeavySupportFoun
For Bill 10 Reduce
Voting Age 10 IS
Congress Is Expected
To Give Proposal
Serious Study
By JAY HAYDEN.

Such a volume of support is rolling
up for the pending proposal to re-
duce the legal voting age to 10 years
that it seems certain to be given
serious consideration by Congress.
Introduced by Senator Vanden-
berg, Republican, of Michigan. CO.
incident with the Administrations
request that the military draft age
be reduced to 10. this proposal was
inspired by the idea that men re-
quired to fight for their country
should be entitled to a voting voice
in its affairs. The flood of letters in
support of the plan coming to mem
bers of Congress, however. discloses
that many people believe it would
prove beneficial, entirely aside from
the draft-age factor.
For example, James X. Pollock,
professor Of political science at the
University of Michigan and a lead
ing American authority on electoral
problems, contends that members of
the 1921 age group ARE better pre-
pared to express intelligent opinions
at the polls than many of their less
fortunate elders who never had the
advantage of instruction in citizen
ship. Addition of several
million young voters to the register
would Individually raise the intelli-
gence level of our electorate"
Writes Views to Hatch.
Prof. Pollock wrote to Chairman
Hatch Of a Senate Judiciary Sub
committee named to hold hearings
on the Vandenberg amendment,
pointing out the great improvement
In instruction of students in mat
tiers Of citizenship in both colleges
and secondary schools in recent
years Prof. Pollock continued:
Furthermore. I should like to
point out that because of the gap
between the normal school-leaving
age OF Is and the present legal age
for voting at 81. much of the value
of secondary school instruction in
citizenship is lost. Interest in vot-
ing, which is carefully stimulated
In high school. lags and even dis
appears because it is not immedi-
ately related to some civic duty or
responsibility For three wears ear
nest young Americans are required
to wait before they are allowed to
do what any naturalized citizen, for
instance, may do without edu-
cation"
Pointing out that the decline in
voting interest Of young people after
they leave school lis borne out by
studies which show that the poorest
voting record OF any are group in
the populat ton Is held by the group
aged 81 to 30" Prof. Pollock says:
Il find that when young people
reach 81. a systematic effort has to
be made all over again to make them
realize-what they have perforce
neglected in the three-year waiting
period after their original interest
and instruc tion-namely. the obliga-
tons of citizenship. How much bet
ter it would be to graduate our stu
dents directly from citizenship study
into civic responsibility.
Gain of $4,000 Voters.
Prof, Pollock calculates that the
Vandenberg amendment would add
approximately 100000 voters to
present electorate of 80,500 00O-by
1t may well. he says, "ac ivate and
freshen electoral activity, but it will
not, for instance, cause the funda-
mental change brought about by the
nineteenth twomens SUFFRAGE
amendment. Young people need en-
couragement, recognition and re-
sponsibilitv. After all, it is largely
their world that lies ahead"
Search for the genesis of the 81
vear-old voting limitation discloses
some interest facts There was no
mention of voting age in the origi-
nal United States Constitution.
There Is no mention of it in the
Constitution now except a provision
Of the fourteenth Negro enfran-
chisement amendment of 1863
which says that If the right to vote
is denied by State to male inhabi-
tants being 81 years of age and citi-
tents Of the United States" con-
gressonal representation shall be re-
duced proportionately.
Voting age is fixed by the States
and any one of them now can re-
duce it to ls years II they choose.
It is equally clear, in view of four
tenth, fifteenth and nineteenth
amendments, prescribing voting
qualifications, that the Federal
constitution can be amended to fix
a minimum voting age in election of
Congress members and other Fed
eral officers.
Others Let Youths Vote.
Over the world, the 2l-year vot-
Ing minimum by no means is uni
versal. According to the Encyclo-
pedia Britannica. Russia. Turkey,
Argentina and Mexico permit vot-
ing at 10. the latter of these. how
ever, specifying that no unmarried
man can vote until he is 81.
Switzerland, the one free de-
mocracy remaining in Europe, per-
mits voting at the age of 20, and