The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1943-03-26
CRIME, POVERTY,
ILLITERACY and
The POLL TAX

birds of a feather flock together"
And Crime Death, Poverty, Ignorance
and Illiteracy are found together with
that other evil, the Poll Tax, from
which they spring.
Where is illiteracy greatest? In
South Caroline, where fewer people,
proportionally, voted in the last Presi-
Dental election than anywhere else in
the country This is the state where
"a per cent of the people did not yotei
Trimming Education
In what state is the average teach
er's salary lowest? Mississippi. Mis-
sissippi, where it costs you So to vote
and 81 if you forgot to pay last year.
In that poll-tax state, teachers receive
only $479 a year, compared to a ma
tional average of $1,974. So they
trim by cutting the school year, and
the average Mississippi kid gets 100
days of schooling year, while kids
in the rest of the country get $50.
What states lead the nation in
homicides? Texas, Georgia, and Ala
bama-all poll-tax states. Texas, with
675 homicides, had more than twice as
many as California, with the same
population but without a poll tax. In
the rate of homicides, however, Mis-
sissippi led the nation with 10 per
100000, more than three times the
national average. OF the seven poll
tax states, six have a homicide rate
greater than twice the national av-
erage.
Feudal Mississippi
Similarly, for lynching: Mississippi,
Georgia, and Texas, in order, lead the
country while the gloomy total piled
up over 60 sordid years in these poll
tax states-with only quarter of the
nations populations twice that of
the rest of the country. Three more
lynchings recently in Mississippi keep
that state in the forefront of brutality
and feudalism, because the majority
of the people have no say in their
government. The outstanding throt-
Ting of democracy in the entire coun-
try exists in the counties of Quitman
and Washington in Mississippi where,
in the 1888 election, out of $4,000 per-
sons only 1853 cast a vote, barely 1
out of 500
In what states is infant mortality
the highest? In the poll-tax states,
where the deaths of children under
one year is 20 per cent higher than
in the rest of the country. Worst of
all is South Carolina, with rate of
so per 1000, against the national av-
erage of 46. South Carolina is the
state where fewer people voted in
1886 than voted 60 years before,
hough in that 60 years the popula-
ion had more than doubled, women
lad been enfranchised, and the state
lad acquired an additional seat in
congress.
Where was the 1889 per capita in
.ome lowest? In Mississippi, where
he poll tax is the highest. Annual
income, 1903. Poll tax, so.
Where were relief payments low
'st? In Mississippi, where persons
N relief were expected to subsist for
he month of June, 1871, on $3.77.
he average relief payment for the
United States was $22.03.
Birds of a feather flock together"
md where we find the poll-tax we
md the greatest illiteracy and the
'west educational standards, the most
omicides and lynchings, the highest
lfant mortality Where we find the
oil tax, we find the lowest relief pay
tents and per capita income. Pow
rty prevents payment of the poll tax
nd keeps politics in the hands of The
oh. The great mass of people, de-
rived of the vote, have no way to
improve their conditions, and the
'ime, poverty, ignorance and disease
lat disgrace the poll-tax states will
ldure while the poll tax remains.
ictory over fascism requires that all
lie people be well fed, well clothed,
nd well housed; that provision be
ade for adequate health and medical
cilities. The tragic conditions in
10 south are a drag on the entire ma
on. Once the poll tax is abolished,
e people in these states will have
| opportunity to eradicate these evils
hich they have suffered too long.
n A INT