Evening star., 1943-10-17
THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. c, OCTOBER H. 1913
Martin Asks Revision
OF Green-Lucas Bill
On Soldier Voting

House Minority Leader Martin
yesterday insisted the Green-Lucas
bill, providing methods for service
mems voting in the presidential
campaign next year, must be revised
In the interest Of fair play and fair
election.
mo one is more anxious than
that the men In the armed forces
be given an opportunity to vote
In the 1914 elections" said Mr..
Martin.
THE bill introduced by Senator
Green of Rhode Island and Senator
Lucas of Illinois, both Democrats,
provides for appointment of COM
mission Of five members to have
charge Of handling the soldier and
sailor ballots.
Fears New Deal Majority.
"The language Of the bill Is that
at least two of the commissioners
shall be members Of the Democratic
Party, and at least two shall be
members Of the Republican Party.
This does not really set up a fair,
bipartisan election commission. It's
members are all to be appointed by
the President and confirmed by the
Senate. 1t may be expected that
under the terms Of the bill. three
Democrats will be appointed, or two
Democrats and an independent who
will favor the New Deal.
Furthermore, the selection of the
Republican members of the COM
mission should be made, not by a
Democratic President, but by the
chairman of the Republican Ma
tional Committee. The President
might name Republicans who are
not known in the Republican party,
or even men who are sympathetic
to the New Deal administration.
Some OF his appointments of Re-
publicans to other so-called BIZ
partisan commissions in the Gov
ernment do not give us much hopes.
1T would be better to have War
Ballot Commission composed by two
Democrats, recommended by the
chairman of the Democratic Ma
tional Committee, and two Repub-
licans recommended by the Repub-
lican national chairman, with the
chief justice as the fifth member
The appointments could be made
by the President on such recon-
mendation and confirmed by the
Senate"
Expects State Proposals.
Mr.. Martin said State secretaries
of state are to meet this week in St.
Louis, and he hoped that out of
that meeting would come recon-
mendations for a workable and fair
measure setting up the machinery
for giving the men in the armed
forces an opportunity to vote. SEN
ator Lucas will address the meeting
in st. Louis on the subject Of his
bill.
I'm setting up the election ma
chinery in my State and in my
town We do not have Republicans
name the Democrats who are to be
election officials where Republicans
are IN the majority. The Democrats
name their own election officials,
and we accept them" Mr.. Martin
said.
The bill, as it stands, authorizes
the proposed War Ballot Commits
sion to make use OF any Government
agency in carrying out the pro-
visions of the act. One Republican
comment was that under this Ian
guage, the commission might ap-
point the Owl and its agents to
handle the election as far as the
soldiers and sailors are concerned.
Further, the Republicans insist that
opportunity should be given the
COP to circulate information re-
garding the candidates and the
campaign-and not rely upon an
administration agency.
The Green-Lucas bill is to be
taken up by the Senate Privileges
and Elections Committee Tuesday.
Of1cials of the War and Navy De-
partments and the chairmen Of the
Democratic and Republican Ma
tional Committees have been asked
to appear before the committee.
Chairman Harrison E. Spangler of
the Republican committee is on
Western political tour and will not
be able to be present.