Imperial Valley press., 1944-01-27
SOLDIER VOTE
(Santa Monica Outlook

With the lavishness in corn and the
naivete in matters political which one
has come to expect from Hollywood,
group of movie producers and film cell
ebrities has launched a newspaper adj
vertising campaign which charges that
congress is denying members of the arm
ed forces the right to vote.
According to these advertisements the
Marines who died on Tarawa thought
they were fighting for this sacred Amer
lean right among others, but how wrong
they were, since congress is against them.
Apparently those who signed this ad-
vertisement take their political informa-
tion from no other source than the Presi-
dents radio addresses and are unaware
that the right of service men to vote has
never been in question.
The real issue has been whether the
President, certain candidate for
fourth term, should be allowed to control
the manner in which service men shall
vote, by appointing a commission to draw
up the election rules and supervise the
actual voting.
Such a commission would certainly
make it appear that vote against the
President would be a vote against the
cemmander-in-chief. Republicans and
many Democrats in congress feared, with
reason, that members of the armed forces
would hear only one side if the Presi-
dents commission controlled their vOt-
ing.
On the other hand, if Servicemen can
be given a vote under conditions permit
ting a fair presentation of the issues,
and without being subjected to the mass
hypnosis Of the commander-in-chie idea,
+b,o pan,hlioanc hold thof bo .oc,1lt will
not be very different from the voting of
civilians. They have therefore defeated
the Presidents plan and referred the
question back to the several states.
This was admittedly not a question so
long as the AZ states have different vot-
ing laws and no machinery exists for de-
termining where the residents of each
state are serving in the armed forces.
But a solution is possible if the states
will pass legislation providing simple
method for their servicemen to vote, and
will follow the suggestions of the War
and Navy departments in the matter
permitting ballots to be mailed at an
early date for distribution by the serv-
ices.
= Will the states do this? They most
assuradly will, for the very good reason
that no state government wants to be
accused OIL denying 1lS ClllZellS III the
armed forces the right to vote. Already
a dozen state governors are urging spe-
cial legislation to this end and the move
ment promises to become universal.
If anything is certain, then, it is that
members of the armed forces will have
every chance to vote in the presidential
election, that the great majority will
avail themselves of it and that the me-
thod will be simpler than that used in
regular civilian elections and will per-
nit rapid tabulation of the returns
To pretend otherwise, as the President
and his movie supporters are doing, is
sheer buncombe.
1t is abundantly clear that system
of organized international cooperation
for the maintenance of peace must be
based upon the willingness of the CO.
operating nations to use force if necos-
sary.-Secretary of State COrdell Hull.
That one pint of blood YOU fail to give
today can well be the difference between
a boy coming home and a cross in an
American cemetery overseas. - Lieut..
COmdr. Arthur F. McQuaid, wounded
Navy chaplain back from Tulagi