The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-02-08
TIE PRIVATE PAPERS OF A
CHE REPORTER

The Congressman who have
eanged up to frisk the service men
Of their votes seem to have OUT
smarted themselves Their tao
tics have aroused such wave Of
public disgust that whole droves Of
Americans will vote for Mr.. Roose-
welt (if he rnnS) as q mark OF re-
spect to the soldiers who have been
short-changed The idea behind
the opposition to the soldier vote
is the fear that all the soldiers,
sailors, marines, WACS, WAVES, etc.
viii vote for their Commander-in-
Chief. But they don't say that :.
These adversarieS of the service
mems franchise make q lot Of noise
about the idea being unconstitu-
tional, in violation of States Rights
and probably bad etiquette
The crack that all Of them will vote
for FDR (if he runs) suggests that
the men in service have no minds Of
their own; that they vote in meek
blocs at the crack Of lobbyists
whip-like congressman.
And by their own word and deed
the congressional opponents of votes
for soldiers have forfeited all right
even to mention the Constitution in
their silly arguments. They tore
the Constitution to rags in House
of Representatives Friday One
of the mouthier foes of soldiers
rights got up in Congress and ac-
tually argued against the ballot on
the grounds that 1t threatened
white supremacy" Where is
your Constitution now? The 18th
Amendment to Constitution guar
antees equal rights to white and
colored peoples. 1t reaffirmS the
item in the Declaration OF Independ-
ence that all men are created
free and equal Did any of the
Constitution lovers jump to their
feet to protect that sacred docu-
ment when the speaker threw it to
the floor and stepped on it? If SO,
none of the datlieS reported it =.
So let's have no more gabble- gobble
about the Constitution. Let's call the
whole matter by the honest name
OF politics.
But by far the sorriest sight that
congress offered last week (and may
be in all its history was the sight
OF the opponents of soldiers votes
trying to stay under cover. They
fought like devils against a measure
to stand up and be counted E.
That looked too fishy even for
their followers. The average guy
thinks 1t straight line. He figures
that If his neighbor is on the level
he doesn't care who knows it. If
the neighbor does something swell
it's only human for him to strut
around, give the folks a big "hello"
and kind Of query with his face,
How,m I doing?" But II he
crosses the street when you walk
toward him and skulkS in and out
of his house via the alley. you're
going to lock your hen coop, aren't
your It's a pretty good rule
that If guys doing something big
he won't hide it. Think that over
and ask yourself: Why are these on
gressmen so ALFRED scared Of COM
ing out in the open with their
Constit loving? Is the Constitu-
ton such q bad girl?
The press looked sweet during the
come-all-ye in Congress. Reporters
from various papers (some of them
as far apart as the two poles poll
tically) got together and agreed:
This is too raw for our stomachs.
Let's make q list of the hiders."
And they did q. The list Is avail
able, and we suggest that you get
yourself copy. 1t will give you
many q laugh and many sick SEN
sation in the middle to see what a
scare o Congressman can suffer at
the thought OF losing his mandate
from the people . . 1t must be ad-
United that there are mighty few
surprises in the list of fugitives from