The Wilmington morning star., 1946-08-31
When Is Teen?

The pace of life is such that people now
adays apparently pass into the sere and vel
low leaf on their tWenty-first birthday. do
we have to dance with old women of ZIP"
So the 18-year-olds Of our new Army complain
to the USO directors. In response to what is
considered a well-founded grievance the USO
has reduced the minimum age for it's junior
hostesses from 10 to 16 years in certain places
and at the discretion Of the local officials.
Ar army of kid sisters will entertain a
fighting force of kid brothers."
Everybody speaks of the teen-agers, but the
word calls up no definite picture in any par
ticular case. BY the strict dictionary stipu-
lation it is anywhere from IS to 10 years OF
age, inclusive, but in common usage we rare
ly come down to the lower figure, whereas
at 10 years, in our modern thinking, we are
far out of the teen-ages. In the bobby-sock
armies lined up in alteration of their tavorite
band leaders the 14-year-olds loom up strong,
with sixteen years, one imagines, for the up
per limit. For that matter, We take it that
at II the great majority of girls feel grown
up. For the boys the upper boundary runs
another two years through the full count of
10. The sex difference has always been recog-
nized in the marriage laws, which as a rule
require three more years for the husband
than the wife. Thus it comes about that the
18-year-old soldiers are definitely a teen-age
Army, whereas the 16-year-old junior USO
hostesses with whom they will dance may al
ready feel old age creeping on.
In connection with our teen-age men in uni
form, the 18-year-old recruits, one is always
running into a piece Of bad logic to which it
is time to call attention People who want to
reduce the voting age from 81 to 10 years,
as the State Of Georgia has already done,
will be heard saying that if a man is old
enough to fight he is old enough to vote.
At first sight the argument seems hard to
answer, and tor the reason that We so often
give words 4 different meaning than they
actually express. The statement really means
that if a boy Of Is is good enough to fight
his country's battles there is no reward too
good to offer, and if he bankers after the
vote he should have the vote. For the 49,
year-old whom we ask to make the supreme
sacrifice if necessary all civic rights and
privileges must be open. 1t is the idea behind
the whole system of veteran priorities and
exemptions in private and public employment.
But literally construed, it does not at all
follow that because a boy of l8 is old enough
to be a soldier he is old enough to be a
voter. The basic qualifications for fighting and
tor voting, far from being the same, happen
to be radically opposed. A good voter is a
man who serves his country by exercising
MO WIN 1SSi N6i1bS dbo ~ wv
ballot box. A good soldier is a man who
merges his own individuality into the fighting
mass Of which he is a part, a man who
completely subordinates his own judgment to
orders from above. 1t has always been recog.
nized that the military life appeals to many
men because it relieves them of thinking and
for themselves; it relieves them of
all responsibility. Discipline is the very soul
of an army, as we were reminded some time
ago by no less an authority than Mr.. Stain
in his instructions to his Red Army. DISCIPLINE
in civic life on election day too often means
taking orders from the party boss.
We do our best in school and press to
encourage independent voting. But it would
be odd, as well as dangerous, if on the battle
some of the men decided to attack in
a westerly direction and some chose to at
tack in an e~asterly direction, while still others
decided that the issue at stake was not i'm
portant enough for them to fight at all until
some time next week.
If people would say that a girl who is old
enough to marry at 10, as she is in most
States, is old enough to vote, it would be
a logical statement. Individual choice oper-
ates freely in both cases and on the same
plane of normal lie. Family life and citizen
ship 60 hand-in-hand. But that other argu-
ment about a man being old enough to fight
and to vote is a fallacy. 1t is one of a large
Of weak differences which take the
form of asking why, if We can afford to
do something in. war, can't We afford to do
apparently similar in peace? 1t is
a subject perhaps worth further exploration.
New York Times.