Evening star., 1951-12-16
Neglect Of Voting Leads
To Minority Rule
Writer BIumes Republicans for
Lack of CIeur-Cut Issues
By Fronk R. Kent

AS the 1852 elections (now hardly
more than 10 months Off approach, the
more thoughtful professors Of practical
politics are pondering again the facts
and figures concerning the qualified
voters who do not vote-and what to do
about it. These were somewhat STAR
tlingly revealed in 1948 but perhaps have
not received the attention they deserve.
In that year considerably less than a
majority of the qualified voters partici-
pated in the election. The total vote
for the Messrs. Truman, Dewey, Wallace
and Thurmond was AZ million. This
was million less than the combined
Roosevelt-Willkiev vote in 1910. Although
the population of the country increased
more than IA per cent between 1910 and
1850, the total number Of those who
cast their ballots in 1948 was per cent
less than 8 years ago. It is generally
accepted that the number Of potential
voters keeps pace with the population
increase. That means there were in
1943 approximately million more such
voters than in 1910. Yet, 2 million less
votes were cast In other words, the
non-voters jumped something like 10
million in eight years.
Usually, the absurdly small vote in
1948 has been ascribed to the "over-
confidence" of Mr.. Dewey and the poor
fight" he made, despite the fact that
in nearly every State he ran ahead Of
his ticket and Mr.. Truman ran behind
his. In an Illuminating article on this
subject in the weekly news letter, "Hu-
man Events" Frank Chodorov points
out that there is a great deal more to
this absentee voting problem than that.
The fact Is, he says, that ever since
woman suffrage the number of Ameri-
cans who do not exercise the preroga-
tive of citizenship has been in excess of
those who do. However, the conclusion
that women value the ballot less than
men is not sound Actually, long before
they got the vote the number of stay
at-home masculine voters was very
large. Woman suffrage merely in
creased their number and made the
figures more glaring. OF course, when
the point is reached, as it was in 1914
and 1948, where only minority of the
potential voters take part in the elec-
ton, our talk about majority rule under
our political system becomes joke.
1t is the minority which rules; the ma
jority keeps away from the polls.
The marked acceleration Of this trend
in the past IL years, it is argued, is
because there Just has been no clear
cut issue between the parties. "In the
last four elections" says Mr. Chodorov,
"all the candidates and all the parties
have unanimously advocated a policy
of statism, more Government interven-
tion IN social affairs greater contraction
Of personal liberty. Nothing else was
offered"
If similar lack Of choice as to basic
principles is presented in the next cam
paign and there is no mass reaction
against corruption, there is no reason
to believe that the absentee trend will
not continue-even increase-and again
less than majority of the potential
voters take part In the election Of a
President. Strip the breast-beating
platitudes from the last four Republican
platforms and what, in effect, the
Republicans have said was that they
would not change the direction in which
we are headed but would manage things
better. To this proposal, the Chodorov
theory is that a majority of the intel
hgent voters, in effect. said nuts" and
refrained from voting.
The trouble seems to be that the
Democrats having apparently found q
demagogic formula for victory, the Re-
publicans, afraid to challenge their
socialistic program directly, have tried
TO ride in on 1t, too Four times they
have failed and every time the absentee
voters have increased. 1t does not
seem that with this record clearly be-
fore them they must in 1852 offer the
country choice by presenting a candi.
date and platform so strongly anti
New Deal and Fair Deal that no one
can mistake it.