The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1959-10-30
FarmuilIe Mayor Pinpoints Women Voter
Responsibilities For Buckingham Club

Responsibilities Of Women vot-
ers" was the title Of talk given
by Farmville Mayor William F..
Watkins, Jr., at meeting Of the
Buckingham County Woman's Club
Friday afternoon at Dillwyn Ele-
mentary School,
With background information from
the Magma Carta up to the pres
ent. the mayor showed the i'm
pOrtance of the franchise to vote.
The following are excerpts from
his speech:
1t is sometimes difficult for us
to realize the importance of our
franchise as voters. We would for
get that for centuries. universal suf
frage was unheard of. No one in
early times and until around the
time Of the American Revolution
considered that people should elect
their representatives Even the
great Magma Carta did not in
corporate any rights of suffrage,
but only restricted the heritary
rights Of the king against the no.
bility.
Even in the formation Of our
country the right of universal suf-
frage was only proposed by the
ultra liberals of their time and
even they did not favor universal
suffrage. The rights to determine
voting qualifications was left to the
States as was proper, and most
states had many restrictions as to
voting such as property, etc.
The first break in restricted vot-
ing rights by the Federal Govern
ment was found in the 18th amend
ment. which provided that no per
son should be denied the right to
vote because Of race. color or pre-
vious condition of servitude This
action on the part of the federal
government was adopted more to
punish the South and to secure Re
publican power than to allow all
persons to vote We see that only
in around 1912 was the voting fran
chise given to the fair sex.
Even today. universal suffrage
and true democracy, although it is
spreading, is restricted to the free
world.
with the above history, we find
one Of the most important reasons
that we vote, namely that we have
right which has been won by
great sacrifice and only for limit
ed group of people.
Many Of you I am sure have
said to yourself or have heard
others say to you. Why should I
vote? The politicians will put who
they want in office anyway and my
vote won't make any difference
Last year as l was campaign
ing for mayor l heard many times.
you don't need my vote, you are
going to win anyway. Some of those
voters, who l convinced to come
out and vote on election day, were
the ones who gave me my small
majority over my opponent
IF each and everyone of us took
the attitude that our vote was not
important and that the candidate
would be elected anyway, or would
be elected in spite Of our vote, the
vote in this United Safes would be
restricted only to those of staunch
political links and those who could
be controlled by politicians. This
would be sad state of affairs.
I'VE find throughout the country
today that many political organiza-
tons and machines have been es-
tablished by lethargy on the part
of its citizens and the failure of
thoughtful and considerate citizens
to cast their vote for the person
whom they believe best qualified
to serve the public.
There is yet another reason why
we. as responsible citizens, should
exercise our franchise This reason
is especially prevalent in the South