Springville Herald | 1942-10-29 | Page 9 | Lowered Voting Age Asked by Wickersham

LOWERED VOTING AGE ASKED BY WICKERSHAM Representative Victor Wicker-sham, Wicker-sham, of Oklahoma, proposes a constitutional amendment lowering the voting age for national elections elec-tions to eighteen. He believes that if "a man of eighteen is old enough to fight, he is old enough to vote." The background of the proposal is that a man, expected to defend his country, should have an opportunity oppor-tunity to assist in determining national na-tional policies. The right-to-fight is tied- to the right-to-vote upon the supposition that the individual should have some voice in determining deter-mining the issues out of which war might arise. In this country, a man obtains the right to vote at the age of twenty-one. When he begins to vote, he has had no voice in the shaping of national policies although al-though his fate is inextricably bound up in the fortunes and policies poli-cies of his country. The same observation ob-servation applies to any age that Is elected to mark the beignning of the right of suffrage. The truth of the matter is that every generation, as it comes of ! age, inherits the social order of the day, with its assets and liabilities. There is no way to accept the benefits without the obligations. ' Young men, who reach fighting , age, enjoy the civilization that has been produced by those who pre- ceded them. It is inevitable that ! liabilities accompany the inheritance.