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Show ONE VOTE IS IMPORTANT "Our forefathers fought for the right to vote but do we care, much far that right today?" wrote Hugh Forster, chairman, Civic Committee, Lancaster, Pa. "Apparently we don't!" Mr. Forster then cited some facts which should make America Amer-ica ashamed of itself. In a recent re-cent election, 90 per cent of Belgium's Bel-gium's eligible voters went to the polls. Almost as many eligible elig-ible Italian voters cast ballots in the election that rebuffed Communism, Com-munism, and 82 per cent voted in the last British election. Other Oth-er nations have comparable records. re-cords. But only 51 per cent of eligible Americans voted in the presidential election of 1948. .'-. It's an easy alibi to say that just one vote doesn't matter, so why take the trouble to visit the polls. The fact is that one vote can be overwhelmingly important. import-ant. Mr. Forster described cases where a very small number of votes made history. As an example, ex-ample, in 1884 James Blaine lost New York State by much less than one vote per precinct. Had he carried New York he would have defeated Cleveland and become be-come president. Such exceptional cases to one side, every American freedom rides solidly on the right of franchise. The secret ballot is the greatest defense against tyranny ever devised in the tangled history his-tory of mankind. No one who fails to vote can call himself a good citizen. He is, instead, a shirker of the worst possible kind.. |