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Show WHY THEY DON'T VOTE Quite frequently someone calls attention to the danger of representative re-presentative government caused by the fact that every year an in--creasing number of Americans are staying away from the polls. President Coolidge himslef pointed out his peril in his recent address to the Daughters of the American Revolution. It is often remarked, too that the citizen who doesn't vote in nine cases out of ten is a conservatively inclined citizen, whether he be Republican or Democrat. Dem-ocrat. It might be suggested, therefore that there is another reason for this lack of interest in voting than mere laziness on the part of the average citizen. In each succeeding election nowadays the percentage percent-age of those voting to the whole number eligable seems to grow less One reason for this which is not often dwelt upon is that, when it comes to voting, the average citizen is getting too much of a good thing, and nothing palls on most Americans more than this. In the "good old days" we went to the polls once every two years to vote, and that was about all there was to it. But now we have two or three elections nearly every year, and worst of all a "dog and cat" squabble preceding each one. Instead of the biennial election to express the will of Jthe people, this present year starts ofl with senatorial and state primaries, local primaries and all sorts of primaries lasting from early spring until the first of October. And in a good many communities on bond issues and various other referendum re-ferendum ideas. No wonder then that by the time the regular election el-ection rolls around a lot of people will be too weary with it all to go and vote. For there is nothing quite so disgusting as a primary which tends to be disgusting. Then next year there will be city and stste elections in some of the states, to say nothing of more referendums, and these will last untill it is time for the presidential primaries to open up again. This is all quite different form the old days when the people voted in November on the candidates selected in convention and left the selection of the United States senators to the state legislatures. legisla-tures. Of course, once in a while there was some anguish over the result of the state convention, but no convention unrest ever lasted as long as the mildest primary does nowadays. For a long time the cry has been "let the people rule," taking trie authority away from the delegated meetings and giving it to voters direct. But the way they are failing to come out to vote might indicate that the people are getting tired of ruling. Perhapf the best way to whet their appetites would be, not to pass a law compelling com-pelling them to vote, but to abolish a lot of useless primary campaigns, cam-paigns, so making the general election a pleasing novelty again. |