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Show HIGH SCHOOL AGE VOTERS "First in peaches, first in water-melons, first to give the vote to 18-year-olds". Georgia can add this boast to the inscription on its great seal if it wishes. The Cracker state is the first in the American Ameri-can union to lower the voting age which has never before been altered anywhere in the United States since the days of the colonies. There is nothing sacred about 21 as the age of majority. It is fixed by common law for male maturity, but some states fix 18 as the age for women. Some states even say a minor has reached an age of sufficient discretion to select his own guardian at 14. And Mrs. Roosevelt says, "If they're old enough to fight, they're old enough to vote." Many thinking people, recognizing the difference between the functions of a voter and a soldier, will question this. Yet the constitution of the United States permits the states to determine their own qualifications for voters. Georgia, indeed, in-deed, may have started something. Great Britain's voting age is 21, but in the last war parliament gave the vote to members of the armed services at 19. In Japan none may vote under 25, but in Russia all vote at 18. Georgia 18-year-olds next year will have the opportunities opportuni-ties to distinguish themselves: It is possible for them to be the first of their age to help elect an American president for a fourth term in office or they could become pioneers in breaking away from the tradition that they must vote "the way granpappy did." Christian Science Monitor. |