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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. WATCHING POLITICAL CROOKS IS BIG JOB THE WAYS AND METHODS of political po-litical crooks and tricksters are many and varied. They have, at times, in the past and may again, in the future, fu-ture, nullify the verdict of the legally! constituted electorate of the na-. tion. These tricksters ply their trade in the metropolitan and industrial centers. They are unknown in rural communities, but the illegal votes they produce in the cities offsets the honest vote of the people of the towns and farms. The extent to which the political crooks operate was demonstrated in Chicago in the national election of 1940. During that campaign a group of young business men, organized and led by Henry Pope Jr., and legally le-gally Known as the Pope committee, volunteered to check, before the. election, the voting lists in what are known in Chicago as the river wards. Largely they constitute the slum sections, a place of shacks and cheap lodging houses. They repre-.' sent approximately 50 per cent of, the normal city vote. It was a non-partisan effort. Those, young men were not interested in; now any one registered intended to, vote, only that they be legally quali-i Bed to vote. They investigated the; name and assigned residence of ev-". ery one on the voting lists. Many; names were phony. Many places given as residences were vacant-lots, vacant-lots, warehouses or (factory buildings. build-ings. When they found a voter at the; address he had given they determined deter-mined how long he had lived there,' how long in the precinct, in the' county, in the state. ' It was a terrifically big job. For some of the investigators it produced some unpleasant experiences, but they persevered. perse-vered. In those river wards they took off of the voting lists before the November election,' the names of well over 100,000 who were not qualified to vote and were Illegally registered. If we are to have an honest expression ex-pression of the will of a majority of those qualified to vote in this November election an effort, such as that of the Pope committee, is needed in every metropolitan and industrial center. The registration lists in such places will carry the names of many thousands of the unqualified. un-qualified. Some of these names will be on-the lists because of ignorance igno-rance on the part of the registrant, some because of the chicanery on the part of political crooks. Since the election of 1940 there has been a great migration of workers throughout the nation. Hundreds of thousands, millions of them have i in..iu;A. rM-rnrMincr inhs In IllUVeU LU lUtauuta " '""'B J war plants. The majority of these people, men and women, have resided re-sided in one state, one county, one precinct long enough to qualify them as legal voters. Many thousands of them have not, and are not qualified voters. It is those who are unqualified, un-qualified, the drifters, the political crooks will attempt to place on the lists of registered voters. They are sufficient in numbers to swing a result re-sult in many a closely contested state, and possibly the national election. elec-tion. To live, to function efficiently, the representatives composing a government govern-ment "of; for and by the people," must be honestly chosen. May we have Pope committees in every metropolitan and industrial center. ... EXAMPLE OF FREE ENTERPRISE IN ACTION DURING WORLD WAR I, 1917-18. the government took over ana operated op-erated the railroads. When it was all over congress appropriated a total to-tal of $1,700,000,000 to cover the loss of government operation. During World War II railroad management has operated the roads and there has been no loss for he government to pay. D" the Irsttwo years of this war the road, moved a third more freight and nearly three times the number of than were handled during fhe ?wo years of World War I. Because Be-cause of demands of the selective rvfee law the roads have operated with less than 85 per cent of he number of employees us by the of-losstothementrfnea lxr tWO DUllOn uuuo. two years paid to the government nearly two billion in taxes. " Despite such facts there is a group eminent to take o us s make up toe loss would come from. tm HALF A 'cENTURY America hafdouS. or E f0"fd?hre mmanpUowegrhas. same period the The trac.. been matL hrse-drawn plow of who may db January. White House after next supplies. |