RAISING THE STANDARD OF SUFFRAGE

...These educated young men, moreover, have more idealism and less prejudice than the older voter who has fallen under the spell of the party fetich...

...We ought to deny the privilege of suffrage to the man who has neglected to acquire this minimum of political intelligence, until he has reached the age of thirty or thirty-five...

...The total cost to the state for the initiative and referendum in the past f',ur elections on sixty-four measures was $47,610.61...

...Hitherto it has been assumed that any male twenty-one years old is qualified to pick a good man to represent him...

...At such an age, the teaching of experience and the steadying influence of family may be presumed to have equipped him with some little fitness for citizenship...

...The champions of ideas cannot for a moment compete with the hirelings of special interests in giving the ignorant man the particular clap-trap he likes...

...In a progressive commonwealth the young voters, who bring a fresh judgment to public questions, are apt to reach a sounder verdict than the old, whose minds are still captive to the ideas of their prime...

...There is no reason why young men of twenty, or even nineteen should not be given the ballot in case they show themselves possessed of an unusual knowledge of civics...

...Lessons for the Voter I HOPE THE TIME WILL COME when, all over the state, high school teachers and instructors on the staff of the University Extension Department of the State University will be conducting evening courses in civics devised expressly to safeguard the voter against the delusions, fallacies, tricks, and catch-words by which his judgment is befuddled and his vote captured by cranks and faddists on the one hand or by demagogues and special interests on the other...

...No on therefore, ought to be given the ballot unless he can give proof of ability to read and write English...

...Twentieth Century Magazine...

...But if the voter is to be called on to weigh measures as well as to pick men a higher standard is needed...

...It would be well to promote to the suffrage any young man, not less than nineteen years of age, who can pass successfully an examination in government, parties, political methods and citizenship, approved by the superintendent of public instruction and the head of the department of political science in the state university...

...I have no idea that by setting up such a standard many would be delayed in the exercise of the suffrage...

...This would enfranchise most male graduates of high schools and normal schools a year or two in advance of other youth, and I have no doubt their ballots would be cast much more intelligently than those of the average voter...

...Raising the Standard of Suffrage Popular Instructions in Civics will Help Equip the Voter—Young or Old—for Wise Exercise of His Power to Decide Matters of Legislation By EDWARD ALSWORTH ROSS NOW THAT American commonwealths are finding it necessary, in order to counteract the growing pressure of special interests upon the legislature, to move the center of political power nearer the people by the adoption of the Initiative and Referendum, it behooves them to consider what can be done to fit the voters for a wise exercise of these new powers...

...The vote of a man so unequipped for citizenship will reflect what he hears and nothing he hears influences him so much as the clever appeals to race, class, partisan, or religious prejudice addressed to him by the pothouse politician...

...State Cost of Initiative and Keferendum THE TOTAL COST to the State of Oregon for postage, print- ing, binding and distribution of the pamphlet of thirty-two measures and arguments to every registered voter in the state in 1910 was less than twenty cents for each registered voter...

...When such facilities are brought within the reach of all, it will be possible to cease extending the privilege of participation in making laws for the commonwealth to every male who has taken the trouble to keep himself alive twenty-one years, and grant it only to those who can pass an examination corresponding to the above mentioned course...

...I have in mind serious and systematic instruction by qualified persons, that should extend to not less than fifty lessons...

...Whenever the public welfare is pitted against selfish special interests the whole body of illiterates will almost invariably vote on the wrong side, and offset the votes of an equal number of intelligent citizens...

...It goes without saying that a man who cannot read and write contributes nothing of value to the decision of a question submitted to the people...

...Not only would it be a matter of pride for the young man to become a voter when voting is a badge of intelligence, but political and party workers would show the same zeal in urging the young to qualify for the ballot that they now show in instructing the voter how to mark his ballot...

...What would happen would be that, as a matter of course, every young fellow would, before reaching the age of twenty-one, give some earnest and continuous attention to preparation for citizenship, and by reading, by evening courses, or by other means would qualify himself to pass the examination and vote at the earliest opportunity...

...He cannot even read the handbook, a commonwealth like Oregon sends out to every voter...