Photo by Akisada Barbara Henderson Miss Scribulus Fall 1947 Barbara Henderson, our fall Scribulus girl, is a freshman with an effervescent personality and a fresh and sparkling sort of beauty. Her honey-blond hair forms a perfect background for fair skin and eyes which change in color from blue to green to gray, as anyone who has seen her will testify. As for her figure, she is five feet six inches tall and weighs 117 pounds, which makes her just about right. Barbara was born in California but has lived in Utah for fourteen of her eighteen years, so considers herself "practically a native." She graduated from Ogden High School last spring and is following a general course here at Weber College. She likes to dance and enjoys sports of all kinds. For the benefit of our male readers, we add that one of Barbara's main requirements is that he be halfway between bashful and bold. Being tall is an asset too. Page Two Wanted: More American Voters by Rolly Robison It is early winter, 1947. Already the nation's political machines are oiled and waiting for next fall's presidential election. Greater in consequence probably than any in our history, the election of 1948 may have as its sequel the answer to the world's number one question: War or peace? While the party juggernauts steam ominously in the chill air, this country carries on a lonely campaign to defeat starvation, pestilence and disease, which rank as the very virus of war. Meanwhile, Russia is breastfeeding her special "ism" in all lands. Upon the wisdom of the American voters rests the outcome of the mission, for they will select the men leading us toward lasting postwar peace or into a prewar lull before the deadliest of all combats. Will the American voter support the United States peace plans by turning out at the polls and electing qualified, capable officials in 1948? Who knows? The American voter is probably the most unpredictable being on earth. Many attempts have been made to chart tho voting habits and peculiarities of Americans. Political scholars and amateur writers, politicians and prominent authors, all have tried with varying degrees of success to analyze the voter of the United States. Does he vote? Why does he vote? What motivates his selection of a candidate? Questions surrounding the American voter are as problematical as any on the face of the earth. Yes, in the main, regardless of his peculiarities, he still manages to cast a ballot for his choice on election day. This cannot be said, however, for approximately 40,000,000 eligible voters in the United States. Forty million people who should be at the polls on election day fail to make their appearance. And the serious fact is that to make the best possible selection of candidates these 40,000,000 Americans should vote, because an analysis of past voting records shows that as a rule the larger the voting percentage the better the government. Let us look at the record. There are 131,669,275 people living in the United States, according to the 1940 census. Of these, 48,025,-684 voted in the 1944 election, meaning that 36.5 percent of the population indirectly control and run the government of the country for the remaining 63.5%. Of course, approximately 42,000,000 American citizens are under 21 years of age and are ineligible to vote, and another 2,000,000 would-be voters are aliens or disfranchised prisoners of national and state penal and mental institutions. Nevertheless, this leaves still some 40,000,000 Americans who fail to take advantage of their voting privilege! These millions could easily hold the balance of power in any election if they so desired as 40,000,000 votes far exceed the record total of popular votes given Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. Roosevelt received 27,476,673 votes in the Democratic landslide of 1936. Various reasons explain why these people do not vote. Some may be excused because of illness. Others do not vote because their occupations make voting difficult, as in the case of transportation workers, ineligible because they recently moved into new voting districts. The main reason for disregard of the franchise, however, according to the American Journal of Sociology is an indifferent attitude on the part of many eligible voters. Some 40,000,000 citizens do not vote in the United States because they do not care who is elected. Frequently it has been stated that the greater the number of voters, the more capable and efficient the government. This is indicated in the United States by the fact that the top 15 states according to per capita voting are also generally considered to be the most progressive and advanced states in the union. Illinois heads the list of states in number of voters per capita in the 1944 elections. In that state 51.1% of the population turned out at the polls. California ranked second with 50.9%. The state of Utah was twelfth in per capita voters, 45.1% having voted in 1944. The 15 high-voting states are in order Illinois, California, Washington, Nevada, Indiana, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Ohio, Utah, Colorado and Oregon. In all of these states 44% or more of the population cast ballots. This is a commendable record in comparison with many southern states such as South Carolina, where only 5% of the population visited the polls. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, and Louisiana all have less than 15% of their citizens casting ballots. Much is still to be desired, however, even in those states where 44% or more of the people vote since there are still between 20 and 25% of the eligible voters not exercising their privilege at election time. As for the low voting percentage in the southern states, much of it may be attributed to the fact that all are predominantely Democratic in political affiliation, and a large vote seldom occurs in a presidential election because all electoral votes are almost automatically placed in the Democratic column. Another factor is the Negro population in these states. By intimidation, activity of the Klu Klux Klan, the poll tax, and various other methods, the Negro, who comprises as much as 43% of the population in South Carolina and 35% in Georgia, has been kept away from the polls. These conditions keep the voting percentage down considerably. Several noteworthy factors should be taken into consideration concerning southern politics. Mississippi, ranking forty-seventh in the nation with only 8% of her population voting, has repeatedly elected men like the late Theodore Bilbo (voted the worst man in the Senate in 1946 by a poll of Washington journalists and correspondents) to high political office. Bilbo himself was elected several times to the Mississippi state legislature, and served both as governor and senator of his state although he had been an outstanding advocate of Negro persecution, even suggesting that all Negroes be sent back to Africa. He also was convicted of fraud, misappropriation and embezzlement of government funds, and Negro intimidation. His career is an outstanding example of what can happen when only a slight minority of the citizens do the voting. Louisiana, with only 15%- of her total population bothering to vote, elected Huey Long and his notoriously corrupt political machine to office year after year. Probably only the assassination of Long has kept him from still being elected in Louisiana, although his tenure of office was full of more political graft than one can imagine. The people of Georgia, only 11% of whom cast ballots, have allowed men like Negro-baiting Klansman Gene Talmage to be elected continuously by a unique, but nevertheless crooked and unfair, gerrymandering system. (Continued on page 24) Page Three