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sibility as well as lowering the voting age,
they turned it clown, nine to seven they
voted against lowering the age of adult
responsibility. This I do not understand.
If we are £'oin«>- to say the youth of
today are mature enough to vote, to receive
the most sacred privilege we can give them,
then they are mature enough to accept all
responsibilities.
Another argument that was presented in
the Committee Memorandum was that we
must permit youth to participate in gov-
ernment earlier.
I would like to speak to this because, as
you have heard, the majority of the testi-
mony came from students in universities
and colleges, and from educators. The testi-
mony was that if they were given the right
to vote earlier, they would participate in
government and therefore be more inter-
ested.
The natural question that I asked was:
do you have student government today at
your schools, and of course, the reply was
yes.
What is the student turn-out in your
student government '- Less than 15 percent.
This is the training for participation in
the community. This training-ground argu-
ment is not new with our Committee Re-
port. This training-ground has been alluded
to just recently by Dr. Lincoln Gordon
when he stated that the universities must
learn to participate in the community and
the government.
The ballot box is not a training-ground
for participation in government.
The ballot box is vital for each of us,
but we are not going to train them by
permitting them to vote. We are i>oint>- to
train them first by letting them learn that
they must participate and by showing them
the responsibility that they wish to have,
but it is only one area.
It was very interesting to us when we
asked these students about the poll that
they had taken —
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Cardin, you
have a little less than one minute.
DELEGATE CARDIN: Thank you.
It concerned how many of them felt that
it was vital to them to vote, and if they
began voting would this establish a habit?
They were not certain that they really
would participate if given this right to
vote, and the testimony that we have from
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the adults who advocate lowering the vot-
ing age agrees that there is no evidence
that they will vote if given the right to,
because it is not that dear to them.
I suggest we think this over carefully
and I would also like to mention again the
four states that have lowered the voting
age, Alaska, Hawaii, Kentucky and Georgia.
Think about this, it is not a light game.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Ross.
DELEGATE KOSS: I would like to yield
three minutes to Delegate Schloeder.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Schloeder.
DELEGATE SCHLOEDER: Mr. Chair-
man and ladies and gentlemen of the Com-
mittee: As a teacher and as one having
had a great deal of experience with people
of this age, nineteen, twenty, and eighteen,
it is very difficult for me not to have de-
veloped over the fifteen years that I have
had this experience a deep respect for, and
belief in their ability to bear problems and
decisions responsibly.
It is my sincere belief from my experi-
ence that from involvement comes respon-
sibility, and I think that what we do here
is to provide an opportunity for nineteen-
year-olds and twenty-year-olds to become
involved in the problems that face us today.
And I think that with this involvement,
they would show themselves to act and
behave in a very responsible manner. I
think that many of this age, eighteen, nine-
teen, or twenty, have a feeling of being in
limbo. They would like very much to be-
come a part of the social, economic, and
political structure of our society, and 1
think that if they were to become a part of
that political structure in that they were
allowed to vote and participate actively in
a democracy, they would participate fully
and responsibly.
A great deal will be said about maturity
and I will submit to you that an indication
of maturity is the ability to accept respon-
sibility. I think that those of this age are
able to accept responsibility, and thus are
able to show their maturity.
1 would like to give two examples, one is
this: in figures presented by the United
States Census Bureau, approximately
twenty percent of the nineteen and twenty
year olds in this State are full-time wage
earners.
Also you will hear before this debate is
over, I am sure, the phrase that "if you
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