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the chances for youngsters to be willing to
follow a dictator. If they do not have the
opportunity to be involved when they have
the knowledge and they have the desire to
participate, they may use other methods
by which to participate and have some ef-
fect in state government. I would have this
further to say. Although the allusion has
been made already, we cannot ask the
youngsters to perform more responsibly
than adults do. If you take any voting rec-
ords in any part of the State on any
governmental vote, you will find that on the
average you may get thirty to thirty-five
percent of our so-called responsible adult
voters out to vote.
If you work hard and issues are really
hot, you may get fifty per cent. All of you
are aware of the fact that last year by
mistake the General Assembly passed a
bill that in order to encourage our adults
over twenty-one years of age, to come out
to vote, they would be allowed to take two
hours off from work with pay. You will
find a number of schemes have been sug-
gested in order to encourage our respon-
sible adult voters to come out and vote,
such as voting on Sunday, opening the
polls earlier, keeping them open later, vot-
ing for two days.
I think this reflects the fact that our
adult voters now are not responsive. I do
not think we can ask those under twenty-
one to be any more responsible than our
adult population. This is not the issue.
I think the issue is whether those who
are under twenty-one really are ready to
vote. I submit that they are.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Rybczynski for two and a
half minutes.
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Mr. Chair-
man and ladies and gentlemen of this Com-
mittee: I think that what has not been
said by the majority, is just as sig-nificant
as anything that has been said.
You will note that no one from the ma-
jority has addressed himself to this ques-
tion of what we do about the question of
when a person is responsible for his con-
tracts. They have not answered our charge
in that respect. I ask you to give this very
close attention when it comes time to cast
your valuable vote in this regard.
Now, again we talk about the question
of responsibility. Let us remember that
when this twenty-one year minimum age
was set forth many years ago, children
were working from the age of thirteen,
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fourteen and fifteen years, full of responsi-
bilities, full of worldly knowledge, and yet
even at that time the decision was to go
along with the age of twenty-one years as
the best time for people to start participat-
ing in their government.
Mr. Chairman, I strongly urge all mem-
bers of this Committee to disregard this
question of the military. For those of you
who have not had the benefits I had of
two years in the U. S. Infantry, allow me
to suggest to you that the only thing that
you do in the Army is obey orders blindly.
This is taught to you so that when a su-
perior gives you a certain order on the bat-
tlefield, you do it and you do it blindly.
This is the only form of training given to
you in the military, not questions of dis-
cretion, but questions of might.
As to the polls, anything can be done
with polls. It is just like statistics. You
do anything you want with them.
But let me point out to you that on our
very first day of consideration of this
question in our Committee two members of
this delegation brought some school chil-
dren into our committee room.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have one-half
minute, Delegate Rybczynski.
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: They told
us about the fact that these children had
not been prepared, that they were coming
in raw, that they were ready to answer any
questions we asked them. You know what
they said? They were not ready to vote.
These were children brought in unprepared
on the question and their answer was that
they agreed that they were not ready to
vote. It is better to leave it at twenty-one.
They thought so. We think so. We know
that you will think so.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Koss for three minutes.
DELEGATE KOSS: Mr. Chairman, is
that all the time remaining to our side?
THE CHAIRMAN: It is.
DELEGATE KOSS: I think it appro-
priate at this point, if I may, to reply to
some of the questions that were raised.
First of all, let me remind all of you that
Georgia lowered the voting age in 1943,
and Kentucky in 1955. Nobody has ever
produced to us any dire results as a result
of this change.
I would also like to point out in terms of
the issue of contracts and legal age, that
in Maryland, there is a great variation as
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