Editorial: An issue for the campaign
While the contest for the Republican nomination for President, and the ensuing battle for the presidential election in November will attract the headlines and the popular interest, this is also a year in which the full membership of the national House of Representatives and one-third the membership of the U.S. Senate will be at stake.
In the Congressional elections, equally important with the presidential contest, the principal issue will be the soldier-vote issue.
The Congressmen who have opposed a simple, uniform method of enabling the members of the Armed Forces to cast a ballot must be held accountable to their constituents, in the primaries and in the general election.
Pennsylvania’s primary will be held April 25. The campaign is already underway. Most of Pennsylvania’s Congressmen are already on record on the soldier-vote issue. Those who oppose them in the primary or in the general election should be required to announce their position on this issue.
Unfortunately for the Republican Party in this state, the majority Congressional delegation has voted solidly against a reasonable, effective plan for giving the Armed Forces a maximum opportunity to vote.
To make their position even worse, the Republican Congressmen from this state voted solidly against a “stand-up-and-be-counted” roll call on this issue.
In this district, the Congressmen who voted in this manner were D. Emmert Brumbaugh of Claysburg, Leon H. Gavin of Oil City, Louis E. Graham of Beaver, Robert L. Rodgers of Erie and Harve Tibbott of Ebensburg.
Congressional elections should be settled on issues, and independent of the presidential or any other contest. Here, then, is a basic issue, an issue which should be thoroughly exploited in the coming primary campaign – and again in the November campaign.
It transcends other issues because it involves a fundamental privilege of hundreds of thousands of free citizens who have demonstrated their willingness to make the supreme sacrifice for their country.