The Pittsburgh Press (November 2, 1942)
Editorial: Fool the forecasters!
Disheartening news on the home front – more serious in its long-haul implications than news from the war fronts – is found in the pre-election forecasts indicating a light and disinterested vote tomorrow. The Gallup Poll, for example, predicts the smallest turnout in 10 years, 20 million less than in the last presidential election when 50 million voted, 16% less than the midterm of 1938 and 10% less than the one in 1934.
Armed enlistments and migrations due to war explain, in part, but only in part. Over all is that apparent apathy.
We hope the forecasts prove untrue. For it is inconceivable that the American people in the midst of our nation’s greatest crisis have suddenly gone docile, or failed to realize that this is one of the most important elections in American history.
All the House and two-thirds of the Senate are involved – and Congress is the agency closest to the people. Much criticism of Congress has been heard in recent years. That Congress has abdicated, that it more and more kowtows to pressure groups and bureaucrats, that its self-respect is slipping, that it is failing in its functions as the representative branch in our supposedly equal and coordinate system of legislative, executive and judicial branches – those and other related accusations have been much to the front in public discussion. And never have there been so many problems as today, domestic and foreign, affecting so many citizens, problems for which Congress has not only authority but responsibility.
Only one force can do anything about it. That is the voter. If the voter fails to function, then that is the supreme abdication.
Never in our time have we been in such need of strong, intelligent and independent legislators. And yet we find apathy. Or do we?
We pray that tomorrow’s turnout will fool the forecasters.