The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1913. FAILING TO VOTE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 96, 23 December 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1913. FAILING TO VOTE.

Discussing the fact that a great num Iter of people fail to record their vote; at Parliamentary elections, the Syd ue.v "Daily Telegraph" remarks tl'ia comparing the gravity of the issues a stake with the smallness of the troubh involved in voting, the abstention fron

the poll of many responsible citizen} is ahvay a matter for wonderment, For, after all has boon done, it is only the one simple act of making a mark on the ballot paper that counts. The elector who neglects to do that has no more to do with the government of the country than the criminal locked up in gaol, or the idiot immured in a lunatic asylum. Various reasons operate for inducing people to voluntarily put themselves in that humiliating posi-

' tion, but none of them is worthy of respect from the feeblest intelligence. One is sheer carelessness. Every day for three years people have been exempt from the small worry of going to vote, and some become uon-voter.s by blind force of habit. Then there is the typo of elector who, to express his dissatisfaction with things in general, os-j tentatiously "declines to rote for i'.nvone." His action is on a par with that oi the man who, to vent a grievance agaiut a hank, burned its notes. Another type means to vote, but feels slighted because the candidate's party ..lid not pay more attention to him.' and at the last minute sulks. Oil course there are other reasons given such as that of the proson who "takes no interest in politics." The Christelmreh "Press." speaking of the recent Lyottoltnn election ami el' those who failed to do their duty as .lectors points out thai often these people who will not take the trouble to vote are loudest in their denunciation of evils I hnl creep into i be State, being quite oblivious to the Fact thai by Failing to vote the\ are partly responsible For

the introduction of these mils. Peo pie must be made to realise that iu re

train from voting is to risk injuring themselves and the community; that it is a mark of hat] citizenship.