A Page from History : Election Day in America Some sidelights
| Vol. VI, No. 14 Kartik 27, 2009, November 17th, 1952 Four Annas. Air-/4/6 |
The American presidential election of last week has been the most memorable in living memory.
The US public had seldom been so enthusiastically belabored by the public-spirited and the civic-minded. Except in Minnesota; which bars transportation of voters as a corrupt practice;, there was hardly a city in which a voter could not get a lift to the polls just by picking up his telephone. In some towns he could get a free taxi ride, and in Rochester, NY an ambulance was his for the asking, even if he wasn’t sick. Orange City, Iowa blew its fire siren every hour on the hour to remind the apathetic that it was election day. From New York to San Diego volunteer baby-sisters offered their services to voting mothers. Thousands in St. Louis turned on their porch lights as dusk fell to remind the laggards of their duty.
The vast majority of citizens, however, came to the polls with the air of people who needed no urging or reminding. The weather was fine almost every where, but most of the electorate acted as though it would have braved the rain, sow or a plague of grasshoppers. Mrs Virginia Borrison of Tarentum, Pa. went to the polls six hours after giving birth to a baby. In Seattle an old man who had waited in line for three hours was told that he had forgotten to register. He began to weep. “This,” he sobbed” is my last time.” The crowd yelled: “Let him vote”. He registered forthwith voted and said happily : “I thank you all”.
In the course of his campaign, Adlai Stevenson had become famous for his anecdotes. None he had ever told was more fitting than the one which he added to his formal
statement conceding lke’s victory. Some one, he said, had once asked Lincoln how he felt after losing a political campaign. Said Stevenson : “He said he felt like a little boy who stubbed his toe in the dark. He was too old to cry, and it hurt too much to laugh.”
One Crore Adults Sign for the cowDuring the first fifteen days of the RSS Campaign for Cow Protection, over one crore adults have signed the memorandum calling upon the Government to prohibit cow slaughter by law. Detailed reports received from nine State show an aggregate of over 75,00,000 signatures. UP tops the list with 35,00,000. Punjab follows with 9,00,000. Gujarat & Saurashtra and Rajasthan come next with 7,50,000 each. Madras’ is 6,00,000; Madhya Bharat 5,50,000. Delhi and PEPSU are 3,00,000, each Himachal Pradesh shows 25,000. Pakistan in HyderabadThat Pakistanis are still flourishing in Hyderabad was made starkly clear to the people the other day when the students of the Saifabad College were given the crescent and star with green background-Pakistan emblem-to wear on the College Union Inauguration day. The students were so scandalised by the conduct of the Union office-bearers that they met and expressed lack of confidence in them. |
Reactionary Rebels
Bhopal politics are reported to be much disturbed by recent happenings there. While Chief Minister Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma was out in Sevagram, six Congress MLA’s got up a meeting and publicly denounced him. It is learnt that four of them are ex-ministers of the Nawab of Bhopal. It is felt that the cause of this indiscipline is the Nawab himself who will be affected by the Jagirdari Abolition and Agricultural Income Tax bills not on the anvil.
Dr Sharma is now in the Capital urging disciplinary action against the reactionary rebels. He is reported to be ready to resign should his advice not be entertained by the High Command.
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