Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 14, Number 46, DeMotte, Jasper County, 29 September 1944 — FARM BUREAU PRESIDENT ASKS ALL TO VOTE [ARTICLE]

FARM BUREAU PRESIDENT ASKS ALL TO VOTE

Pointing to the fact that only 62 per cent of the eligible voters actually voted in the 1940 presidential election, Mr. Harold Sage, president of the Jasper County Farm Bureau, today issued a statement urging a heavy turnout at the polls on November 7th. “It is our duty, not only as rural and small-town citizens, but as Americans,” said Mr. Sage. “Voting is a right—a privilege—for which our sons and brothers are fighting in many parts of the world today. It is our duty to them and to ourselves to vote in this national election when so many crucial issues are at stake.” Mr. Sage’s statement came in response to an appeal from the American Farm Bureau Federation which was sent by Mr. Hassil E. Schenck, President of the Indiana Farm Bureau, Inc., to presidents of all county organizations. The Farm Bureau Federation is now carrying on a nation-wide campaign, strictly non-partisan, urging rural America to vote in the November elections Farmers and citizens of small towns can have a powerful voice in governmental affairs through their representatives if they will get out and vote for the men of their choice, according to Mr. Sage. He added that rural poeple have the power to influence national politics if they will only use it. He called attention to the fact that 77 per cent of the senators and 62 per cent of the congressmen come from districts whigh have no cities of more than 10,090 population and hence are predominantly rural. He said, however, v that if rural America stayed at home on election day and the big city vote turned out full strength, rural people would have an ever harder time from then on making their wishes heard. Mr. Sage said that an appeal for farmers to vote in the coming election was stirringly made by* Edward A. O’Neal, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, in a recent address. Mr. O’Neal said: “I know the farmer has an obligation to get his crops in at the proper time, but I also know that he has a duty that transcends even the obligation to produce, and that is to contribute to good government by exercising his right to vote. Leave your plow, leave your cow, leave your sow, and go to the polls in what is one of the most precious rights and privileges that we enjoy under out* democratic form of government. In my opinion, farm people carry a greater responsibility for the preservation of our great tradition of democracy than any other group.” In his statement, Mr. Sage said that although Farm Bureau members, like everyone else, are busy at this time, they and all other rural citizens can take off the necessary hour or two that voting requires. “We should remember,” he said, “that our boys in the armed services are giving the best years of their lives to defense of their country. They were not too busy when the call came. We cannot and we will not be

too busy to vote. We should, everyone of us, go to the polls on November 7th and thereby act as share-holders in America.