Senator HOLLAND. Mr. Chairman, I will be very happy to have that included, and I hope that we may ask the clerk of the committee to include similar provisions out of the later party platforms, if such there are. I am not sure whether this specific subject was dealt with, but I think it was always dealt with either in more general terms or in specific terms, and I ask that those quotations be likewise inserted. Senator KEFAUVER. Very well, we will include those also. (The document referred to is as follows:)

PARTY PLATFORMS

The Republican Party had the abolition of the poll tax as a platform plank in 1944, 1948, and 1952, as follows:

In 1944:

"The payment of any poll tax should not be a condition of voting in Federal elections, and we favor immediate submission of a constitutional amendment for its abolition."

I am glad to know that they apparently felt that voting in Federal elections was the only thing that should be covered by the amendment.

In 1948:

"We favor the abolition of the poll tax as a requisite to voting."

In 1952:

"We will prove our good faith by * * * Federal action toward the elimination of the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting."

There is no specific reference to the poll tax by name in the Democratic platforms of 1948 and 1952, but it is obviously referred to in the Democratic platform of 1948 in the following language:

"We call upon the Congress to support our President in guaranteeing these basic and fundamental American principles: (1) the right of full and equal political participation; **

In other words, Mr. Chairman, the platform of your political party and mine, in 1948 stated as the first fundamental principle to which our party was pledged by the platform to protect first the right to full and equal political participation. Also in the 1952 Democratic platform we find an approval of the removal of the poll tax in the following language:

**** we favor Federal legislation effectively to secure these rights to everyone: *(3) the right to full and equal participation in the Nation's political life, free from arbitrary restraints."

Democratic platform of 1960: "We will support whatever action is necessary to eliminate literacy tests and the payment of poll taxes as requirements for voting."

Senator HOLLAND. I thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Senator KEFAUVER. Senator Holland, may we ask you two or three questions?

As I remember, in some of the five States where the poll tax remains as a requirement, there is not only the payment of the poll tax, but it is accumulative, that is, you must have paid it over a period of a certain number of years. Do you recall offhand how that matter now stands?

Senator HOLLAND. The Library of Congress American Law Division tells me that Alabama law requires that all back poll taxes to 1901 be paid; that Mississippi requires payment for the 2 preceding

years; and that Virginia requires payment for the 3 preceding years. The Library was unable to advise me on Arkansas and Texas. However, the offices of Senators McClellan and Yarborough tell me that there is no cumulative requirement in their respective States; that it is sufficient to pay current poll taxes without paying back poll taxes.

Senator KEFAUVER. You have spoken of the increased participation by the voters of Florida and other States in presidential and Federal elections when the poll tax has been removed. I remember that when Kentucky eliminated its poll tax Tennessee still had a poll tax requirement, and although our populations were the same there were twice as many who voted, percentagewise, in Kentucky at that time. as in my State of Tennessee. Since the poll tax has been eliminated the States have been almost the same in percentage.

Senator HOLLAND. Mr. Chairman, in the debate last year, page 1369 of the Congressional Record of January 28, 1960, I placed in the record tables from the report of the Civil Rights Commission showing the increased registration of the Negro population in our State. And I have referred to the fact and to those tables in my statement today.

Senator KEFAUVER. Would you like to have the table you have just referred to placed in the record again?

Senator HOLLAND. I think that would be a good idea, Mr. Chairman. And I think that also the tables on page 1370, which show the Florida registration statistics from the Civil Rights Commission report, might well be included in the record at this place.

Senator KEFAUVER. Without objection, that will be done. Senator HOLLAND. Because it shows additional facts on that. (The tables referred to follow :)

Population figures are from Bureau of Census, 1950.

Registration figures are from secretary of state of Florida, published regularly.

Population shifts, in migration, changes in age of population, or failure to strike the names of deceased or departed registrants have resulted in percentage calculations in excess of 100 registered in some counties. In such cases 100 percent is shown.

Population figures are from U.S. census, 1950.

Registration figures are from Florida secretary of state, published regularly.

Senator HOLLAND. Mr. Chairman, I have been so busily engaged this year that I have not been able to bring those figures to date through the 1960 election, and I have not felt that a comparative situation as between my State and other States is either necessary or in good taste. But I do want the record to show that the participation in our State last fall was by far the largest, not only by number of votes, but by percentage, that we have ever had. In other words, the thing is cumulative, the added participation gets greater as time goes along when there is encouragement instead of obstruction. And our total vote in the presidential election last year was very close to 1,550,000, which was a comparatively large vote for us, both from the standpoint of numbers and percentages.

Mr. Chairman, I am so sure that with us the adoption of this change, this reform, has been helpful continuously since we adopted it in our State that I just make that statement as a statement of fact. It has been helpful to us in having cleaner government, in having greater participation in voting, and in having sounder satisfaction on the part of our people with their participation in determining governmental questions.

Senator KEFAUVER. Senator Holland, you have been the distinguished Governor of Florida, and you have been interested in clean and responsible politics. You have made the statement in your prepared statement that the elimination of the poll tax as a requirement for voting does bring much cleaner and more responsive government to the State.

Senator HOLLAND. Mr. Chairman, that is my feeling, and I am sure that it has proven to be true in Florida.

Now, under this amendment, much as I would like to see the five poll tax States move in the same direction as your State has moved and my State has moved and other States which previously had the poll tax, in completely knocking out the poll tax requirement, we still recognize the fact that there are some local questions involved which people locally should have the right to pass upon. It is my insistence through this amendment that those local questions ought not to affect the right of citizens to vote in Federal elections and to help name their President and their Vice President, their Senators and their Representatives.

I think that it is the right thing to do to remove impediments to voting. I think it makes for good sound expression of people's opinion and for good, sound participation in government and for stilling the criticisms and feelings of discrimination in people's minds which results when they are discouraged from voting and a price is put upon the exercise of their right of suffrage.

Senator KEFAUVER. Mr. Kirby, do you wish to ask Senator Holland any questions?

Mr. KIRBY. Just one point, Mr. Chairman.

Senator Holland, since the agenda was made for these hearings Senate Joint Resolution 81 by Senator Clark has been introduced which also purports to abolish the poll tax as a requirement for voting. As I examine them, I see only one minor distinction between the two. Section 1 of Senate Joint Resolution 81 recites "election for President or Vice President or electors for President or Vice President" and your proposal recites "election for electors for President and