Liberals, Young Dems Plan Drive to Support Uniform Literacy Test

A campaign to win support for the Mansfield-Dirksen voting rights bill will begin at the University on Monday. Sponsored by the Liberal Union and the Young Democrats, the drive will encourage age students to write their senators and representatives on behalf of the legislation.

The Mansfield-Dirksen Bill, which is supported by the Kennedy Administration, provides that a sixth-grade education will be sufficient to satisfy any state literacy test in federal elections.

Richard J. Rothstein '63, chairman of the drive, said yesterday that literature on the bill will be distributed in the House dining halls and the Union on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week. Postcards will also be available for writing to Congressmen.

Rothstein maintained that the bill is a "very moderate" proposal. He pointed out that it does not even approach the pledge in the Democratic platform of 1960 to extend voting rights to everyone over age 21, regardless of literacy.

The measure was introduced by Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield (D-Okla.) on Jan. 30 and was immediately referred to the Judiclary Committee, chaired by Sen. James O. Eastland (D-Miss.). Mansfield promised that if the Committee did not act on the bill by the end of May, he would bring it to the floor as a rider to other legislation.

Besides simplifying the literacy test, the bill outlaws using stiffer standards against Negro registrants and declaron that literacy in Spanish alone "provides no reasonable basis" for denying the vote.

The Harvard drive will also urge students to support anti-poll tax legislation.