University of Missouri - Savitar Yearbook (Columbia, MO)

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l . hey call it Canvassmg November 4 was one of the first really chilly mornings in Columbia, the kind that stiffens up engine oil so a car strains to start and a cold dew collects on everything and urges people to strain to start. At 5 a.m. that morning, with the sun far below the hori- zon, a chartered, nearly empty Greyhound bus rumbled in front of the Memorial Union. Aboard were less than a dozen, sleeping souls, most of them from Stephens College. A passerby e had there been one - would have had no trouble knowing why the bus and the people were there. Dimly lit by a streetlight was a blue and white placard on the busts side: MCGOVERN-SHRIVER ,72. By mid-morning, the bus would take about 15 Columbia students to Kansas City where they would be knocking on doors for George McGovern during the last weekend before the election. They called it ttcanvassing. The trip wasntt news when it happened and it isn't news now. But it was a small, human facet of the 1972 campaign e the first in which 18 to 20 year olds could both campaign and vote. Canvassing was a big part for everybody involved with a particular candidate, even though Gubernatorial candidate Ed Dowdls son Doug may have been the only one who got headlines for doing it. Perhaps the story of one McGovern student telling about one street in one town in one state may not explain defeat at the polls three days later but it will give a glimpse of what the campaign meant to new voters, the footsoldiers of the campaign. When the Columbia students got to the Jackson County Democratic Headquarters in Kansas City, they met a larger group of students from Kansas who had begun work a day earlier. The students were from Kansas State, whose foot- ball team the Tigers were to play that afternoon. But nobody ever talked about the game.

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1972 was a national election year, the first that 18 year-olds had the right to vote. In this section the Savitar looks at three areas where this decision has changed the look of political campaigns.

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By Jim Polson Photos by Bruce Bisping somewhere else, where they were told what to do; ttThe map shows your precinct, you are to handle the streets marked in red, the sheet on the right is a list of registered voters. Ask them politely if they plan to vote for Senat0r McGovern on Tuesday. If they say no, politely leave. If they say maybe or they dont know put a two or threetdown by the name and ask them if they want any campaign inforrna. tion or if they need a ride to the polls. If they say yeS, put . down a one, ask them if they need a ride or information and if they can help us on election day. L ttIf theytre not a one, two or a three, leave. Dontt give any. body a hassle. t Then, everybody loaded up in cars again only to be dropped off in places they had never seen before. They started asking people if they would vote for McGovern. Some of them did pretty well. They were invited into houses to give their pitch and maybe even won sdme votes. The campaigner we followed was not so fortunate. He pounded on doors for two blocks in Independence before he even found a three, much less a one or'a two. As one resident in a large, White house said, Kid I voted for Dewey in 48 and Pve voted Republican ever since. Do you know how far away Harry Truman lives from here?! uWell, I sure seem to be on the wrong street, sir. Youtre damn right, son. After a while, the neighborhood kids found out about the stranger who was walking down the street looking for Dem. ocrats. A half dozen of them piled in a red t48 International pickup and drove by constantly, yelling ttfour more yearsf Naturally there-were some Democrats a even some peo- ple who would vote for McGovern. They were young or old, but rarely in between. At the last house on the street, he stopped a retired man who was mowing his lawn with a garden tractor and asked him how he would vote. The man scowled at the campaign button on the coat before him and growled, ttYep, Itve made up my mind. Pm sure as hell not votin, for that tinhorn president we got now, and followed that up with a 15-minute discourse praising the ttpeoplets populists? A few hours later, having been transferred back and forth to several different offices, the lead-calved campaigners ate dinner at a hospital, went back to another office and were split up. Some did bookkeeping, some wrote letters. A lot, having worn out their feet, proceeded to wear out their lingers and canvassed by phone. They found a few ones, twos or threes and some uWell, I don't think thatts any of your business, do you? By 10 p.m.., when the calling stopped, our campaigner with the Republican street was having a jeering conversa- tiorlil, mostly unprintable, with a picture of McGovern on the wa . . They went back to the Democratic Headquarters, rolled out their sleeping bags, grabbed a beer and stayed up m0St 3f the night. And then went back to work again the next ay. It wasnt all over until Tuesday night, when they sat together in a motel room, their eyes glazed with tears and vodka and riveted to a TV set. That was when George McGovern looked them square in the eye and told them theytd done a good job. They couldn't smile and they couldnt cry. They just sat there. ii: S oon, everbody was loaded up in cars and shipped off