Boost for 21

The push to boost the minimum drinking age in the United States to 21 nationwide has received welcome new impetus from the first-ever Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving. In its final report the commission recommended that this action be taken by each state individually, a method expectably slower than by federal legislation.

The commission's report comes in a time of stricter enforcement of existing state drunken-driving laws and of enactment of new statutes. This climate is credited with having been substantially responsible for a decline in the number of people killed in motor vehicle accidents in each of the past three years.

Organized citizen pressure properly continues for even more stringent enforcement of these laws, and for tougher punishment of defendants found guilty.

In the past half-dozen years 20 states have moved toward adopting the 21 -year-old drinking age minimum. It is important that all states act expeditiously so that this minimum can exist uniformly through the nation.