The herald., 1894-06-23
THE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FOR Gov
ERN0R.

California. This gentleman is so vel
known to the people OF this state that
there ought to be very little difficulty in
giving fair and impartial estimate Of
the man. 1t is very much question as
to whether there is single public char
acter in California who is so universally
known as Mr.. Estee. And we may add
that it is doubtful whether there 10 a
public man in this state in either party
who is admittedly more amiable and in
teresting. OF course, when the Demo
cratic party has lined up, and intense
politics begin, thu Republican nominee
will be made to appear little better than
a horsethief, in pursuance of the time
honored cadence, "'Twas always thus,
from childhood's hour" and so on. But
at this stage of the game it is permissi-
BILE to talk of Mr.. Estee and his csndi.
it is assumed, ought to characterize q
political campaign, no matter who hap
pen to be the unfortunate candidates.
AS we have said. the Naps granger is
universally known throughout Califor-
mia, and the writer, as who has not. has
experienced his honest and hearty good
nature. The writer we'll remem bers
meeting Mr. E:tee in the campaign of
1882, on Spring street, jast about where
the old jail stood. and asking him what
lie thought of his chances. Good"
said the honest granger, II snail be
elected by majority of ten thousand"
The HERALD scribe drew a breath of
surprise, and slowly calculated, why
know that you are going to be the worst
beaten man that ever ran for governor
in California;" The great defeated of
that day turned upon his interlocutor a
look of inexpressible pity that he should
be go far out in his appreciation of the
real situation. That the Republican
candidate for governor believed what he
said was shown later by his reiterstion
of the same confident prediction the
night before the election, or very shortly
before the election, in Platt's hall, in
San Francisco. 1t is astonishing that
men of clear intsllects can be 80 far
away from actual results, but this lido
syncracy is frequently developed.
There is probably no politician in
California that can be more childlike
and bland than Mr.. Estee, for such his
nature is. He is as guileless as boy,
and is quite as jocund. Nevertheless,
IL ia mot iponoaoihla that ha man haua
had his eye on that portion of the new
EN- bodied in Matthew, which
runs "be ys as wise as serpents and SIS
innocent as doves" There is nllshing
of the machine politician about Estee,
but he is not without a very noble
equipment for the game of politics, and
this equipment lies just here.
Notwithstanding his lack Of the modus
operandi of the machine politician, Mr..
Estee is by long odds the beet expOunder
of his party's principles in the RepubH-
can organization of California today. Ae
political debster he is head and
shoulders above any other California
Republican. He towers as did Saul
amongst the Israelites over other Re-
publicans. Who is his compeer, in the
presentation of the essential and dis
tinctive principles of Republicanism ?
Probably Gen. W. Fl. L. Barnes would
come nearer filling the bill than any
other Republican, but even he would
scarcely bridge half the gap which Estee
measures compared to other politicians
of his party.
1t lie somewhat unfortunate for his
chances of election that Estee, who is 80
strong with the masses of his party,
should have permitted the Interpolation
OF political boss in the con vention
which nominated him. At the same
time it must be admitted, in common
asse M bled in California was there ever
such unanimity in the choice of a can
didate. 1t is absurd to contest the fact
that man who has received three
fourths of the vote OF his party's repre-
sentatives, in an untrammeled conven-
ton, is not the choice OF his party espe-
cially when he has been its leader in the
past against all the influence of most of
the corporations of California, including
the railway, and that after most deter
mined struggle,
1t seems to US. under all the circum-
stances, that Mr.. Estee is strong can
didate. If Mr.. Dan Burns had taken
the whole vote of San Francisco over to
some other candidate, Mr.. Estee would
still have been the nominee by over
hundred majority. 1t seems to ua de-
cidedly silly to call such pronounced
preference OF his party a machine tri-
umph. The fact is, if one desires to be
fair, that Col. Dan Barns rather took
refuge under the strength of Estee than
created the quite remarkable preference
shown towards that gentleman by the
delegates of his party.
In our opinion the best chances for
Democratic success lie not in depreciat-
ing Mr.. Estee but in realizing the fact
that we have a hard fight before us, in
which our chances of success will be
found to lie in vigilant campaign in
which we shall not underrste the
strength of our adversary. He who
thinks that the campaign of this year
has single esemblance to that OF 1882
has not learned even the primer of Cal
iiornia politics. Democrats have not
been converted to Mr. Estee's ideas of
politics, but the way to beat him is to
raaliya that ha ia nv all Odda the EtronV-