The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-03-19
TRIUMPH OF THE REPUBLICAN,
PARTY,

THE defeat of Dan Burns and OF the railroad IN
| fuence behind him is marked triumph OF the
Republican party In the history OF this State
il has not been paralleed The railroad, during the
last campaign deliberately cheated the press and the
peooe 1t declared, through its representatives IN
San Francisco and all over the State, in terms that
would bind the honor of any individual organiza-
ton. that it was out of politics The moment the
election was over it did not preserve the forms
through which prudent men sometimes endeavor to
conceal their lack OF integrity, but arrogantly and
openly secuted its pledges and revealed the candidacy
of Dan Burns, which, to the last moment it forced
upon the Legislature That it ultimately failed IS
largely due to the efforts of The Call and the Chron
cle assisted by other Republican newspapers and the
mass of the Republican party
We do not feel inclined to indulge in congratula-
tons. 1t burning shame that man like Dan
Burns, creature of an unprnciped monopoly,
could maintain deadlock and for two years deprive
California of half of its representation in the Senate
of the United States Every man who voted for him
during the long and monotonous struggle that has
Just ended himself untrue to his party,
untrue to his country, and controlled by influences
directly opposed to the public welfare. The only
history OF the State since the railroad assumed the
direction of its politics. that audacious and formd-
able power has been beaten. To elect man who is
fit for the Senatorship impossible without the aid
OF the Democratic minority, and from the beginning
to the end of the struggle the organ of that minority
used whatever force possessed assist the railroad
designs. Whatever the motives by which some Of
them were actuated, least fftyfve members of the
Republican majority not captured for or by Dan
Burns, and while, we have already suggested, this
number funted could not have elected Senator,
they sufficient to prevent secret and to
maintain the honor and the integrity OF their party
Even the Examiner now, with all its unscrupulous-
ness scarcely have the audacy to claim that the
Republican State Convention of last year was manpu-
lated by the railroad or that the Republican party or
the Republican press deceived the people. With all
its money and with all its power from twenty-four to
thirty legislators represented the entire delegation the
railroad enabled to secure and these servants of
corruption lost their fight and individually and col
ectvely will be promptly reegated to the obscurity
from which they should never have emerged. There
have been few sessions of the Legislature in which
more than thirty Democratic votes could not be relied
upon by the railroad.
Dan Burns is politically dead, and in the same con-
dition in which Lazarus found after he had lain
four days in the tomb He will be resurrected
The railroad power is disrupted The history of the
legislative session will be enduring and effective
lesson to the people. The Republican party of Cali
fornia will enter the Presidential campaign of 1000
with ceansed skirts and the purpose of the railroad
under its Democratic management aided by the Elk
aminer, to steal the State for the Democracy, will be
frustrated.
1t is due to Governor Gage to say that, however
he may have been betrayed into the
preston OF an individual preference for Dan Burns,
chiefly based upon supposed but imaginary debt OF
gratitude he held aloof from the actual contest and
maintained the dignity of his high office. The atti-
tude of Ulysses S. Grant at the beginning of the
sion and as exposed by the investigation was not
credab1e but it was half redeemed by the rejection
of the proffered coalition with Burns The remain
ing candidates preserved their personal se-respect
and refused entangling and dsreputabe alliances 1t
is fortunate that in Senator Perkins the State has
representative by whom it will not be discredted and
there is probability that two years hence at
any future PERIOD the degrading experience of 1899
will be repeated.