Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-24
ALL MACHINE MADE


ticket nominated at Venice contains
mostly good men or mostly bad men is
quite immaterial when compared with
the main fact that they are all. with
possibly one exception, machine made
The real Republicans Of Los Angeles
county had little or nothing to say
about the nominations The consider
alton and selection of candidates was
left entirely to Boss Parker, represent
ing the railroad and other corpora
tions, and he chose for the offices those
whom he had predetermined would be
the friendliest and Safest" It re-
mains to be seen whether he chose
wisely and well for his purposes, but
the very fact that he did the choosing
is quite enough to warrant the defeat
of the ticket.
The Herald's warfare against the Re-
publican nominations Is not because
they are Republican, but because they
represent nothing and nobody but the
bosses and the machine politics of this
county.
The fact that William A. Hammel
was nominated for sheriff over the
heads Of the bosses and despite the
machines constant cracking of the
whip simply demonstrates the power
of the people and how easy it is to
exercise it. Why should any part Of
the county ticket have been left to
the will and dictation of Parker when
the people had the selections entirely in
their own hands if they had only taken
the courage to use their power, as they
did in the case of Hammel? Why
should the permission of Parker be
asked for the doing of any act that
belongs of right to the people of Los
such a question should be necessary
in an intelligent community such as
this, but it has been so often asked
and never answered that the Repub-
licans appear to have ceased to be SEN
sltive about it. In fact they have
grown so accustomed to serving as
messenger boys for Parker and his
corporations that they care very little
for criticism. so long as Parker permits
them to speak to him on the streets
and to occasionally offer the pretense
of conference with some of them.
The nomination of Hammel shows
how silly and foolish it is for a great
people-great even in Republican SUI
premacy-to allow a boss to dictate
their entire political conduct. What
right had Parker to arrange the
county ticket and make the nomina-
tions? Who appointed and commits
stoned him as dictator of this county?
BY what authority does he occupy an
office in the county convention hall and
send out to delegates the names of those
he desires nominated to the offices?
Just think about it a moment! 1t
is worth thinking about. For why
should the people of Los Angeles
county turn over their sovereignty to
an agent of the public utility corpora
tions? Are they not capable of at
tending to their own county affairs and
duties? Have they not sufficient intel
ligence and energy to select and name
their own officers without going, hat
in hand, to political boss whose die
tatorship is the merest assumption of
power? Why should the Republicans
of Los Angeles county ask Parker for
the things which are their very own
and which they should use and hold
sacred for the protection of popular
liberty and free government?
In the days of the robber barons the
serfs toiled and slaved under self-ap-
pointed taskmasters and humbly re-
ceived the mite doled out to them for
their own labor on their own land. 1t
seems funny to think of the idiocy of
those "primevar people. 1t makes us
smile with ton over the
childishness of those early days. and
we laugh aloud at the poor creatures
who waited and toiled without a muir
mur until they caught King John on
the field of Runnymede and made him
and the barons give up. 1t was a regu-
lar revolt against the bosses.
But how much better are we doing
today in Los Angeles county? How
much more intelligence are our Repub-
lican friends showing when they fall
over themselves in indecent haste to
bow to the cap which a self-constituted
political boss has set up?
The Republican county ticket is
machine-made. 1t should be destroyed
without fear or favor.