Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-22
GOVERNMENT BY BOSS


one man.
IT Is passing strange that so many
thousands OF voters and heavy taxpay-
ers should submit to this sort Of thing
without apparent resentment.
Under the ownership and domina-
ton OF Boss Walter Parker they are
as patient, resigned and smiling as
though they imagined they were ac-
tually governing themselves.
And yet they become indignant when
they read Of bossism in the eastern
cities and states. They are tlckled to
death when they hear that the people
Of New York or Pennsylvania have
risen in their might and overthrown
the easy boss" In short they do not
seem TO be conscious OF the fact that
they are themselves worse boss-ridden
than are the people Of any city or
state in this country.
Abe Ruef Of san Francisco is the
political owner and director of the state
Of California. Back of him is Boss
Herrin Of the Southern Pacific railroad.
Under Herrin--and consequently a sub
deputy Of Abe Ruef--is Boss Walter
Parker Of Los Angeles. The machine
is open, notorious and dictatorial in its
dominance Of public affairs and laughs
aloud at the innocence and childish
ness of the people who sit down and
accept whatever crumbs may fall from
the tables of the bosses.
Every decent Republican newspa per
in California is cognizant Of these facts
and many of them are beginning to
show shame and resentment. Thus far
they have made no headway--accom-
plished nothlng-but the leaven of good
Is working and the time must surely
come when the Republicans of Cali
fornia will understand and appreciate
the disgrace to which they are daily
and hourly subjected.
Boss Parker, a good fellow enough,
personally, occupies headquarters in
the county convention hall at Venice.
where all delegates must pay their re
spects and get the convention pro-
gram handed out to them, all prepared.
Some of them may have imagined that
they were trying to represent the peo-
pie of their several precincts; as a mat
ter of fact they We're all mere pup
pets, held together and moved by a
pulley leading from the convention
hall to Boss Parker's private office.
They had no power to do anything that
had not been previously arranged for
at ht1e fn
record the will of Boss Parker and the
Southern Pacific railroad.
Is everybody in Los Angeles county
asleep to this disgraceful situation?
Does nobody care whether this great
community is ruled by a political boss?
Is it perfectly immaterial whether the
machine names the county officers,
who will handle corporations with
gloves and make the common people
pay the full price of living here?
Does it concern nobody If the voters
are practically disfranchised and have
no power to regulate their own affairs?
Must everybody submit willingly and
cheerfully to this farce of government?
These are serious questions for the
Republicans of Los Angeles county.
And they are not asked in a spirit of
political campaigning, either. The
Herald has been asking these same
questions for two years, and while
many have answered them with some
show Of Indignation, they have fallen
back into the kiln of the political
brick makers and ceased to worry
themselves over the situation.
But the Republican party of Cali
fornia and of Los Angeles, refusing to
reform itself, is riding straight to ruin.
There are people who are beginning tc
think about these things. Out in the
orange groves and down in the mines
and up in the lumber regions and in
the factories and foundries and shops
of this great state are men who are
thinking; men who will resent owner
ship by Abe Ruef and Walter Parker
and the railroads and who eventually
will cause an upheaval in the political
life of this state and county. But they
must soon wake UP or their oppor-
tunity for freedom will have passed.