Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-08
A DEMOCRATIC TRIUMPH


the essential result Of Tuesdays elec-
tion, as viewed comprehensively.
The trend Of public sentiment
Throughout the United states, as indl-
Gated in the election returns, is toward
the true and tried old Democratic party.
A study Of the election figures shows
that the American people are reanzins
that the "old reliable" party Of Jeffer-
son, Jackson and Tilden is the one to
rely upon in times of peril to the rights
Of the people.
That conclusion is fully justified by
the general results of elections in the
several state, counties and municipal
tiles. National issues were not directly
involved except I'm the election of the
lower house Of congress, but the result
of the test on national issues to that
extent is quite satisfactory to the
Democratic party. The present Repub-
llcan majority in the house has been re-
duced to such an extent that there is
good promise of wiping It out entirely
in the next election.
The issue in New York was unusual.
1t turned upon the action of the Demo-
cratic state convention in lndorsing w.
r. Hearst as the party's candidate for
governor. That convention was in most
respects a counterpart of the infamous
Republican state convention at Santa
Cruz. The program of nominations was
marked out by group of machine
party leaders, although the New York
ers were not silly enough to be photo
graphed at the conclusion of their work.
The defeat of Hearst in the contest
for the governorship of New York was
substantially victory for Democratic
principles. Hearst was a traitor to the
Democratic party and had been Of
ficially branded as such by the party in
his own state. He was forced upon the
New York Democrats as their candidate
for governor by machine manipulators,
in defiance of the wishes of the party
rank and file.
The defeat of Hearst by a large plu-
rality knocks that political upstart from
his pedestal, at least for the time. The
plurality against him would have been
many times greater, however, but for
the traditional tendency of New York
Democrats to stand by the partys
guns, no matter what they are loaded
with" Probably nine-tenths of those
Democrats dropped their Hearst ballots
into the boxes with a feeling of disgust
akin to that of a child in the act of
swallowing a nauseous dose of medicine. |
Coming to a glance at the contest in !
California we find in the returns abun- |
dant cause for satisfaction. But for |
that infamous California traitor and |
renegade who has just been turned
down in New York, the Democratic
ticket in this state would have been
elected. The traitor achieved his long
ing for revenge, however, caused by his
summary kicking out by the party at
the Sacramento convention. His re-
scheme c f setting up a dummy
candidate for governor in order to draw
sufficient Democratic votes to defeat the
Democratic ticket worked out success
fully.
Gillett would have been beaten "hands
down" by Bell but for Hearst's scheme |
of vengeance. The votes cast for Lang |
don were almost invariably votes di-
verted from the Democratic party by
the efforts of Hearst's henchmen and
his notorious newspapers. 1t is to this
act of the infamous in
citer to anarchy that Mr.. Gillett di-
rectly owes the plurality of votes that
will make him governor of California.
In the Los Angeles county election
there also is substantial cause for
Democratic satisfaction. The big Re-
publican pluralities that were so loudly
claimed by the leaders of the S. p
machine had dwindled to
relatively small proportions when sifted
down in the returns.
The wisdom of the Democratic and
non-partisan combination on the county
ticket was fully substar lated by the
result of the election, and the way is
thus pointed out for future united
action in behalf of honest and capable
public service in Los Angeles city and
county