Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-02-24
Brazen Methods Of Former
Years Have Attracted At
tention and Condemnation Of
Party and People
DISINTEGRATI0N OF ONCE
POWERFUL POLITICAL RING
Interesting SnatCheS From
History of Political Activity Of
Some of the Men Connected
With the Present Campaign.
The Morning Journal Bureau.
Santa Fe. y NJ. Fnh %

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The utter failure Of the Bursum
legislative campaign, which has be-
come so evident during the week just
closed, is just now of considerable in
terest to the New Mexicans who are
connected with, or who follow poll
tics since it is interpreted as the end
not only of Bursum as an influence
in New Mexico politics. but as the end
also Of the ironelad machine system
of party management which he
helped to establish and which was
perfected for him by the late Frank
A. Hubbell The disintegration of this
machine has been looked for by men
who have been able to follow condl-
tions without prejudice. for a long
time. That it has been delayed so
long Is attributed to the lack of in
tercst in public affairs on the part of
the rank and file of the party. a condi-
tion now rapidly giving away to most
active interest by the people in public
business. No political machine has
ever been 50 poorly managed as this
one now passing into history. and it's
management has grown worse, more
careless of the welfare of the people
and the party as its weakness has in
reased. The machine system. the
ironcIad system which takes no
thought of the people and busies itself
with advancing the interests of few
party managers, is Of comparatively
recent growth in New Mexico. Frank
A. Hubbell brought 1t to its highest
stage of efficiency. Hubbell's meth
DDS were bad, but he was possessed
of considerable Judgment. He knew
that certain amount of consideration
had to be given to decenCy. that votes
might be taken away from the people
ut two or three elections, but that the
fourth would prove disastrous Only
in RernalillO county, where he thought
his power supreme. did Hubbell grow
careless. AS a result the revolt in his
own county retired him from active
politics.
II. O. Bursum, who succeeded Hub
bell as the head Of the machine. had
been an active worker in IT, and a
beneficiary of its operations since it's
very inception. Slowly and carefully
he had worked his way up in the lit
reckoned with; and when troubles
came for Hubbell in his own county
Bursum was ready. He stepped i'm
and took the machine away from the
late Bernalillo county leader. With
the full power of the party organiZa-
tiOn in his hands, Bursum seems to
have gone through a sudden and
somewhat surprising transformation.
The possession Of the leadership seems
to have shut off his judgment and his
ability to lead He began a system Of
concentration of the party manage
ment, cutting off the strength of a
local leader here and a strong party
man there until he had brought the
Republican organization down to a
handful of men, carefully chosen,
with view to their ability to be man.
aged and to obey the orders of the
head of the machine. Hubbell had
paid some attention to the wishes of
the people of the. territory. Bursum
gave them no consideration at all. He
held his little band of committeeman
well in hand Did a republican
leader of the old line dare protest
against the wisdom Of the roughshod
system. he was suppressed. The sys-
TEN of bulldozing was made complete.
one by one the leaders of the party.
the men having the respect and con-
fidence of the people. felt their influ-
ence with the organization waning.
The concentrating process was made
complete. 1t was carried to the point
where little ring OF which Bursum
was the leader became engrafted
upon the republican organization,
dominating IT. This little ring was in
complete control in the assembly of
two years ago, and 1t was then that
the tendency to run wild first became
apparent. / was then that conserva-
tive party men predicted disaster
either to the machine or to the party.
The disaster to the party has come,
although the machine has not been
able to completely wreck IL. But the
machine has wrecked itself. 1t has
literally run wild and has run to
pieces. The surprising thing is that
It has held together so long.
The campaign lnaugurated In the
beginning of this assembly in an eff
fort to save the machine from ruin
shows clearly how desperate the rem
nant has become. 1t has been from
the beginning an effort to enforce the
buldozing methods, to drive the as
sembly and the people as in the good
old days when the people didn't pay
much attention to the proceedings and
when the roughshOd method was a
matter of course. Worse leadership
that the machine campaign has had
could hardly have been imagined. The
system followed by the machine lead