Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-09
City Free of Taint of Ma
chine Rule
NINE GOOD GOVERNMENT MEN
IN CITY COUNCIL
HEALY AND LYON GO DOWN TO
DEFEAT
All CouncImen Chosen by the Re-
form Forces Are Carried Into
Office by Sweeping
Victory
CLEAN sweep and glorious victory
fn1, onnd crnNnln1nnntl

A CLEAN sweep and glorious victory
u for good government!
"A Final and utter defeat of the 5.
p. political leaders and machine rule
i'm Los Angeles, and the Punishment to
the political scrap heap of men VINO,
posing as "ruggedly honest" attempted
to vote away the peoples most precious
assets, at the behest of Southern Pa
cific boss!
Such i'm brief are the results of Tues
DAVIS election when every candidate
supported by the Good Government or
ganization was elected by the clean
votes of the manly men of Los Angeles.
Never before in the history of any
American city has such a result been
achieved. 1t is considered a tribute tn
the Good Government candidates, Just
reproach to the machine, and reilec-
ton of the common sense and decency
prevailing among majority or voters
in Los Angeles. 1t also is considered
tribute to the men who for years have
been working to throw off the S. p.
collar and make Los Angeles free
American city.
The election of Mayor Alexander and
the twenty-five other Good Government
candidates means the safety of the
owens river project, and the Judlclous
expenditure of the vast sum which will
UTlIB water anu llONtI ~ NiiD 49,
the metropolis of the southwest. 1t
means a free harbor, with no chance OF
S p domination of the San Pedro wa
ter front. 1t means good government III
every sense of the word; not license,
as it might have been had the result
been different, and not Puritanism, as
some of the machine leaders attempted
to make the voters believe it would be
were the city turned over to the Mayor
Who Made Good and the men who VIII
make good.
Throws OFF Yoke
In the language of Senator LaFol-
lette. Los Angeles has been crawling at
the feet of the Southern Pacific Tor
thirty years or more, but she VIII no
longer crawl. She has risen and Will
now march forward so as to deserve her
title of Greater Los Angeles, the COM
ing city of a million inhabitants.
All yesterday Mayor Alexander was
kept busy opening congratulatory tele-
grams and answering telephone mes
sages of good cheer. Practically every
mayor on the Pacific coast and many
throughout the United States sent
Mayor Alexander some sort of mes
sage of congratulation for his glorious
victory. A constant tide OF callers
among them good many machlhe men
anxious to get into the band wagon at
the earliest possible moment-although
rather late at that-ebbed and flowed
from the mayors office in the city hall.
To each caller the mayor was the same,
ready to give the right hand of fellow
ship.
For years it has been conceded that
the death-struggle of the southern Pa
ciflc machine would take place in Los
Angeles The character of the people
here has been changing so rapidly in
the last several years that the break
ing up of the machine has been consid-
cred matter of months only. That
the defeat was so overwhelming is a
surprise even to some of the men IL
the good government ranks.
The machine knew that Tuesdays
election was a case of live or die 1t
was for this reason that every effort
known to astute and interruptions pol
iticians was put forward in an effort
to win. No deed was too dark, no
amount Of money too great to spend,
in order to elect the machine men, ac-
cording to the bosses of the so-called
Republican party, But all their dark
deeds, and all their money, and all
their attempts at jugglery came to
naught. They were defeated before
they opened the campaign, for the peo-
pie of Los Angeles were aroused s
never before and voted according to
the dictates of their consciences, not
according to BOSS GdfheT Iney were
allowed to vote for candidates of their
own choosing, and not candidates on
two differently named tickets arranged
by the same boss.
Combat Overconfidence
Overconfdence on the part of a
goodly number of good government ad-
vocates was the most powerful force
which the Good Government organiza-
ton had to combat. The machine
leaders fostered the feeling that Alex
ander and the rest of the ticket would
be elected easily in order to keep some
voters at home. The trick worked in
some Instances, although it was offset
by the careful management of the Good
organization, whose con-
stant appeal was, Don't be overcon-
hdent."
One of the loudest assertions made
by the rump Republican leaders was
that they had no S. p. barrel and
that the slush fund was non-eXistent
for Tuesdays election. However, there
was money enough from some source
to provide $50 automobiles and nu-
merous other equipages. There also
was enough money from some source
to hang up prizes for particularly we'll
finished work i'm certain sections and