Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-12


Vindicated by History
History has vindicated the position
| taken by Jefferson in his poilcy OF ac
o1Iiring continental territory as against
| ins,llaT or non-contiguous territory.
The Louisiana purchase, followed by
| the onenine up of the western ana
northwestern territory for exploration
and settlement, has given US couh-
try that is even now marvel 70 trans
marine principalities and empires;
neonle homogeneous and assimllaple,
whose sense of authority does not rest
upon the brows of kings nor is welded
bv sceptered hands, but reposes IN the
hearts of one hundred million freemen
and is symbolized in the warp ana
woof of their national nag,
'I congratulate you, felloW Denl-
ocrats and friends, in your eIoTts ~
hold IN the political precepts incur
Gated and practiced by your poltlcal
leader. whose revered name you so
nro1Idlv bear. Without the common
incentives to political place and prefer.
ment, cheered only by deep sense oI
duty to your country and an apldlIs
faith in the principles which have maoe
our country great, nid you oi, peeSeNere are en-
gagged"
C. D. Willard, formerly secretary OF
the Municipal league and now editor
of the Pacific outlook, urges that the
qualifications of candidates whose
names will appear on the primary cleo
tion ballot, should be assembled by
some reputable organization and placed
before the voters in pamphlet. lie
is likewise of the opinion that the idea
Of a convention or an Endorsement of
certain candidates is poor policy.
Discussing these questions Mr.. Will
lard says editorially in the Pacific out
look issued yesterday:
"The preponderance of sentiment at
the gathering of good government rep
resentatives seemed to be against in
dorsement. The machine has already
decided to nominate a ticket in ad-
vance of the tryout, and has called =
convention for that purpose to be held
September 22. 1t has the impudence
to call this convention Republican, al
though it has no legal right to the
name.
Firm Stand Taken
saThe Express and the Herald which
are the newspaper representatives of
the municipal reform movement, both
! take the position that to hold parti-
san convention at this time is to vio-
late the spirit of the charter amend
ment which calls for non-partisan
| primary in the tryout ballot. If these
| journals are right in their contention,
| then it is equally reprehensible for the
good government forces to hold a con-
vention and name ticket-and that Is
what indorsing candidates must mean.
"Cf course everybody knows that the
vote OF the good government people
will be cast almost unanimously for
George Alexander for mayor. 1t needs
no formal nomination to bring that 20
pass He was put in the field by these
| forces in the recall campaign six
months ago, and he has accomplished
all that was expected of him as mayor
It is equally clear that this same vote
will go to Leslie Hewitt if he accepts
the nomination for city attorney; for
Lelande, city clerk, and for Mallard,
city assessor, and for Hance, city treas
urer The election of these four is
somewhat in the nature of foregone
conclusion, we take 1t. whether they
receive formal nominations from any
source or not But with respect to the
rest of the ticket the field is open.
What Direct Primary Means
THE purpose of the non-partisan
direct primary is to allow the people to
choose the candidates from among
whom they are to make their final
selection, just as formerly the parties
chose them. The vice Of the old sys-
tenn was that the party machines
stacked the cards in such a way that
when we went to the polls it was for
sorry choice between evils. If the