Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-19

Mushet was being used by the South
ern Pacific machine as a means Of dis
crediting the direct primary law now
in force In this city. Every statement
of fact contained in the Express arti-
Gle was true. At the same time that
paper was very careful to discriminate
between certain influences appearing
to control Mr.. Mushet and the reputa-
BILE business men and good citizens
who are among Mr.. Mushets sup
porters Upon this matter the EX-
press stated, among Mr.. Mushet S
| campaign committee are some Of the
| leading merchants in machine politics.
The Express believes that they are be-
ing innocently used by the machine to
attract votes to its candidates and de-
feat the cause of good government"
Notwithstanding this very clear ex-
preston on the part of the paper pub
fishing the article, the Hearst-South-
ern Pacific morning paper, which is
supporting Mr. Mushets candidacy,
made the article the subject of an
editorial in which it sought to inJure
the cause of good government in this
city by attempting to make the Good
Government organization responsible
for the article and to show that IN II
the Good Government organization had
sought ITO reflect upon the splendid
dom saw fit to announce their ale
glance to candidates other than the
one proposed by the Good Government
| organization" The editorial contained
a list of the highly respectable busl-
ness and professional men who com
pose Mr.. Mushet's campaign commit
tee and who were undoubtedly largely
induced to accept this position on ac-
count of personal friendship and past
/ 4. l., vrffh him
This attack by the morning Southern
Pacific organ upon the Good Govern
ment organization and the cause OF
| GOOD government that It represents,
was so manifesly unfair that the offl-
cials of that organization addressed a
letter to the editor of the Examiner
calling his attention to his papers
instrumentation Of the Good Govern
ment organization and stating that the
organization and no official of the or
ganization had anything to do with the
article.
! This letter the Examiner failed to
publish. but in an article appearing
in it's columns yesterday morning ae-
knowledged receipt of it and pretend
ed to make the "Amende honorable
and correct its misstatement. The
| apology or correction, however, was
made almost worse than the original
article Dy lHe ClOSiHB S0AtSAS~' "''4N'i
was as follows:
"Instead of implying that the state
ment emanated from the Good Gov
ernment organization the Examiner
should have. said it emanated from
some of the leaders of the Good Gov
ernment organization"
The we'll known lack of information
upon all local matters which charac-
! terizes the Hearst-Southern Pacific or
gan may make it possible that 1t does
not know that no person connected
with either the Evening Express or The
Herald, the two organs of good gov
ernment in this city, has any official
connection whatever with the Good
Government organization. This is
fact however, and. being a fact, the
pretended correction of the Hearst
Southern Pacific organ embodied a
statement as false as its original ar
ticle to which the Good Government
organization took exception. And
there is no doubt that this falsehood
was intended to have the same effect
in iniuring the Good Government Or
| saniZation that the editorial was de-
signed to have.
THAT the Good Government organi-
zation may be placed properly before
the public in the matter The Herald
reproduces for its readers the letter
which was addressed to the editor OF
the Examiner 1t is as tolloWs'
Editor Los Angeles Examiner-ln
your issue of this morning, in crit
icising an article that appeared In
an evening paper, you make the
unwarranted assumption that the
Good Government organization Is
RESPONSIBLE for anything that ap-
pears in print in criticism of cam
didates for office not supported by
that organization.
The Good Government organlza-
tion when it has any statement TO
make issues ii over the signatures
of it's responsible officers. Neither
the Examiner nor any other paper,
evening or morning, is qualified TO
speak authoritatively for the Good
Government organization.
The Good Government organiza-
tion welcomes newspaper support
and appreciates fair play on the
part of the press 1t does not de-
sire to have words put into its
mouth by the Examiner, or any
other paper, or be made RESPONSE
ble for statements it does not ut
ter. It has no censorship over what
appears in any newspaper, nor
does it control or is 1T controlled
by any newspaper. 1t is there
fore unfair to attribute to the Good
Government organization newspa-
per articles which do not appear
over the signatures of the respon-
sible officers of that organization.
No one having any authorized con-
nection with the Good Government
organization saw the article re-
ferred to before its publication.
For the many we'll known busi-
ness men who supported Mr. Mu-
shets candidacy, the Good Govern
ment organization has nothing but
feelings of highest regard. We be-
live that most of them became ad-
vocates of Mr. Mushet's candidacy
on account of personal friendship
and previous business relations,
and many because they sincerely
believed that he would make good
mayor for Los Angeles The Good
Government organization has never
criticised any of Mr.. Mushet's sup
porters, nor does it do so now.
Sufficient has been said to make
it clear that in the future neither
the Examiner nor any other paper
would be warranted in making the