Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-06

| three. Smith, Mushet and Parish, vii
pull through to the final,
No one of them is, in our judgment
formidable competitor for Alexander
and each presents serious drawbacks
when considered in a purely political
way-as a candidate.
Smith is handicapped by the "Repub-
lican" convention Endorsement, which
is nearly equivalent to hanging the
, letters IS. P" around mans neck. II
is to his credit that he did not formally
ask for this nomination, but on the
other hand his Ieutenants were at
work weeks beforehand fixing delega-
tions in his behalf. Ostensibly he has
the machine on his side, but whether
it will stick to him until the finish is
another question.
Mushet is generally recognized as the
Times candidate, which would seem to
be hoodoo enough to put him out of the
running almost from the start. If any
thing else were lacking, his war on the
public schools conducted for the beneht
of the Times spite against the superln-
tendent, would be sufficient.
Farish's chief handicap Is general
lack of strength. AS the Chinaman said
of his pair Of treys: No habee legs
enough" If there is not much to be
said against him, there is also little or
nothing to he said in his favor He is
good natured and well meaning, but the
public is not going to take his can
didacy very seriously.
Smiths chief point of advantage is
that he has a lot of old-time political
workers enlisted in his behalf. Even
should the machine play him false
which is easily possible-he would still
retain most of these. He has, there
#1,A oh nf
lasting to the final election and of be-
ing Alexander's competitor at the
finish.
Mushet's chief point of advantage is
the support of a number of business
men-chiehy wholesalers-who are loyal
to their former secretary. At the head
of this committee stands NJ. H. New
mark, one of the ablest business men
of the city and an all-round, splendid
good fellow. Pacific outlook welcomes
his advent into politics, and can only
wish it were in behalf of a better can
didate. Mr. Mushet's published list of
supporters, while it looked very impos-
ing, does not bear analysis. If John
Smith who signed up happened to be
a messenger boy in the - National
| bank, il appeared - National bank
| by John Smith" By that device the
names of many of the principal COM
worked into the list. Mr.. Mushet Is
also believed to have the support of the
Liberal alliance" a motion to that
effect having passed a thinly attended
meeting of the executive committee.
Also Mr. Mushet has the support of the
Record, although how that paper is
going to manage to ram down the
throats of its working people readers a
candidate touted by their chief enemy,
the Times, is a bit of a mystery.
Farish's largest advantage is sup
posed to lie in the fact that he is a
Democrat inherlting the partisan
strength that went to Harper. There
ought to be enough in that to bring his
vote about up to the level of Mushet's,
but there is not enough in our judg-
ment to put him in the same class with
Smith and certainly not with Alex
ander.
If, as the campaign develops. the
machine becomes convinced Of the in
herent weakness of Smith, so that the
leaders decide TO leave him, they are
much more likely to go to Farish than
to Mushet. With the machine will go
the bulk of the Liberal alliance vote,
that is to say the saloon vote. But we
rather expect Smith to put up a forcible
campaign and to hold the party
strength together. Mushet's campaign
will be noisy, but will lack substance;
and a feeling of resentment and anger
will develop against him. on account
of his attitude toward the schools and
the school board, that none of the other
candidates win be called upon to en-
dure It is regrettable that he has
managed to induce a number of good
fellows to embark with him upon his
hazardous and Inflated trip.