Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1910-10-31
MRS. SMITHS INTEREST

r we were to say that the incum-
bency of John d. FredericlSs, Cal
Il vim Hartwell and Tuss Eldridge,
and others of their kind, made prices
higher and living conditions harder for
Mrs. John Smith of Siskiyou county
you would think us INDUCING in one
of our merry little quips, wouldn't
you? But we are not joking; were
never more serious in our life. 1t is
a fact.
Walter Parker, political manager for
the Southern Pacific in Southern Cali
fornia, has controlled the offices Of
the district attorney, coroner and
board of supervisors of Los Angeles
county. Fredericks, Hartwell and FL
bridge have been his lieutenants, and,
as reward, his benefieiaries. The Of
fees have been filled up with attaches
in favor of the Southern Pacific. They
have been the main wheels in the ma
chine in this county. Up to recently
these men and their friends controlled
conventions and elections.
With the power they gave Walter
Parker he was able to turn over Los
Angeles county to the S. p. With this
power, plus that in San Francisco
which is similarly obtained, it has
elected and controlled railroad COM
missioners who let them gouge you
on rates, assessors who lightened cor
poration taxes and put the burden on
real estate, legislatures and governors
who framed and passed laws giving
them control over terminals, etc.
With the same power the S. p. got
from the Fredericks, Hartwells and
Eldridges (over conventions and cleo
tions) it let only it's kind of men go
to congress, and these congressman
passed laws favorable to corporations.
The Panama canal was delayed until
Roosevelt forced a start on it; water
competition was throttled; stocks were
watered riotously-aIl making passen-
ger and freight rates necessarily
higher.
The same kind of controlled states
men taxed the necessaries of life
through the tariff; the swollen for
tunes thus created found their way
into Wall street for gambling or in
vestment and thence into the hands
of the Morgan, Rockefeller and one
or two other groups which now con-
troll all the railroads, the insurance
companies, the factories making sugar,
oil, tobacco and a hundred other ar
ticles of weekly consumption.
So John Smith pays more for ship
road his insurance, his tobacco, and
Mrs. John Smith more for her gro
ceries. calicoes, threads, shoes, hats
and everything else that is taxed in
one way or another to feed the hopper
of j. Pierpont Morgan, whose Midas
touch enables him to ride like king
in special Pullman train to a re-
ligious convention in Cincinnati with
Louis Sherry, the famous New York
caterer, and a corps of chefs and wait
ers, and live there in the princely
residence of a Standard Oil magnate,
specially leased for the occasion.
Mr.. and Mrs. John Smith of Sis
kiyou (as we'll as Mr.. and Mrs. James
Brown of Los Angeles) pay for all
this-and that's no pipe dream or
paragraphers joke. Without the Fred
erickses, Hartwells and Eldridges all
over the country to help make up the
grand ensemble of political power for
Wall street, living would be much
cheaper from Siskiyou to San Diego"
and elsewhere.
Politically, these men who are ask
ing to be reelected in this county are
about tenth cousins of ]. Pierpont
Morgan. There may be some satisfac-
ton for them in that, but it is no
good argument for them among people
like the Smiths and Browns.