The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-08-06
MACHINE men
To BE PICKETS
FOR ANDERSON
Herrin Political Bureau Making
Desperate Attempt to Stop
Curry Landslide
Chosen Squad Will Be Armed
With Power of Threats as
Well as Promises
By GEORGE A. VAN SMITH


Of picked men TO labor with the mem
bers Of the organizations that have
formally indorsed Charles F. Curry for
governor. This plan. it is said, was
agreed upon yesterday at a secret con-
ference Of machine leaders at the
Anderson headquarters.
According to the leak from the confer
ence. ths railroad political bureau has
agreed to select four or five men from
each Of the organizations represented
on the joint legislative board. These
men. or q majority of them, will not
be members Of the legislative board.
Two Of the organizations represented
on that board voted almost as units
for Curry The Anderson missionaries
are TO be chosen as the men who went
over the Southern Pacific system for
Anderson before the members OF the
joint board were chosen.
Presumably the mistake of sending
out a man VINO had been a strike
breaker viii not be repeated. So far
as possible the men chosen are TO be
well known and armed with authority
to make both threats and promises,
according to the subject of their
treatment. One of the chief purposes
Of their mission viii be to silence the
railrOadmen who are following up the
Endorsement given by the legislative
board with vigorous campaigning for
Curry.
POLITICIANS EYES OPENED
The machines failure to prevent the
Endorsement of Curry for governor
and L a Hayes for congress by the
working railroadmens joint legisla-
tive board was something more than a
cruel disappointment TO the managers
Of Alden Anderson's campaign. 1t
opened the eyes Of the old time poll
ticians who had chung to the belief
that in some mysterious way the fear
some power of the machine would be
exterted at the eleventh hour in a
manner to insure Anderson's nomina-
ton.
They banked on the Herrin political
bureaus ability to drive the represen-
tatives of the conductors, brakemen
and engineers into a formal espousal
Of Anderson's candidacy. They had
been told that the convention was
framed for Anderson and that there
would be no hitch; that the indorse-
ment of Anderson by the railroad
mems organizations would be a con-
vincing demonstration of the ma
chimes undiminished power
Out through the state division or
carnations had formally Endorsed
-
knew that but they were told that the
missionaries sent out by the political
bureau had pulled down a majority Of
the men who would sit on the joint
legislative board. When the board
assembled the machine manipulators
discovered that their missionary work
was only half done. While they had
manage TO land nearly all of the
engineers they had scarcely made an
impression on the representatives of
the. conductors and brakemen.
TRAINMEN "GET WISE"
The trainmen had learned their les
son in attendance upon the sessions of
the legislature. 1t was their full
crew bill that was numbered among
the missing when the acts of the
Legislators were compiled. 1t was
their organizations that had borne the
brunt Of legislative effort alone. 1t
was their organizations that had de-
cided TO begin TO fight for favorable
legislation before the nominations
were made this year.
The rout Of the oldtimers, who had
lived in the Shadow Of a machine bug
aboo. was complete when they learned
that the railroadmen had not only in
dorsed Curry for governor, but had
also given their Endorsement to E. A.
Hayes for congress in the fifth district
There was never any more secret about
about the machines support of Ander-
son The selection of Dawson as the
beneficiary of the Hayes scalping bee
was conditioned only upon his re-elec-
ton TO the office of mayor in San Jose.
He won that fight without an effort,
and Johnnie Mackenzie. who believed
that he had a majority of the legis-
lative board pulled over TO Anderson,
was even more sanguine of the indorse
1nent Of Dawson. Hayes won.
The gloom of the Anderson men over
their failure to land the working rail-
rosdmen's Endorsement has been in
tensihed by the reports returned by old
machine wheel horses. That those re-
ports were made as grudgingly as they
were received is beside the question.
The fact remains that they have been
made and that those reports, coupled
with the railroadmen disaster, has re-
suited in frantic appeals for help di-
rected heller SHELTER from the governor
down
It is an open secret that oldtime ma
chinemen who are for Anderson be-
cause he is the machine candidate,
have not only desisted in their efforts
10 land votes for him, but have in
formed his managers that they can not
do effective work. That in the secrecy
of their councils some of them have
been bold enough to declare that An
derson can not hope TO run better than
third in the race is not open TO Ques-
ton.
SMALL CRUMBS OF COMFORT
Some of the Anderson men find COM
fort in the report that Hiram W. john
sons campaign is slowing up in south
ern California In the other camps
that report is not taken as prophetic
of Anderson gains, but assindicating
a rise in the Stanton stocks. The John
son people are generally as confident
in their assertions as they were two
weeks ago. Some of them are per-
turbed by the reports from southern
California, and many of them admit
that if Johnson does not come north
TO the Tehachapi with the $4,000 plu-
rality which he claims the nomination
ofsCurry is assured.
The Curry men are tremendously
elated both with the Endorsement of
the railroadmen. which they won over
the most desperate opposition on the
part of the machine, but with the re-
ports they are receiving from southern
California They say that Currys visit
10 Los Angeles has given his southern
campaign a big boost and that even In
Los Angeles city he will be found night
ing for a division of the top vote when
the primary ballots are counted.