Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-07
All the Latest News and Notes in the Realm of Politics

and that the candidates indorsed at the
conference will have a clean sweep.
TWO CONTESTS
The two contests which the good
! government Democrats regard as eX-
! tremely important in the pending pri-
mary election are those involving the
candidacy of Joseph Mansfield and
Enoch Hidden for the nomination from
the Third superVisorial district ana
the candidacy of Martin Bekins ana
Henry Mcdonald for the nomination
from the Thirty eighth senatorial dis
trict.
There is another reason why it is
| considered extremely essential that
there be a full Democratic vote at the
primaries, and that is that delegates
to the county convention, which VIII
nominate the new county central COM
mittee and elect delegates to the state
convention, are to be elected at these
primaries. If the right kind of Dem
ocrats are not elected as delegates to
the county cOnVention-that is, II good
government Democrats are not sent to
the convention-the next Democratic
central committee is likely to be made
up largely of men who Will not repre-
sent the Good Government forces, and
who, therefore, will undo the good
work that has been accomplished by
the reformed Democracy of Los An
geles city and county.
In the contest between Joseph J..
Mansfield and Enoch Hidden it is ex-
tremely important that the good gov
ernment Democrats of Los Angeles do
everything possible to aid the people
of the Third supervisorial district to
elect Mansfield, the regular Democrat
ic candidate indorscd by the county
conference at Long Beach
Mansfield has been for many years
identified with the best element of the
states Democracy, constantly on the
side of honest politics, as against the
Southern Pacific bosses, and he has
been one of the most active workers
in the establishment and maintenance
of the present Good Government or
ganization and administration.
HIS OPPONENT
Opposing him, as a so-called Demo-
crat, without the support or the en-
couragement of the organized Democ-
racy of the city or county, is Enoch
Hidden, whose campaign backer is
Jim" Craig, and who has been con-
sistently aided by Martin Marsh, the
man who withdrew from the Demo-
cratic ticket four years ago to permit
the machine vacancy committee" to
indorse "Tuss' Eldridge, a machine
Republican, and thus insure the cleo
tion of the Parker Herrin candidate.
Martin Marsh recently changed his
registration to Democrat, admittedly
so that he could work for the nomina-
tion of Hidden, but he has stated that
if Hidden and Eldridge are both NOM
mated he will work for Eldridge.
Mansfield, the man indorsed by the
Democratic county conference, has
been for twelve years fighting this
kind of politics. opposed to the South
ern Pacific push. In the Seventy fifth
assembly district he has done some of
the best and most conscientious work
in the cause of better government.
That district which Is now a part of
the Third supervisorial district, owes
him a great deal and should be con-
graduated on the fact that it has
such an able and efficient candidate in
the field to oppose such men as "Tuss"
Eldridge and Enoch Hidden. The peo-
pie in the Third superyisorial district
have suffered considerably from mis-
representation at the hands of certain
administrative officials, for from the
year 1896 until 1902 the politics of that
section of Los Angeles were controlled
by such notorious bosses and South
ern Pacific tools as Eddie Morris, jim
Craig, Tom McCaffery, former boss of
the Democratic party Cat the same
time chief train dispatcher for the
Southern Pacific; George Retzer,
Bill Tawney, Bert Barham and other
lesser lights.
PUSH POLITICIANS
These men were all push politicians,
a majority of them in the actual en-
ployment of the Southern Paiific, and
they attended practically every state
convention, going and coming on free
pass books provided by the Southern
Pacific. These same men, whose ac-
tivities were persistently opposed by
Mansfield prevented the state con-
ventions from being held in Los An
geles because as this push was en-
ployed here by the Southern Pacific it's
members would not have had the out
of-toWn vacations granted by the
Southern Pacific, so they could attend
conventions and do Southern Pacific
politics.
All of these push politicians banded
together to defeat Mansfield at every
turn and to undermine the gradually
increasing strength of the little band
of decent workers who, led by Mans
field, sought to SOW in this city and
county the first seeds Of good govern
ment. When Mansfield was elected
a delegate to the convention in which
the seVenty-fifth assembly district
voted as a whole, they resorted to
every trick and artifce to defeat him
and succeeded. Aiding Mansfield at
that time were such well known good
government workers as Oscar Parish,
Edward Wehrle, Charles Van Valken-
berg John Falconer and, later, Albert
Norton.
When Mansfield was nominated for
the city council he was deliberately
knitted by this same "pLsh." The
members of that political gang, al
though now deposed from power and
practically eliminated from Demo-
cratic politics, are attempting to knife
him again, and they are behind the
movement to nominate Enoch Hidden
as candidate for supervisor from the
third district and Henry Mcdonald as
candidate for the senatorship from
the thirty eighth district.
QUALIFICATIONS
Hidden's only qualification seems to
be that he was once deputy game
warden some place in Minnesota, about
forty years ago. He has never been
known to take any part in the, move
ment for cleaner politics since the
crusade was instituted in this city. He
is considerably past seventy years old,
and his friends say he was dragged
into the race without knowing the real
object of his boosters, or without real
izing the secret nature of the contest
he was asked to wage against the reg
ular Democratic candidate.
The history of Henry Mcdonald,
candidate for the nomination as state
senator in the hirty-eighth district. is
too well known to need reviewing. He
was put into the race by the Southern
Pacific. and has been backed and
boosted bV Southern Pacific politicians.