Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-17
GOOD Government
BOOSTS ESHLEMAN
Letter Sent Out Commencing
Him as Candidate for Rail-
way Commissioner
WORKED AS A SECTION HAND
Fought Race Track Bill Through
Assembly at Session
of 1907
WORKED AS A SECTION HAND

The Los Angeles Good Government
organization has taken an active in
terest in the campaign of John NJ.
Eshleman, Lincoln Roosevelt league
candidate for state railroad commits
sioner, and is doing what it can to Sc
cure his nomination on the Republican
ticket. The Good Government organi-
zaton yesterday addressed the follow
ing letter to the public, urging that
the voters of the state favor him at
the primaries:
working as a section hand on the
Southern Pacific railroad a dozen years
ago, John NJ. Eshleman is today max
ing a tour of the state in the interest
of his candidacy for railroad commits
Sioner-a position wherein he Will have
a voice as to the conduct of that Same
railroad within the limits of the state
constitution and the laws of the state.
LAWYER OF NOTE
"Mr Eshleman, who within d dozen
years has become q lawyer of note,
does not take the position that the
railroad commission is a body without
power or functions, carefully shorn of
authority by the supreme court. On
the contrary, while the supreme court
apparently has done its best to curtaiI
the powers of the commission, he says
that the constitution and legislative
enactments give plenty of scope to the
commission to permit of very useful
work throughout the state. The rail-
road has long recognized the impor-
tance of the position of railroad COM
missioner and has usually managed to
gain control of it through the most
subservient type of machine politician.
Theodore Summerland, the machine
candidate in the third district, is ex
actly this type of man, and the chief
thing that he has done in office has
been the drawing of his salary
"Eshleman's career has been me-
teoric, and both in his private and po-
litcal life he has done big things well.
When he fought the Eshleman race
track gambling bill through the as
sembly in the session of 1907 he pre-
pared the way for a measure which
became a law last year. He was
founder of the Lincoln-Roosevelt Re
publican league. AS deputy state
labor commissioner he established the
validity of the child labor law in Cal
ifornia. AS the first district attorney
of Imperial county he had the chief
work to perform in launching a new
county in this state.
SECTION HAND
"Al1 this is the more remarkable
when we stop to consider that it was
on August 8, 1898, that he quit his sec
tiOn job on the Southern Pacific at
Herndon and set out for the state uni
versity He had been on his own re-
sources since the age of II and knew
what it was to work with his hands at
any kind of work that came along. He
made his own living while at college,
and he was graduated in 1902 with the
highest class hOnors. That he was not
merely dig" but possessed of hu-
man, social qualities, is shown by the
fact that he was made president of his
c1aCG His cphDla was bar
emplified by his election to Phi Beta
Kappa and his being rewarded with
the lie COnte scholarship for distin-
guished work in college Taking his
masters degree the following year,
he was admitted to the bar. His first
public appointment was as deputy state
labor commissioner by Governor Par
dee, in which office he served two
years. Later he was appointed deputy
district attorney of Alameda county
In the fall of 1906 he was elected to
the legislature.
RACE TRACK BILL
THE fight he made for the race track
gambling bill which bore his name
nearly cost him his life. He was under
tremendous pressure, and this contrib
uted to a general physical breakdown.
The machine threatened to withhold all
appropriations for the University of
bill. Notwithstanding, he fought to
the finish, securing the passage of the
bill through the assembly. He arose
from sick bed to prevent reconsid-
GRAFTON. After the session he under
went three operations and was car
ried to the desert on a stretcher. His
health rapidly improved and upon the
creation of the county of Imperial he
was elected its first district attorney.
"Eshleman's whole career has been
that of a man who has made good
Courage, will power intelligence and
integrity have been demonstrated by
hard tests from his earliest Independent
beginnings. If the people of the third
district, comprising all of Southern
California and the counties as far
north as and including Contra Costa,
Alameda and San Joaquin, want a
railroad commissioner of backbone and
energy, a man who will make that
body live, active factor in the re-
demption of the state from railroad
control, they will put John NJ. Eshle-
man in that office"