The San Francisco call., 1910-07-29
FRANCISCO
CROWD OF 1900
HEARS JOHNSON
LincOln=R0oseyelt League Cam
didate Cheered as He De-
nOunCes Herrin

About 1000 residents of the Rich
mond district crowded Clement hall
i in Clement street at Sixth avenue last
| night to hear Hiram W. Johnson, the
Lincoln Roosevelt league candidate for
governor, promise to eliminate the
Southern Pacific and William F. Herrin
from the political control of the state.
The crowd, which included a large num-
Der of women, was sympathetic, and the
| Lincoln Roosevelt aspirant for guber-
material nomination ! was repeatedly
cheered for his vigorous denunciations
of machine methods and corrupt cor
porate dominance of the state govern
ment.
Olin L. Berry presided and introduced
the speaker of the evening in brief
addreSs, during the course of which
Johnson's name was roundly cheered.
Johnson opened his address by outlin-
ing his position and the causes leading
up TO his candidacy, remarking that as
MS hearers knew fro mexperience what
II was to make a fight against bossfsm
1t was hardly necessary to tell them
that his fight was for the overthrow of
the machine that made the political
boss a possibility
DENOUNCES HERRIN
The Southern Pacific and William F.
Herrln furnished the principal text of
| his speech and he vigorously de-
nounced the head of the railroad COM
panys law department and the ma
chine controlled by him. The railroad
machine, Johnson said, secured control
of the political situation in California
by cajolery and persuasion. after which
1t annexed the. state government by
outrageous fraud and was now endeav-
oring to perpetuate itself in control by
It's immense power to crush any who
dared oppose it.
With the direct primary as a
weapon" said Johnson, the people are
now in position to effect the political
freedom of the state, and it is up to the
voters to prove whether they have suf-
ncient nerve to go up against the gun
or power and strike the blow that will
release California from the thralldom
of corporation domination"
CAPITAL HERRIN'S OFFICE
He said that the people were labor
ing under delusion when they be-
lieved that the capitol of the state was
al Sacramento. He reiterated his pre-
vious declaration that all the important
legislation of the last quarter century
was enacted in the law offices of the
Southern Pacific. without mentioning
names Johnson paid his respects to his
opponents in the race for the guberna-
torial nomination. He scoffed at their
arguments that they were committed
solely to the material prosperity of the
state In this connection he said:
Every one in the state is interested
in the good roads movement and we
all want to see the fruit and grain in
dustries thrive. These arguments are
merely meant to befog the issue and
that issue is: Shall the people of the
state take back into their own hand
the governemnt which was wrested
from them by fraud?
The republican party is at present
enga ged in internecine strife and those
in its ranks who differ from the ma
chine element are denounced as being
opposed to its best interests In this
connection / want to say that there is
an issue greater than mere PARTISAN
ship and that issue involves the polit-
ical freedom of the party and of the
state of California. My republicanism
is progressive and insurgent. For this
and thousands of others have been
practically read out of the party by
few old line politicians resurrected for
that purpose by William F. Herrin.
when an attempt was made to stem the
tidal wave of insurgency in California
last May. We can not be read out as
easily as that, as will be shown when I |
come up from the southland to Tehach-
api with plurality of $4,000 votes"
CHEERED
Johnsons references to Roosevelt. |
Bristow, Cummins. Id Toilette, were
cheered and he himself |
was vigorously applauded when he |
ended his speech with the prediction |
that he would be the next governor |
the vice presidents on the plat !
form were f. j. Callan, candidate for |
the senatorial nomination in the !
Twenty second district; J. E. White, A. |
w. Kennedy, c. w. Riffee, L. Aatler and !