The Alaska daily empire., 1923-08-24
What Started Trouble.

In the issue or Sunday, August |12, The San Francisco Journal pub lisned the following article on it's first page
 Hiram Johnson's followers in this state will undoubtedly be interested in knowing exactly what he thinks
 and how he feels about his own political fortunes in California. To-
 day The Journal is able to give them
 that information, through the med
 ium of a letter written early in June
 by Senator Johnson to Charles K.
 McGjatchy. part owner of the Sac
 mitted by him to A. E. Boynton.
 Chairman of the State Republican Committee. The document came to The Journal by no dishonorable mean, but in the regular course of gathering news. The letter, con- sisting of quotatioGs except the first three lines, from Johnson (whom McClatchy calls ',the Chief'') follows:
 Sacramento. June II, 1923. The following, of course, will be
 personal and confidential. I have
 received a couple of letters from the Chief. Following are some quota tions:
 ''I feel that Harding will be able to renominate himself, although
 some very good people, like Senator
 Moses and George Hspry Payne. be- Hove otherwise and want to com
 mence an active campaign. As have said to you often, I would like to be, President I think any American in political life who pre- tends otherwise is wholly hypo- critical realize however, political
 realities, and cannot see success in an active candidacy A sort ot passive attitude never brought me anywhere, and my natural inclina- tion Is to fight. This, though, is a kind of valor ofuignSrance, or blind ing ones self to-. .aetualities; and hardly wise. The next few mqnths possibly will clarify the political
 atmosphere. and any personal de- claration am leaving entirely to the future.
 ..The delegation from California, however, is different matter. It ought to be composed of our friends
 mot compromise of some of our
 friends and some of our enemies,
 and this whether we have a canai-
 date or notsrxsIf Rrogressjves are
 going to continue in politics in Cali fori ia, it seems obvious to me they
 must get ready to redeem themselves and the State. If they permit Chandler, Dickson 4 Andy Lawrence and the Hoover crowd to control the national delegation and again elect national committeeman, they
 might just as well resign themselves
 te .rc role of outsiders with the mere
 capacity for criticism and none for
 doing.
 "Since last year I have endeav- ored to impress this on all our friends. We lost California prin- cfpally because we compromised with those who only compromised because they feared we would whip them and who remained as conser- vative and reactionary as ever, but bided their time to strike. We de- stroyed the morale of progress, and
 convinced the. ordinary individual
 that we are no different from our
 opponents, that both sought politi-
 cal success only.
 My strength while I was Gov erncr was in never yielding for an
 instant to the old rotten crew,
 standing always the same. My
 weakness today is that have yield ed and given power, position and political strength to the very men l so often formerly denounced. The
 past is past, and I have only re-
 ferred to it as instructive for the
 future. l am under no Illusions now about California. Really, c. K, I doubt if l could carry it against Hoover, Harding or any other can didate. The old Crew are in the saddle. For the first time since 1910 they have the State, all its offices and an active militant or ganization both in publicity and otherwise in the large counties.
 | Chandler has been in Washing ton lasely. He is to have charge of the Presidents itinerary in Cali fornia. He boasted. so my letters say. after the city's election and Fredericks' victory in Los Angeles that he now has California in Ais pocket. He spoke of national delel gates next year. with a ticket to be led by@Hoover~anti RichardpU1:4a and