The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-08-30
SINCLAIR'S WIN
is BY-PRODUCT
OF DEPRESSION
Distressed Masses Cry for
More Drastic Action
Than New Deal.
BY MAX STERN
BY MAX STERN
Times Special Writer.


SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 3o.-How
did it happen that the Democrats
of conservative California acclaimed
Upton Sinclair, ex-SocialiSt, muck
raker and pamphleteer, as their
party. leader and nominee for Gov
ernor?
The answer seems to lie-in the
depression. but CALIFORNIA; peculiar
circumstances need some explaining
because Of the drastic nature OF the
political revolution that has swept
in Mr.. Sinclair and his running
mate, Sheridan Downey, a Sacra-
mento lawyer and left-winger,
who won the nomination for Lieu
Governor.
CALIFORNIA; latest three Governors
have been friendly to corporate in
terests. It's courts have kept Tom
Mooney in Jail for eighteen years.
It's "vigilantes" and would-be Fas-
cists in shirts of many colors have
terroriZed workers and others in a
score of places. It's law officers
recently have Jailed 600 men and
women in an effort to "liquidate the
Reds" On the surface, California
appeared ra-cOnServatiVe. Yet
the dominant Democrats chose a
left-wing liberal to lead them.
Here is as battling an enigma as
the American political crazy quilt
displays.
1915 Per Cent on Relief
The answer lies primarily not in
isues of civil liberties or property
privilege as such, but in distress.
CALIFORNIA; workers, jobless, and
farmers have suffered acutely in the
last five years. The other factor,
almost equally important, is the
unique quality of Mr.. Sinclair's
campaign. He definitely promised
quick and substantial ameliOration
for economic wrongs.
CALIFORNIA; three chief industries,
OIL lumber and agriculture, were in
distress even before 1929. Prohibi-
ton played havoc with its great
vineyards and wineries. The COL
lapse of five years ago struck cruel
ly at the building, shipping, movie,
mineral, tourist and other indus
tries. A series of dry years made
farming hazardous.
On top of all this, the climate
beckoned to tens of thousands of
eastern jobless who came from every
state in their flivvers. In June,
594, 1900 Californians, not counting
transients, were on federal relief
rolls-1O.5 per cent of the entire
population. The jobleSS have been
variously estimated at between 700,-
900 and 100000.
Labor troubles have embittered
the people. The longshoremenS
strikes of 1919, 1921 and 1884 stirred
fierce animoSities. The July gen.
eral strike in San Francisco looSed
a new "anti-Red" hysteria Finally,
farm labor, not yet touched by the
New Deals NRA or AAA, is so
underpaid and poorly housed that
the camps of migratory fruit and
vegetable pickers from Imperial
county to Marysville have been
scenes this year of ugly strikes and
bloody reprisals. In these rural
slums there have been at least elev-
en- major outbreaks.
Politicians Have Done Little
CALIFORNIA; politicians have done
little to help. The late Governor
James Rolph left a deficit of $780,
100000 in the state treasury, which
is due to swell to $130,00O,00O next
year A new and troublesome state
sales tax, invoked to keep open the
schools, has been an irritant.
Senator William Gibbs McAdoo,
whose leadership of the states DEM
ocracy is threatened by the Sinclair
victory, failed to keep peace in his
party. Fighting the McAdoo-George
Creel wing with all the spleen of
partisan war was the DOckweiler-
Wardell faction. In this party
crisis, Senator McAdoo left for
Europe. The junior senator also was
accused of playing politics with fed
eral relief.
Thus were the fields ripe for the
harvest of Sinclair votes. His pledge
to lend poverty in California" filled
the halls and plastered the small
automobiles with Sinclair posters.
National politicians here do not
take the result as a criticism of the
Roosevelt administration. 1t is, they
say, only the voice of the distressed
masses of California urging more