Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1934-09-13
CLOUDS OVER CALIFORNIA
(The Capital Timesl

The sensational victory of Upton
Sinclair in the Democratic primaries
in California Tuesday is one of the
major political upsets of the year and
one that indicates how far reaching
is the breakdown of old political
alignments.
Mr.. Sinclair Is former Social.
list turned Democratic. His rec
ord as an author and journalist
has been one that has brought
him the enmity of wealth and
privilege from the very start. He
was denounced as a muckraker
and despised radical years ago
when his books exposed the vile
conditions I'm the stOckyards and
the corruption of the big news.
papers.
In California he gathered about him
a nucleus of liberals none of whom
had achieved much success in the
state of native sons. additionally
bossed by the big financial and bust
ness interests. He formulated a pro-
gram, interesting even if pretentious,
which he alphabetical as the
EPIC" plan and explained that those
letters stood for END Poverty in
California" He wrote book, 81,
Governor of California" in which he
further elaborated his theories.
The forces that have ruled govern
ment in California for years were at
first contemptuous, but as the cam
paign advanced their reaction turned
to that of alarm. A week or so before
the primary there was not an honest
political observer from the Golden
Gate to Hollywood who didn't concede
that Sinclair had an excellent chance
to win the nomination.
Tuesday the people of CalifOr.
MIA who voted In the Democratic
nomination chose Upton Sinclair
as the Democratic nominee for
governor by a vote of two to one
over his nearest opponent. The
deSpiSed former Socialist received
more than ten times the vote Civ.
en- to JustuS S. Wardell, for years
the old line Democratic party
leader, and more than 20 times
the vote received by Milton X.
Young, who held the Democratic
gubernatOrial nomination I'm 1880.
For years California was considered
a rock-ribbed Republican state. Wood
row Wilson became president because
of the sudden but temporary shift in
its vote in 1912. Franklin D. Roose-
welt upset the applicant again in
1882 by carrying the state by nearly
half million. Since then Repub-
licanism in California seems to be
on the wane, with incomplete returns
in Tuesdays primary showing the
of votes in the Democratic
primary to be equal or greater than
the Republican primary balloting.
The forces that have so long
ruled state government in Cali.
fOrnfa, that have suppressed free
speech and enforced the so.
called "criminal syndfcalism law
against those who dared dissent,
who have kept Tom Mooney i'm
San Quentin prison despite the
prepOnderance of evidence that he
Is not guilty, will do we'll to rec.
Ognize that public opinion is
growing FESTIVE and will no lon.
ger stay within party lines or
submit to party discipline.
The huge vote for Sinclair perhaps
is interpreted best as a protest vote
against the old political order on the
west coast. 1t lis advance notice,
too, to bourbon Democrats: that they
cannot hypocritically hope to cash in
on the prestige and popularity of
President Roosevelt when in reality
they oppose the liberalism of the new
deal.
The primary result in California is
a healthy sign and one that will cause
the old guardsmen in both major par
ties no end of distress. For them,
there are clouds over sunny California.