The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-10-30

all because WlSp1Sh. mllQ-man-
 nered, 'bfue-eyed writing nfat1 in
 Pasadena published pamphlet
 entitled, q, Governor of Califor-
 mia" and made its title begin to
 look prophetic by getting himself
 nominated for governor on the
 democratic ticket.
 The little man who threw this
 great state into such an tlproar is
 Upton Sinclair, for 30 years
 militant Socialist, author of The.
 Jungle" and whole library of
 later books tearing holes in the
 established order.
 STATE HAS JITTERS
 Whether he will be elected, whe-
 ther the tide of unemployed will
 ital and industry, including the
 Croesus-like cinema industry of Hollywood will leave California fiat remains to be seen.
 The zero hour is November 6, date of the general election. Until that day Las come and gone, Cali- fornians are doomed to endure
 such case of jitters as they never
 have experienced before. Business is thoroughly fright
 ened and party lines have broken
 down. Voters are dividing into two main groups - those who be- liev Sinclair is Messiah who will lead all the unemployed out of the bondage of the depression, and those who believe he will plunge the state into a Sovietized commune.
 TURN TO MERRIAM
 The latter are concentrating their support behind Frank F. Merriam, acting governor since the death of the late Governor James Rolph, Jr.
 Merriam's former affiliations were with the conservative wing of
 the republican party. Into his cam paign army are coming democrats and progressive republicans who in normal times. would scondemn him as an impossible reactionary. Further to complicate this strange situation, third candidate is in the field in the person of Ray mond L. Haight, young Los An- geles attorney new to politics of the state. He won his place on the ballot by forming party of his own known as the Commonwealth party, in which he had no opposi- ton.
 Haight is attacking both the Sinclair and Merriam camps, mak- ing bid for the votes of the pro- gressive democrats who cannot stomach the strong Sinclair medi- cine, and for the progressive re- publicans who believe Merriam will be the tool of big business. HAIGHT HAS SLIM CHANGE By this maneuver he has made some progress, but opinion up to this time does not credit him with enough strength to win and var ious straw polls have indicated he is taking votes from both oppo- nents in about equal numbers, so
 that his candidacy is not expected
 to change the relative standing of
 the two leading contenders.
 The understand Sinclair's sky
 rocket rise, it is necessary to go
 back to the national election of 1882, which brought him the oppor tunity he had been waiting for
 many years. All his adult lifetime
 he had been struggling to put over
 his social reforms through the me-
 dium of the Socialist party. But, after repeated failures, he came to the realization that he never could succeed that way because the party its ideas and it's terminology were foreign to American soil, and not understood by the American voter. SWITCHES TO DEMOCRATS He concluded he would have to move his activities into another party. California went Democratic for Franklin D. Roosevelt, hun dreds of republicans registering democratic to vote for him. Came the New Deal, with it's new outlook upon social and economic problems. Its popularity was mani fest in this state from the begin
 ming. It presented Upton Sinclair with tehS opportunity he had been looking for, so he bade his Socialist comrades goodby and adopted the democratic party.
 Some of the democratic brethren