POLITICAL SHOCK.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20424, 1 October 1934, Page 5

POLITICAL SHOCK.

Record Majority for Upton Sinclair. DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION. (Special to the “Star.”) SAN FRANCISCO, August 31. After all the protracted talking of “prosperity around the corner,” and the New Deal of President Roosevelt, Upton Sinclair, former Socialist arid now a Democrat, has given the old-time politicians of the United States the rudest shock of many decades. He has captured the Democratic nomination for the Governorship of California. Conservative Democrats all over the country were dismayed when the first tabulations of California’s primarv election votes began to come through, but as the hours passed Sinclair piled up a formidable majority, amounting to a groat landslide that made even the staid Roosevelt Cabinet Ministers “sit up and take notice.” When Sinclair’s majority passed the 150,000 mark it created a record in California's political history. What happened in the two other State primary elections, in Miccissippi and South Carolina, palcci into insignificance compared with the mircle in” “Sunr.v California.” Tt was Sinclair’s victory that was most talked about, for here was a man wnese name has been symbolical of radicalism for a quarter cf e, century; a mail whose association with the Bcr.iccratic party is only a matter cf months, whose methods of campaigning and rciitical philosophy shocked the* Co serve.tives to their marrow. And he had. spreadeaglcd the field. Ordinarily, Democratic leaders of the nation do not care who captures the nomination in California. It has been eo long since California sent a Democrat to the State House a t Sacramento, that in official Washington they had rather lost interest- Put this year it is different. The 1 »c nicer aits carried t!.e State for Rooseve.lt two years ago r.v.ci elected eleven out of twenty Congier: men. All those Congressmen are up for rc election this year. Leaders Worried. That is what worries the national

leaders, for old-line Californian Democrats bombarded Washington with warn" ings that if Sinclair were nominated ho might drag the whole ticket down to defeat in November, including, of course, th© eleven Congressmen. That would be a party blow of no small proportions. Old-line Democrats appealed frantically to President Roosevelt for some word or act that would help George Creel (Woodrow Wilson’s war-time propagandist), of Justice Wardell, who were Sinclair’s chief opponents. Neither the word nor the act was forthcoming. Mr. Roosevelt took the position that California Democrats should fight their own. battles, and he refused to interveneIt was Sinclair’s campaign ‘*to end poverty in California,” by Ins Epic plan, that won him nationwide attention, ami in Southern California —he resides in Pasadena, near Los Angeles—he swept the boards, piling up a five to on© i majority. His platform to abolish poverty I had a very strong appeal. In Los Angeles County Sinclair polled 214.404 to Creel’s 73,405, but in San Francisco Creel won 42,981 supporters to Sinclair’s 24,503. Sinclair’s State plurality totalled nearly 100,000. Crowds Paid to Hear Him. It is significant that the number of registered Democrats has exceeded the number of registered Republicans in California for the first time in 30 years. More extraordinary still, Sinclair charges for admission to hear his campaign speeches, and gets capacity crowds, while his opponents for the Democratic nomination, who did not charge admission, had poor audiences. Briefly, Sinclair!! if elected Governor proposes to put the unemployed upon the land and in factories under State control, to shift taxes to the well-to-do, and in the long run to substitute a cooperative community for the present individualistic community rooted in the profit system. Some of his proposals { are similar to those advanced by the prc- * sent national administration, but others go fur beyond any objectives announced by President Roosevelt. ‘ A Victory for the New Deal.” Before Sinclair hurried to Washington to discuss business matters with President Roosevelt, he proclaimed his intention of applying “the principles of democracy to industry.” He issued the following statement from Los Angeles;

"To-day’s nomination is a victory, noF> for me, but for the people of California, and the first of many which they intend to win. It is a victory for the New Deal. It means not merely that the people of California are going to have their share of the New Deal, but that they are going to bring the State of California into line for the national New Deal, and end the absurd situation under which the funds of the New Deal are given to the State of California and used bv a reactionary administration in an effort to wreck the New Deal. “We have been nominated as Democrats, and we intend to function as Democrats, and to apply tb© principles of democracy to industry. A million and a quarter persons are dependent upon public charity in California. We intend to put these persons at productive labour, make them self-supporting, take them off the backs of the taxpayers, and stop the process of driving our State into bankruptcy. There is nothing revolutionary about this proposal, and the entire nation will be doing it before the end of the year. “No issue could be more clearly cut than the one which will confront our voters in November. It is progress or reaction, industry for social service or for private greed. Our people are thor-< oughlv awake to this issue. They havebuilt their own organisation which nothing can break, and will go forward to. do the job and end poverty in California.” Would Release Tom Mooney. Probably one of the most jubilant persons in California over Sinclair’s victory at the primaries, was Tom Mooney, America's most noted prisoner, known as “America’s Dreyfus.” Sinclair, in one of the chief promises made during his campaign, declared that if elected be would issue a full pardon to Mooney as his first official act upon being sworn into office. In addition, he would offer Mooney a “sincere apology, on behalf of (he people of California, for atrocious hardships they have caused him during the past sixteen years.” Four previous Governors have denied a pardon to Mooney, who was convicted for participation in the San Francisco Preparedness Day bombing outrage, which took the lives of ten persons and injured forty others. Mooney’s fifth pardon plea is now pending before Governor Frank Merriam, who wil] oppose' Sinclair in .the November election.