Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909 — John Shaqi
Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909Hichborn, Franklin
History
Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909
Hichborn, Franklin
California -- Politics and government
The fact should not be lost sight of that the two Senators on the
Committee on Election Laws who led the fight against the Direct Primary
bill, Leavitt and Wolfe, in the Committee on Public Morals led the fight
against the Anti-Gambling bill. Nor should it be forgotten that two of
their most docile followers in the Committee on Election Laws, Kennedy
and Hare, are "Democrats." There was no partisanship shown in the ranks
of the opponents of the Direct Primary bill; machine Democrats and
machine Republicans united for its defeat. But when anti-machine
Republican and anti-machine Democrats united for its passage, Wolfe and
Leavitt were shocked beyond measure.
Machine Senators denounced the anti-machine Republicans as mongrels,
enemies of the Republican party, and insisted that if the anti-machine
Republicans persisted in continuing with the anti-machine Democrats to
secure the passage of an effective Direct Primary law, the Republican
party in California would go to smash.
The arrogant course of the machine members of the Election Laws
Committee, had at least one good effect it drove the anti-machine
Republicans and the anti machine Democrats together as a matter of
self-defense. The anti-machine Republicans and Democrats saw the machine
Democrats and Republicans united to defeat the passage of an effective
Direct Primary measure. So the anti-machine Republicans and Democrats
organized that they might successfully combat the organized machine
Democrats and Republicans. For the first time in the history of the
California Legislature, so far as the writer knows, the Senate divided
on the only practical line of division for the enactment of good
measures and the defeat of bad ones - with the anti-machine Senators on
one side and the machine Senators on the other.
The "band-wagon" Senators of the Welch variety, and the doubtful
Senators, were left for the moment to herd by themselves.
The anti-machine forces held meetings - caucuses if you like - to decide
upon the course to be pursued. They numbered at first twenty members,
fifteen Republicans and five Democrats. The Republicans were Bell,
Birdsall, Black, Boynton, Burnett, Cutten, Estudillo, Hurd, Price,
Roseberry, Stetson, Strobridge, Thompson, Walker and Wright; the
Democrats, Caminetti, Campbell, Cartwright, Miller and Holohan. George
Van Smith, of the San Francisco Call, credited with being an expert on
Direct Primary legislation, was admitted to the deliberations of the
twenty.
Senator Price, however, became alarmed at the irregularity of
anti-machine Republicans meeting with anti machine Democrats, gathered
his virtuous partisan skirts about him and fled in dismay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account