By GEORGE P. WEST
SAN FRANCISCO, May 8.—California's impressive endorsement of
Roosevelt at Tuesday's Presidential primary was accepted as a matter of course in
view of registration figures showing a Democratic majority of half a million in a
total registration of 2,900,000 and public interest and discussion are concerned
instead with the decisive victory of the Hoover faction in the Republican party
over Hearst-Merriam coalition that had appropriated the name of Governor Landon
in its bid for control of the State's forty-four delegates to the Cleveland
convention.
Mr. Hoover and his friends are jubilant, as are all other
elements that oppose William Randolph Hearst and his policies. California's
repudiation of Hearst was the theme of editorials and cartoons in the two San
Francisco newspapers not owned by Mr. Hearst, the independent Scripps-Howard News
and the Republican Chronicle, whose editor, Chester H. Rowell, headed the
uninstructed ticket of delegates.
Move by Hearst
Employes
The campaign here for Governor Landon was organized by Hearst newspaper
executives and political reporters and largely run by them, with Governor Merriam
tagging along. The Landon ticket included some of the shrewdest Republican
politicians in the State, and Mr. Hearst's five California newspapers, three of
which lead their fields in circulation, went the limit in support.
Although The San Francisco Chronicle and other Republican newspapers
friendly to Mr. Hoover are heralding the result as a triumph for Mr. Hoover, the
fact is that the whole emphasis of the campaign for the uninstructed delegation
was an attack on Hearst and an insistence on the free and independent character
of the men and women on the ticket.
Yet the Republican electorate understood that the uninstructed ticket had
been sponsored by men close to Mr. Hoover, and piled up a majority of nearly
100,000 for this ticket in the face of Hearst charges that it was in fact a
Hoover ticket.
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Probably the feeling of the Republican voters was reflected in an
editorial in The San Francisco news expressing a preference for the uninstructed
delegation, admitting that its success would increase Mr. Hoover's influence at
Cleveland and adding that the influence would at its greatest fall far short of
dominance.
Hoover Hopes Stirred
In circles close to Mr. Hoover, Tuesday's results have reawakened hope
that the party may still turn to him for leadership at Cleveland. Prior to the
Tuesday election, Mr. Hoover's close friends were convinced that Republican
sentiment throughout the nation was turning his way and that, given another six
months, he would be the party's choice for the nomination.
Mr. Hoover stated a few days before the primary that he had not been
consulted in the selection of the committee that chose the ticket of uninstructed
delegates, and that the delegates had had no conferences with him. The ticket is
above the average in the caliber of the men and women composing it, and while a
majority are no doubt friendly to Mr. Hoover, California believe it to be in fact
uninstructed and free.
Although Governor Landon has lost caste in California by his failure
either to accept or repudiate the ticket selected in his name by Hearst and
Merriam, Republicans of the anti-Hearst faction are inclined to be charitable in
judging him, and there is no reason to believe that the aggressive delegates
elected on Tuesday will constitute an aggressive anti-Landon bloc at Cleveland.
Large Democratic Vote
On the Democratic side the feature of Tuesday's primary was Upton
Sinclair's disappearance as a major factor in the State's Democratic politics. It
was not unexpected, for the EPIC craze died down very quickly after the 1934
election.
Representative John S. McGroarty's small
vote meant little or nothing, because he had been repudiated by Dr.
Townsend, whose old-age pension plan he sponsored in the House.
Politicians with an eye on November emphasize the fact that more than
750,000 men and women went to the polls and voted for Roosevelt, in spite of the
fact that there was no real contest in the Democratic party. The Roosevelt vote
was larger than the combined votes for all other candidates of both parties.
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