National Affairs: Socialist G. O. P.

In California a Republican candidate for anything stands a good chance to be elected, a Socialist candidate stands little or none. Last week to the Socialist gubernatorial candidate, Author Upton Sinclair (The Jungle, The Brass Check, Boston, Oil!), came a formal, engraved document signed by Secretary of State Frank C. Jordan, certifying that its recipient had received the Republican nomination. Obviously someone in the secretary's office had erred, for as everyone knows California Republicans chose San Francisco's Mayor James ("Sunny Jim") Rolph Jr. (TIME, Sept. 8). But Author Sinclair replied gravely to the secretary: "Since I have your certificate, I suppose there can be no doubt. . . . Please see that the man who prints the ballots believes your certificate and not the newspapers."