teeth. Senator Boynton moved that Senator Bell, of Pasadena, be admitted
to the caucus. Somewhat to the discomfiture of the reformers, Bell was
not admitted.

Senator Bell's case is a suggestive one. He is a Republican, having been
elected from one of the strongest Republican districts of the State, the
Thirty-sixth Senatorial District, which takes in Pasadena. But Senator
Bell was not named by the machine; in fact, he was elected as protest
against machine methods. The Pasadena Republicans tolerated machine
domination as long as they could. Then, in 1906, they induced Bell to
run against the "regular" machine nominee for the State Senate. Bell ran
as an independent Republican. He overwhelmingly defeated his machine
opponent. Arrived at Sacramento at the session of 1907, he applied for
admittance to the Republican caucus.

There was ample precedent for his admittance, but curiously enough no
anti-machine Republican who had defeated a machine Republican had ever
been admitted to caucus privileges. In 1902, however, Charles M.
Shortridge, having failed to receive the nomination for the state Senate
from Santa Clara County, ran as an independent candidate against the
regular Republican nominee. The machine supported Shortridge's
candidacy, and by most questionable methods succeeded in defeating the
regular Republican. But Shortridge was admitted to the Senate caucus of
1903 without question. Senator Bell, however, was denied admittance to
the Republican Senate caucus of 1907, on the grounds that he had
defeated a regularly nominated Republican. Shortridge had defeated a
regularly nominated Republican. But Shortridge stood for machine
policies; Bell stands opposed to machine policies. The machine's policy
is to keep the caucuses of the dominant party in the Legislature as much
a close corporation as possible. So in 1907, Bell's application was