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Stopping off in Manhattan, he triumphantly appeared at the office of his new political chief, No. 1 Democrat James Aloysius Farley. Mr. Farley told him to call him "Jim." Then down to Washington marched Upton Sinclair to be welcomed by such socially-minded members of the White House inner circle as Harry Hopkins and Secretary Wallace.
As a result of his Eastern junket, word was spread through the Democracy that genial Mr. Sinclair could be "handled." Told off to do the handling in California were Messrs. McAdoo and Creel. At the Democratic State Convention the party platform failed to mention the name EPIC, made no commitments as to the Sinclair proposals for land colonies, scrip, bond issues, high income taxes or pensions. EPIC was emasculated save for pledges to put the unemployed to work at productive labor, enabling them to produce what they could consume; to put the State's credit and resources behind cooperative self-help groups; to exempt from taxation the first $1,000 assessed valuation of homes and farms occupied by owners; to repeal the State sales tax, substituting income and increased bank and inheritance taxes. Having done the best they could to make EPIC palatable to the rank-&-file of the party, Messrs. Creel & McAdoo ducked out of Sinclair's victory banquet. Mr. Creel headed for Washington, Mr. McAdoo for Mexico. Neither has gone back since. The Democratic State Chairman washed his hands of the whole affair.
Immediate Epic. Left to his own poliical devices, Nominee Sinclair began a behind-the-hand campaign to assure his loyal following that EPIC was still there. He brought out another pamphlet called Immediate Epic. Still intact on the back cover was original EPIC.
Such tactics sent a thrill of fear through conservative Californians. Since the August primaries, reported San Francisco financial houses fortnight ago, State, county, district and city bonds have shrunk $50,000,000 in value, with State bonds showing a 6% decline, while bonds of Missouri dropped 1½%, bonds of Illinois less than 1% in the same period.
Aware that his CAM bond issue was hopeless at this time, Nominee Sinclair proposed, instead, to levy a tax on industrial corporations and utilities to raise ''$5,000,000 or $10,000,000" to prime his EPIC pump. He proposed to go to a man with an idle dress factory, for example, rent his plant for tax-receivable paper for three years, retaining the executives at their old salaries. Unemployed would be put to work making dresses for other unemployed, who would in turn be set to work as soon as possible in other factories or on the land. But between the Governor's inaugural in January, and the harvesting of the new cooperative crops, the unemployed would have to be fed. So farmers would be asked to trade their surpluses for warehouse receipts good for taxes and for manufactured goods. The original EPIC state scrip notion was modified, since Mr. Sinclair admits his lawyers would have difficulty finding a way to circumvent Section 10, Article I of the Constitution, which reserves for the Federal Government the sole right to issue money.