A Disgraceful Exhibition

     Last evening there was a demonstration, or an opera bouffe display, of which this city, as a whole, is not proud of—in fact, it generally is ashamed of. We refer to the burning in effigy, at the corner of Douty and Seventh streets, of three dummies, made of gunny sacks [s]tuffed with straw, to represent W. R. Hearst’s three American newspapers—the New York World [sic], Chicago American and S. F. Examiner. One of the participants in this supposed-to-be expression of public sentiment made a speech in which he declared that these three American newspapers have done more to encourage anarchy in the United States than any other newspapers published.
     The participants in this disgraceful exhibition of malice should be heartily [a]shamed of themselves and we believe they will be when they sit down coolly and think the matter over. The act is [a]lleged to have been the result of the attempted assassination of President McKinley. What bosh! None of Mr. Hearst’s papers ever advocated the use of [t]he pistol or the bomb to right the wrongs of the industrial classes, but have advocated their keeping within the law. Any one knows this who reads those papers.
     The Examiner has done as much for this coast as any newspaper, if not more. It has the largest circulation of any S. F[.] newspaper, as is well known, and it has [b]uilt up that circulation not by pandering to the rich, but in taking the side of the people time and again.
     The Examiner is owned by W. R. Hearst, a young man who inherited millions from his father. Unlike most of the sons of the very rich, he has not spent his time in being a snob and squandering his wealth, to no good, useful purpose for himself or the world. His time and his energies have been put into building up great newspapers—not newspapers which pander to the snobs, as did Astor—but newspapers which give the news and which advocate the right[s] of the plain American people[.] Mr. Hearst has made mistakes—many of them—who has not? He is at outs with his own party in San Francisco and the State and no political party can claim him. He is a free lance. But this millionaire is doing his best to help the laboring masses—to keep them from being crushed by the powers of combined wealth. And for this he is to be held responsible for the attempt on the life of President McKinley by a Polish anarchist—one of the same s tripe [sic] of human beings, misnamed men, who assassinated the King of Italy, the President of the French Republic, Empress Elizabeth of Austria and other royal personages.
     The cure for such sores upon the body politic as the anarchists is not to be found within our borders. It is an imported disease of the old world, allowed to propagate unmolested upon the soil of this republic. Get at the seat of the disease, gentlemen, which is not allowing the scum of the earth, in fact inviting it, to come to our shores and live and work out their plots. The people will decide that more stringent laws against foreign immigration and in favor of “America for Americans” is what is needed, and not the gagging of the public press.