Hearst a Coward as Well as an Assassin

     That William R. Hearst is alarmed by the outburst of popular indignation against his vile teachings, as voiced by the decent newspapers of the country, was shown by a cautious editorial which appeared yesterday in the morning edition of his New York yellow sheet. Even in this attempt to correct his position before the public, the characteristic scoundrelism of the man is most apparent.
     The article is cowardly in the last degree. Your anarchist is always a dastard. It is besides mendacious and slanderous beyond belief. It attempts to mislead the public by charging that the censures directed against it are the partisan ravings of the Republican press, which is anxious to stop all criticism of public officials.
     Of course the absurdity of this is plain to all save Hearst, blinded by egotism and dread of consequences. The condemnation of Hearst and his papers is universal, Democratic and Republican papers unite in it. It is totally free from partisanship, and business rivalry is equally eliminated from the case, a majority of the papers being in no sense competitive with Hearst’s organs of riot and murder.
     Further, the Hearst morning publication argues that if it has been severe in its censures on the President, other papers have been more incendiary in their attacks on Mr. Bryan. This is a mean and skulking evasion of the issue. The crime of Hearst is not the censure of McKinley. We believe “The Jersey City News” has spoken of the President on innumerable occasions in terms of unmeasured severity. We are prepared to do so again if his successor becomes dentified [sic] with policies injurious to the people. The difference is that the “Journal” appeals to the knife, the pistol and the bomb for remedy. Our appeal is to public opinion, to public discussion and to the ballot. While we endeavor to rally the people in the names of Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland, the Hearst organs hold up Jack Cade, Marat and Robespierre as heroes and exemplars for patriotism. These papers have repeatedly dared glorify the excesses of the French Revolution, and have printed articles in direct open praise of assassination with plain intimation that it was applicable to the evils of our own day.
     No, it will not do for Mr. Hearst to try to evade his responsibility for the Buffalo outrage by posing as a martyr o f [sic] party or commercial enmity. He is a preacher of riot, loot and assassination. John Most has never gone further. Let the people see him as he is and judge him and his papers.