New-York tribune., 1906-11-06
HEARSTS LAST Wall.

The letter issued yesterday by Mr. Hearst
concerning campaign funds, while brave in
phrase was in essence little less than con-
feSSion of defeat and 4 platform on which
to assume the pose of martyrdom. He tells
his supporters in effect that they will win if
their opponents do not buy them. He is seem
ingly unconscious of the insult which he puts
on the people when he tells them that they
must be on their guard against themselves. He
is also unconscious of the grotesqueness of his
predicting 100000 plurality for himself and at
the same time crying out that his election may
be defeated by bribery.
OF course Mr.. Hearst knows as well as any
body that no wholesale bribery could be sue
cessful, even If attempted, and there is not
the slightest evidence that any will be at
tempted. The law against corrupt practices put
on the statute book last winter by the Repub-
liCans is drastic. The talk of corporations fill
ing the Republican Golfers is sheer nonsense.
The law forbids it, and even If the corpora
tiOns did wish to disobey it they would not
do so in their present chastened condition and
in face of the legal requirement Of an ac-
counting. All considerable Individual gifts
must also be accounted for in detail, and the
character and amount of all expenditures must
be made public. The expenditures of the Re
publican committees will be strictly for legtti-
mate purposes and will be brought to light after
election.
1t remains to be seen how much of Mr..
Hearst's expenditures will be brought to light
How far have the accounts Of the Star (hoId-
| ing) Company and the Independence League
(incorporated) been kept strictly separate?
Will the salaries of Ihmsen, Shearn, Brisbane
and other Hearst employees engaged in political
work for him be faithfully accounted for? VIII
the cost of the enormous number of his al
which for bora baa
merely political handbills, sent out free to the
voters. find a place in the record? Or IS he
| using his New Jersey tax dodging corpora
ton device TO evade the corrupt practices
act and carry on under cover an expensive
| political campaign without having to render a
public accOunting7 If that is his plan he
| should be careful, for the law forbids any cor
poration, even a New Jersey holding company,
| directly Indirectly to use "any money or
property in aid Of any political purpose" Per-
haps the whole Hearst prupa ganda is for busi-
ness and not political purposes. Only SO can
Mr.. Hearst Justify the use of the property of
! his corporations in this campaign, but we do
| not suppose that he would confess to any such
motive as the handspring of his patriotism"
1t is really nothing but brazen impudence
| for Mr.. Hearst after his years of lavish ex-
| penditure in building himself up political fol-
| lowing, to talk about the use of money against
him. He has, without doubt, spent several
times as much money in promoting his ambi-
ton as the Republicans will have in this cam
paign. If they had many times more than he
has spent they could not buy this election, and
his talk about 1t is silly. He evidently expects
to be beaten, but he is going to set up the cry
that he was cheated, and hopes to continue to
pursue his egotistical career Of demagogy. The
! way TO stop him is to make his defeat so over
! whelminG that even his megalomania will be
unable TO picture him as the victim of anything
| but n determined effort of the people to be
| rid OF n disgusting nuisance