New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-10-10
SINCERITY As AN ISSUE.

As the campaign proceeds we are becoming
convinced of the wisdom of Mr.. Hearst il get
ting himself stamped with the Buffalo stamp.
tagged with the Murphy tag and labelled with
the Corners label. Behold him to-day They
are all be has left. They are his stock in trade
as q candidate They are all he really stands
for, and sincerity, as Mr.. Hughes says, is the
issue of the campaign. All the fustian and the
iubdub, the mummery and the cant are drop
ping from the candidate who nominated himself
on the platform of his own notOriety. His reg
ularity is the only thing that is left 10 cover
his political nakedness. There is no reason re-
manning why any one should vote for him. ex-
cept those who blindly obey the behests Of
"Fingey" and Charley" To whom else can he
appeal and find credence?
Mr.. Hearst started out "au hot sand and gin
ger" a crusader on a moral crusade. appealing
10 the growing public comprehension of indus
trial problems and the awakening public con-
science IN political affairs His speeches were
a credo With portentous solemnity he reit-
Grated: II believe this" II believe that" 1T
believe thus and So" and he asked every one
who believed as he did, irrespective of party
10 vote for him. He would purify politics He
would clean up the Augean stable Of finance
He would bring on the bright new era of our
dreams. the golden age when every wrong is 10
be righted and everybody is to be happy. But
act OF practising the reverse of what lie
breaches. why should any earnest, sensible
sane believer in the necessity of political and
economic reform trust him with the duty OF
lettering public conditions? True, the disgrun-
tied might elect him q warning TO the Plum
derbund. but an exposed impostor makes a poor
political scarecrow. How can any radical Re-
publican for instance. in his reformatOry zeal
find a tattered humbug useful TO the cause of
progress? How can any honest man serve the
ends OF morality with a political cheat?
Two things Mr.. Hearst pretended TO stand
for-pOlitical independence and financial re-
form. They are real issues. But his charac-
ter as an independent he cynically cast aside
when he made his selfstuldfying alliance with
Murphy. We said then that he was half re-
vealed; now we see him wholly revealed
stripped of all claim TO his own loud seIf-pralse
his laundering pretences all exposed. Behold.
this reforner is no purer in his financial meth
DDS than in his politics. The "cent at 4 time"
that he gathers in comes 10 him. tainted" money
through predatory corporation" The master
Of the Slanderbund has a little Plunderbund of
his own. He has not failed 10 profit by his crit
zeal knowledge Of the devious ways OF high
finance. His reformatory zeal is strictly i'm
personal. 1t is assumed ''for what there IS in
IT." and like his independence" it can be
easily put aside for what there is in it,"
The people are justified, says 'The American"
in believing that the editor Of this paper has a
record for living up TO his beliefs and fighting
for them 20 the best OF his ability" Brave
words from the proprietor OF little private
Plunderbund He lives up 10 them till his
political manager tells him there are votes TO be
got by abandoning them. He lives up TO them
till his own corporation lawyer tells him
there are dollars 10 be had by secretly violating
them. When he wrote the foregoing sentence
we take II, the editor thought that an impression
OF sincerity would be a factor In THIS campaign