The San Francisco call., 1908-11-16
De YOUNG ATTACKS
MOST COWARDLY
Haas, Wallowing in Heney's
Blood, Puts Brand of Cain
on Chronicle

you are from The Call? l don't
like that paper. It's on the wrong
side. You are from the Chronicle?
It's all right. like it"
Speaking to two newspapermen
while Francis ]. Heney still lay on the
courtroom floor with the blood gush-
ing from his head, Morris Haas, calm,
collected and discriminating, ex.
pressed in these words the distinction
he drew between the paper which had
consistently upheld the hands of the
graft prosecution and one of the or
gans which had prostituted its inf1u-
ence in the service of crooks.
Haas words went far to explain the
animus of his deed. None too strong
minded, the persevering assaults on
the champions of law and order COM
mitted by the Chronicle and other
newspapers of similar tendencies had
so distorted his moral vision that
right seemed wrong to him. and wrong
right.
The man who fires a murderous shot
is not always alone in his guilt Nor
rls Haas is not the only one upon
whom rests the blood guiltiness of that
pistol shot in Judge Lawlor's court
room Police investigation may still
expose the men who are directly re-
sponsible for the deed, and when they
are found out the law will deal with
them But only the public conscience
can deal with the indirect accomplices
of Morris Haas. Here are their names:
HEARST'S EXAMINER
DE YOUNG'S CHRONICLE
DARGIE'S o Ak L A N D
TRIBUNE
THE CALKINS NDI-
Gates GLOBE
TOWN TALK
THE NEWS LETTER
THE WASP
THE ARGONAUT
Month after month these papers have
poured their venom into the public ear
Brazenly unblushing in the face of re-
peated exposure day in and day out
they have continued their lying misrep-
reservations, their cowardly insinua-
tions, their obscene cartoons, all d.
rected at the agents of justice, all cal
culated to give comfort and assurance
to indicted and imprisoned criminals,
all cunningly framed to work upon ig-
norant credulity and so to discredit the
sworn duties of justice.
ISSUE FLOOD OF LIES
Commencing their concerted cam
paign against the graft prosecution at
a time when the public sentiment was
ranged solidly on the side Of Heney,
Burns. Spreckels and Langdon, the Ex
IL &I1a T.sfl O md
the gutter weeklies have striven with
an energy worthy OF a better cause to
divert the stream of public opinion, to
choke it with lies, to poison 1t at it's
source with ISLANDERS and suspicious.
That their efforts met with some sue
cess can not be denied. Throw enough
mud and some of 1t will stick. The
weak willed the ignorant, the men
whose interest lies on the shady side of
living and doing, were converted" to
the cause of the grafters by the nefari-
Gus propaganda of these daily and
weekly newspapers. 1t is the consola-
tion of every honest man that their in
1uenee could not get broader sweep
in a big cosmopolitan city like this.
The San Francisco Chronicle, owned
by NJ. H de Young must stand its share
of the responsibility for the deed of
Morris Haas. Rejecting in its eii-
sorial and news pages the character of
its proprietor, the Chronicle has never
dared to stand forth, man fashion, and
deal the graft prosecution a fair open
blow. Sneaking and crawling, it has
never missed an opportunity to strike
Francis j. Heney in the back.
No wonder Morris Haas, the cowardly |
assassin, liked the Chronicle. His tac-1
tics were exactly the Chronicles tao
tics. It's owner has never been known |
to array himself or his paper on one |
side or the other of any big moral |
question. He has always steered the |
middle course that satisfies nobody, re-
GREETING the while that he has only two
shoulders on which to carry dirty |
water. The Chronicle has never con-
tained a fortnight sentence against |
Heney or the graft prosecution: 1t has
would apply the same languas
dared; but, like the other papers that il
shed, it has crawled to cover, and its f
to hypocritical expressions of horror a
deceived by the editorial somersault tur