The Irish standard., 1909-04-03
R|D|CULES THE ANT|PATHY OF THE CITY PRESS
Administers Castgation to the Examiner Newspaper and
Shows the Power and Strength of the
Celtic Citizens.

The following paragraphs are taken
from the speech on "The Duty of the
Hour" delivered by Rev. Peter c..
Yorke before the Irish Societies of San
francisco on st. Patrick's day:
have named this talk the DUTY Of
The Hour" And the duty Of the hour
Of you men of San Francisco, Irish
men Of San Francisco, no matter of
what position, no matter of what sta
tion, is to protest publicly with all
the force in your power against that
insult to this immense multitude Of
people, Of the people of San Francisco.
More than half the town Catholics.
more than one-third of them Irish, and
we cannot get the little boon Of a free
day for the Catholic children, simply
and solely because Mr.. Joseph O'Con-
nor, who has come back from a IS 600
tour, is afraid that the city of San
Francisco will lose so of the public
money. (Applause.) ,...
The law does not presume that an
irish Papist exists. Not only the law.
but the press has lately come to ths
belief that the Irish Papists do not ex-
list. For the past year ana a half there
has been q. steady systematic boycott
of everything Irish in all your papers;
but 1t has been worse, more steady
and more intolerable, in "The Exam
iner" applause and hisses)
Who built up "rhe Examiner" in
San Francisco? Whose money was in
tie foundations of their buildings?
Whose brains gave it its prestige?
Whose unflinching support always be-
hind It made it a power in this town?
1t was the Irish Catholic Democrats.
The Irish Catholic Democrats .lere
made 1.-THE Examiner" what 1t Is, and
"rhe Examiner" has grown so lordly
by the meat of adulation upon which
it has fed that now, like the English
law, it does not presume that an Irish
Papist draws the breath of life in
San Francisco. (Applause.)
What is the duty of the hour? oh,
my dear friends, there is one duty that
the Irish Catholics need to learn in
San Francisco today, and that is to
emancipate themselves from the super
stition OF the newspapers. Why should
you be nfraid of a newspaper? Why
should you run on bended knnes to a
newspaper: Why should you bow your
head before this idol of printers ink?
Today's newspapers kindle tomorrow's
fires. A newspaper is made up of :ags,
and it has never been cleansed from
that original sin. What is a news
paper in its last analysis but the ON
ployees of the newspaper? A neWspa-
per is business. It is in the work of
selling news. 1t has to gather it's news
here ami there and everywhere, and
the kind of news that comes to yo'l is
simply the impression made upon the
mind of a young man or young woman,
usually engaged in the business of
eving out livelihood of some kind or
other, who goes to another man who
sits armed with the shears behind a
table: he forms another impression of
the news, and either cuts it down or
throws it into wastepaper basket or
passes it on a little farther, finally to
a man whose hand you would not
shake, who sits in a room farther back,
and passes the whole thing out to you.
If you knew the inside of the ma
chine that they call a newspaper you
would have very little reverence for
it. If you knew the people whose busi-
ness it is to create opinion, to manu-
facture it, to steer it, to govern the
country. if you please-if you knew
ITEM as know them and as those en-
gagged in the business have Known
them. you would not bother twoperce
whether the newspaper was for you
or against you.
One of the greatest curses Of Amer
lea is the superstition of print: that