New-York tribune., 1918-05-21
Mount Vernon Newsdealers
Demand That Hearst Retract

MOUNT VERNON, N. " May, 90
The Mount Vernon Newsdealers' Asso-
citation to-day called on the New York
American" to retract statements con-
tanned in its account of so-called
mass meeting of Mount Vernon citi-
zens held here last Saturday night to
excuse William Randolph Hearst and
pillory the Common Council for it's
stand against his publications.
Unless this retraction is forthcoming
tomorrow, the dealers said they would
refuse Immediately to accept 1.-THE
American" and "The Journal" for sale
or distribution. The association is
made up Of the eight local dealers who
control the delivery and distribution
of all the metropolitan dailies here.
Its members represent all the New
York dailies excepting the Hearst
agent, for whom, however, these deal
ers deliver. Should they place their
ban on "The American" and "The
Journal" the Hearst organization will
have to develop it's own delivery sys-
TEN here.
"The Americans" story of Satur-
days meeting stated that Mount Ver-
non newsdealers attended the gather
ing at which the ordinance barring the
hearst dailies was denounced. The
story also quoted at length an anony-
nous leading newsdealer of Mount
Vernon" who declared the newsdeal-
ers were not given chance to voice
their sentiment before the Hearst
measure was passed. These are the
statements the newsdealers object to.
No dealers attended the meeting, and
the report of their criticism Of the
Common Council is false, they declare.
Ultimatum of Dealers
The ultimatum of the dealers fol-
lows:
"The statement in The New York
American this morning purporting- to
come from one of the leading news
dealers of Mount Vernon we repudiate
1T came from none of us, and we have
called upon the publishers of the
Hearst dallies to retract that statement
and to give voice to our protest against
such criticism of our city.
I'VE do not engage in any such Ian
guage as calling people guys (this re-
fers to the language of the anonymous
newsdealer) or of imputing to our off
clais uiterlor motives that are inimical
to the laws of right and justice.
wy I've e have ave served the people of Mount
Vernon for many years with what they
wanted, and as law abiding citizens we
have always agreed with the rules. of
our officials. To place U.s. in the posi-
tion of attacking our officials or people
is uni ust. We know nothiner of ;dpoliti.
cal stunts (again referring to the
anonymous dealer whom The Ameri-
can quoted as saying. that the anti
Hearst ordinance was . 'politica]
stunt).
1--WE make this statement. to have the
people of this city know that,>we have
made no statement to The American
and neither will we issue a statement
rejecting on our officials now or at anv
time.
Retraction Is Promised
eve telephoned the American to-
day that unless they gave US the same
publicity to show that we had not
made the statements appearing to-dav
we shall be obliged to refuse to accept
for sale or distribution the Hearst pub
lications."
This is signed by Adolph Prince. Nor
ris Ginsburg, Samuel Bland, Philip
Slutzker, Phil Keren, S. H. GOLDBERG
Samuel Rothstein and Harry Levine
1t was published in full by the the
Mount Vernon DAILY Argus" this af-
ternoon.
I'VE obey the law always" said Gins
berg to-day. eve were going ahead
and putting out the Hearst papers as
usual pending decision by the courts
on the~Hearst injunction to prevent
the City of Mount Vernon from en-
forcing the ordinance. We were wait