A CHICAGO EDITOR BANISHED.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1917, Page 1

A CHICAGO EDITOR BANISHED.

“Marching orders” were given to William Stocker, a cement contractor, of Chicago, because he was circulating in the “Windy City ” a weekly newspaper attacking President Wilson. The execrable sheet had the backing of Chicago’s Mayor, William Hale Thompson, who earned unenviable notoriety recently by refusing to offer a civic reception to the British and French War Missions, on the ridiculous plea that Chicago professed to be largely German in population ! 1 Boiling over with rage, the Chicago City Council and Chamber of Commerce went to the rescue, with the result that when the Allied Mission entered Chicago the residents of the city went wild with enthusiasm, and almost mobbed the allied diplomats in tlieir paroxysm of joy. Stocker, who had lacked the. stand of the disloyal Mayor, was visited at his hotel by 50 business men. headed by a citiI zens’ committee, who included I James M’Credie, State Grand War- . den of the Masonic Order. Stocker, seeing resistance futile, promised to .cease publication of liis objectionab*e paper. He admitted circulating it owing to his friendship for Mayor Thompson. In delivering the people’s ultimatum Mr M’Credie .said : “ We have sent many of our boys to fight for their country, and we are going to protect our cities while they are gone The paper you have been circulating is not.an American paper, and we' do not want- it in Chicago.” Indignation was particularly aroused by one paragraph in tli’e paper, which read : “ Ali you have to do is to get Congress to declare war, hog-tie the newspapers, muzzle the people, conscript an army, make the President one of these ‘ pooh-bahs,’ and then it will be ‘ King Woodrow.’ ” ■ Stocker’s banishment was quickly concluded, and he hastily collected his chattels and precipitately flew Chicago and his irate fellow-resi-dents.