Page 1 CHRONICLE Editorial:

Wolden Should

Withdraw

EDITORIAL

Assessor Russell L. Wolden has put himself. beyond the pale of decent politics by his effort to inject the shoddy issue of homosexuality into the mayoral campaign.

His charge that San Francisco officially condones flagrant moral corruption is preposterous. The public knows this and recognizes the Wolden maneuver as nothing more than the ranting of a hysterical candidate facing defeat. His campaign having largely collapsed, Wolden was evidently determined to use any means to get his name mentioned.

He has succeeded. The notoriety he has acquired has left its embarrassing mark. He has degraded the good name of San Francisco. A man who would recklessly and spuriously do this shows himself unfit for the office he seeks.

Wolden should apologize to the people of San Francisco and withdraw as a candidate. for Mayor. To stay longer in the race might well sub. ject him to the risk of losing even his claim to serve them as Assessor.

Unforgivable Slur

On San Francisco

Editorial stand of the SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER:

RUSSELL L. WOLDEN set out this week to smear

Mayor George Christopher. He succeeded only in smearing the city he professes to love, the politi-

cal party he professes to embrace and, most of all, himself.

Some kind of mud-slinging attack by Mr. Wolden was expected. For weeks it has been apparrent that his opportunist campaign was finding little favor with the voters. He is facing defeat. Dis. appointed candidates often lose their sense of balance and resort to mud. But this wasn't mud. It was filth.

Mr. Wolden went on the air and told the citizens of San Francisco at their dinner hour that their city has become a haven and a national headquarters for sex deviates, that these deviates are among us in such hordes as to be an immediate threat to every decent citizen-and that Mayor Christopher is, of course, to blame for it all.

Homosexuality is a complex police and medical problem in every community, large and small, and has been from the beginning of time. The San Francisco Police Department deals with it firmly, as it should be dealt with. The situation here differs not one whit from that in any large city of like size and makeup. It is a subject as universal as it is unpleasant and unresolved.

Mr. Wolden's taking of this socio-police problem to make of it a piece of political sensationalism was an act of the most sordid and unforgivable kind.

He stigmatized the city he claims to love so much that he wants to run it as Mayor.

He grossly offended the tenets of political decency of the Democratic Party that he so recently joined, and that he has tried to wrap around his person in a partisan campaign for a nonpartisan office.

He condemned himself by revealing how desperately he wants to be Mayor, and what lengths he would go to in his effort to win that office.

The preceding pages of material reprinted from San Francisco newspapers represents only a fraction of the tremendous volume of news items published on this local political indicent. Purpose of presenting