Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 189, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1916 — HUGHES ASHAMED OF FOREIGN POLICY [ARTICLE]

HUGHES ASHAMED OF FOREIGN POLICY

In Speech at Detroit, Republican Nominee Assails Administration's Foreign and Mexican Policies. Charles E. Hughes, in the first set speech of his trans-continental trip, Monday night assailed the administration vigorously for its (foreign policy, the Mexican policy, for appointing men whom he termed inexperienced, to diplomatic posts and for what he characterized as “a raid upon the civil service of the United States.” ‘‘He kept us out of war,” Mr. Hughes said, referring to the president and a diplomatic campaign slogan, “yet we seized Vera Cruz. That was war—very ignoble war. And it was called war over the bodies of those dead soldiers; it was called a war of service.

“Talk about your policy. What is the president’s policy—does anyone know? Has the executive ever had a policy for more than six months on the Mexican question? I repeat: who knows, what the .policy of the administration will be three months hence? My friends, the trouble is that the administration had written such a record that no matter what it says you do not know whether it will stick to it. We have had an exhibition during the past three years which! confess, fills me with a deep sense of shame. I have not a particle of militaristic spirit in my system, but if I am elected president I will see to, it that American rights in Mexico are respected. Mr. Hughes assailed the administration’s course toward upholding American rights abroad during the European war. “When I say that I am an American citizen,” the nominee said, “I ought to say the proudest thing that any man can say in the world. But you can’t have that pride if American citizenry is a cheap thing, if it is not worthy of protection this wide world over. There is no man who could successfully present to an American community that platform that an American citizen’s rights stop at the coast line and that beyond that American life is to be. the prey of any mauraudor that chooses to take it. The nominee called the republican platform’s declaration l that 30,000 government positions had been taken from the operation of the civil service law during the present administration and declared that “that sort of thing has got to stop.” He told of an instance where, he said “an eminent scientist in the coast and geodetic survey, a man of excellent rank,” had been displaced to make room for an excellent stock breeder and veterinary surgeon. “The federal trade commission,” Mr. Hughes characterized, “was fairly emasculated with the law by the men, for the most part, who were appointed to places upon it.” “There is one other thought I want to leave with you before closing,” said Mr. Hughes, “and that is this: Do not let us get this country into a low patriotic plane so that we are content—content with the dis-esteem, with the scoff of the world. Tam an American citizen’ ought to be the proudest title in the whole world.”