The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1914-03-19
THE MEXICAN QUESTION.

The resignation of John Bassett Moore,
counsellor and acting secretary of the
State Department, has called forth uni
versal comment. Mr.. Moore is recognized
as the best authority on international
law in this country, and his friends were
surprised that he should be willing to
accept subordinate place in the State
Department. They thought the secre-
taryship of State should have been Of
fered him. He took the position because
it seemed to give him opportunity for the
most useful service, but was handicapped
from the start. He saw experienced
diplomats superseded by Bryan's politi-
cal henchmen, men entirely untitled for
the positions given them; the b)unders
by the head of the department, his alb
sence on lecture tours when important
diplomatic questions were pending, and
the incapacity of other officials of the
department. For example, the First
Assistant Secretary of State is Wyom-
ing apothecary who had been supporter
of Bryan and was once governor OF
Wyoming, and is said to have no knoWl-
edge whatever of his present job. The
second assistant, Mr.. Adee, has had ex-
perience but has little voice in affairs,
and the third assistant Mr.. Malone,
son-in-law of Senator O'Gorman, is
young lawyer who knows nothing of the
State Department, and who proposes
while drawing the salary of third assist
ant secretary to spend two days out of
every week in the practice of law in
New York city. The situation in the
State Department is further made clear
in the following paragraph from Wash
ington special to the Boston Transcript:
Because of his profound learning and
large experience in international affairs
Mr.. Moore is the man whom the diplo
mats prefer to see. The result is that
Mr.. Bryan has more than once made it
clear that he does not like being thus
overlooked. There are those mean
enough TO say that Bryan is exceedingly
Jealous of his counsellor. Nevertheless
Secretary Bryan is seldom the man to
call Mr.. Moore into conference. He ig-
nored him in the Japanese negotiations
until they were badly tangled, and the
President sent for Moore to straighten
them out; since Counsellor Moore took
charge of them they have been proceed
ing in an orderly and diplomatic manner.
1t is said that Mr.. Moore got his first in
formation regarding the mission of John
Lind to Mexico from the newspapers;
however this may be, he was not drawn
into the Mexican negotiations until
Huerta threatended Lind with a de-
portation and then "Dr." Moore was
called in to prescribe. Meantime Sec
rotary Bryan had Numbered into recog-
charge and asking him to have Mexico
join with the United States in recogniz-
ing China.
While Mr.. Moore had his own views
as to the manner of handling the situa-
ton, ard they were not at all points in
accord with the Administration policies,
it is said that he had lent loyal support
TO the President and Secretary Bryan in
the execution of their plans at all times.
England recognized the Huerta govern
lllciIC III uSAlCO, dIu SOuIS6llOE MOOE0 is
said to advised that this government
should do SO. In view of what has fol-
lowed every one will acknowledge that
this advice was sound and should have
been followed. The Washington Post
says editorially, of the position of this
government toward Mexico:
That eminent lawyer, and still more
eminent statesman, Edmund Burke, de-
clared in the parliament of Britain: 81
do not know the method of drawing up
an indictment against whole people,"
If Edmund Burke had lived in this
century, in this era of progress and of
the new freedom, he would have been
shown the method of indictlng whole
people third ugh non-recognition of gov
eminent, and also of condemning whole
people to civil war, chaos, and anarchy
by the same method and at the same
. tine,
The indictment of that people stands
today, and the world is witnessing the
millions OF the population of Mexico I'M
dergoing hourly the penalties of the con-
demnation.
For eleven months the Government of
the United States has failed to find
government in Mexico to which it would
extend recognition.
That action in itself weakened the
power of the de facto government at
home and abroad; it drove it to dire
straits in finance; to extremities in the
maintenance of order by force of arms;
it removed the influence of national au-
thority from the depressed elements of
strife and disorder, and it famed, as
with a blast, the flames of revolution.
If this action Of non-recognition was
intended to overthrow the Huerta admin
istration, to breed rebellion to the CEN
trail government as represented by him
and his associates, it surely, if not as
yet successful, has gone far to strengthen
Zapata, Villa and Carranza.
Men are murdered in every State, from
the Rio Grande to the boundaries of
Guatemala. Thousands of miserable
poems are starving in mountains, in val
leys and in plains. Thousands of mer-
chants, farmers and manufacturers have
been deprived of their property, and
scores of them held for ransom by rob-
bIng bands.
Lust, rapine and plumber call idle men
to association with bandits and brigands,
and peaceful peasants are transformed
to ferdish followers of savage leaders.
Dynamite nowder rifles revOlvers