Norwich bulletin., 1916-10-31
POLITICAL


Why Hamilton Fish Prefers Hughes
 to Wilson.
 In a letter to the New York Times Hamilton Fish writes:
 To the inquiry why I who voted against the last Republican candidate for President should prefer Hughes to Wilson, gladly give the following as my main reasons:
 l. His humiliating management of our foreign affairs-faiIure to protect either the lives. or property of Amer jean citizens.
 2. His attitude on the Adamson or so-calIed eight hour bill.
 3. The. unfitness of his principal appointeeS.
 f. The sectional character of his Administration
 ,. The necessity of protective tariff when the European war ends.
 The prevailing sentiment among our people for peace has been mistaken by the President as a craven spirit or a desire for pusillanimity.
 The Presidents course on foreign affairs has been weak, wabhling and Vaciliating. He has been weather yane, changing with every shifting wind. He has changed his position on public affairs so frequently that one has had difficulty in realizing his lat est attitude.
 Neither the lives nor the property of Americans has been respected either by Mexico or other foreign powers
 The diplomatic, notes of our Gov ernment hitherto honored nave deteri- rated into mere scraps of paper. The lustre of the flag has been dirnmed The President assumes credit for having maintained peace, whereas the fact is that no European country could have been driven into war with us; certainly not Germany, hopelessiy blockaded, and the others have had their hands quite too full No sane thing except peace.
 On domestic affairs his more recent actions and utterances have a social .stfc trend; indeed. whether Henson should not be withdrawn in his Slvor is a question for serious discussion.
 The Adamson or so-called eight hour law, which seeks to impose upon certain railway companies the pay ment of ten hours wages to a partic- ular class of employees, instead of be- ing helpful to labor generally, will in the long run prove disastrous. It railway employees: it fixes their scale of wages without any adequate inves- tigation of the merits of the matters in dispute.
 The man who had the confidence of the country to a marked degree. Sec cretary Garrison, with well matured and defined views on army legislation and the administration of his office, because hS was unwilling to subordin- ate his Views to those of the Presi- dent, was practically frozen out, and retired. To administer that office with the additional burdeE CT large in crease of both army and armament, the President astonished the country by the selection of a pronounced pa cifist, whose principal claim to fame was that of q single-taX At this particular juncture the man to be chosen for that great office should have had some intimate knowledge of the duties of the office over which he was to preside, but to the President that in no wise seemed desirable Since he assumed the functions offhis office his most conspicuous act has been the comparison of the Revolu- tionary soldiers of Washington's army, whom we have been taught to revere to the Mexican military bandits.
 The position of Secretary of State has been held by some of OUT great est statesmen, and yet for the first two years of this Administration 1t was held by William J. Bryan, a man of marked ability in many respects, but thoroughly unversed in our diplo- matic history, and without either or taste for that particu- far post. Is it t6 be wondered at that our diplomatic relations became hope. lessly muddled from the beginning; that blunder followed blunder, and today, long after his retirement, we are suffering from the conseauences of his unfitness?
 On all fours with his selection was that of Josephus Daniels as Secretary Of the Navy, an editor of country newspaper in an inland town of less than 2G,000 inhabitants in North Caro- lima, whose life has been spent in newspaper work and holding a few minor political jobs. To intrust him. without any previous knowledge of naval affairs, with the upbuilding of the great navy recently authorized by Congress. is positively grotesque. If any one thinks that I am overdrawing the picture, let him inquire of the first naval officer he may chance to meet. Such an appointment in any other country which is a. great naval power is unthinlfable. Compare him with men like Balfour or von Tir- pitz.
 The President shows a sensitiveness when charged with being sectional. Has he not laid 7limssy2 open to it? Born in the South. his home there for the first twenty eight years of his life, the formative period of a mans the preJudices and feelings of his sur- of which he hss shown to marked degree---his hostility to a protective tariff. His Cabinet consists of ten members; of those born in the United States. only three were born above Mason and Dixon's line. In the House of Representatives, in which body bills to raise taxation originate; the ehairmen of the leading committees, with but few exceptions, are from the South. May not these facts in measure account for the