The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1916-10-25
In Regard To the Lusita-
MIA Affair
TOUCHED ON IN TRUE LIGHT
A Sad Exhibition OF His Ign0r'
ance In Regard To In.
ternatiOual Affairs.
REPUBLICAN PAPER HITS HIM

Even our patient and long-suffer-
ing Republican neighbor, the Tri-
bune, finds Mr.. Hughes Lusitania
statement too absurd to be taken Sc
riously as a policy of government.
1t says:
THE Tribune disayrees with Mr..
Hughes in the matter of the Lusi-
tania. if by his Loui1ville utterance
he meant to express the belief that
had the German Government known
in advance that the sinking of the
Lusitania would be followed merely
by severence of diplomatic rela-
tons it would have refrained from
the crime"
For four months no effort has
been spared to smoke Mr.. Hughes
out on the vital issues of the cam
paign. These efforts have been uni
folmiy unsuccessful, but at last he
was compelled to say nothing def
mite about the Lusitania case. Then
he made the most nonsensical con-
tribution to the discussion of the
German crisis that the campaign has
produced. ......-... ....-.....-... .......
What makes the matter worse,
Mr.. Hughes must have known that
it was both ridiculous and dema-
gogic III informed as he is about
international relations and foreign
affairs, it is incredible that a man
of his general intelligence and his
trained habits of thought should be
so ignorant as his Louisville state
ment implies.
When Mr.. Hughes now says that
if he had been President he would
have threatened to sever diplomatic
relations with Germany because of
the so-called Lusitania advertise
ment, he knows that he is not sim
cere. He would not have done what
he says he would have done. He
would never have thought of doing
1t. Mr.. Hughes would not have
known anything about this adver-
tisement until after the Lusitania
sailed, and he would not have found ,
in the language of the advertise |
ment the faintest hint that the LUIS
itania or any other particular ship !
was to be destroyed without warn
ing by a German submarine.
The advertisement merely reiter-
ated the warning of the German war
zone proclamation of February 4:
Vessels flying the flag of Great
Britain or any of her allies are liza
Bile to destruction in those waters,
and that travellers sailing in the war
zone on ships Of Great Britain or
her allies do so at their own risk"
Everything that the United States
Government had to say in reply to
that warning had been expressed Of
hcially in a communication to the
German Government in the previous
February. The advertisement had
no diplomatic status. 1t was like
newspaper interview with the Ger
man Ambassador in which he repeat
ed the language of the war zone
proclamation.
If Mr., Hughes does not know that,
he does not know anything about
the diplomatic relations between the
United States and Germany. If he
does know it, he knows that he is
seeking deliberately to deceive the
American people by telling them
that his action would have had re-
suit directly opposite to what the
actual result must inevitably have
been.
A strange government we should
have indeed if the principal duty of
the President and the Secretary of
State was TO read the advertise
ments in the morning newspapers in
order to obtain information out OF
which to construct foreign policy.
Mr.. Hughes first attempt to take
the American people into his conf
dence is a deplorable exhibition even
in a l00-per-cent. candidate. In the
light OF II. we can the better under
stand his extreme reluctance to say