The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1916-10-31
Will Vote for Hughes.
BY Frank Jewett Mather, Jr.
Predecessor In Princeton IT,,fuarcffx II

Four years ago / voted for Mr.. Will
SON In my limited civic life there is
no. act | regret so bitterly. Although
/ am Democrat, shall, as the most
direct way of opposing Mr.. Wilson's re-
election, vote for Mr.. Hughes. l have
reversed my estimate of Mr.. Wilson for
the following reasons:
He acquiesced in legislation exempt
! ing labor unions and agricultural
societies from Federal prosecution un
der the law of conspiracy. This I'M
Economically exempted favored
classes from the equal pressure of the
law.
Rashly occupying Vera Cruz, he
ended futile aggression by humiliat-
ing withdrawal. His orders to our
marines, not to shoot until fred upon
by the Mexicans, sacrificed many of
their lives to maintain his fiction of
peaceful coercion.
In all his Mexican dealings, Mr.. Will
son employed and took counsel of
grotesquely unfit and discredited adj
visers.
After Villas Columbus raid, Mr..
Wilson sent our punitive expedition far
enough into Mexico bitterly TO offend
the Mexicans, but not far enough TO
serve any useful purpose. In his ill
considered aggressions, as formerly at
Vera Cruz, he was guided neither by
patience nor by determination. He is
venture which he rashly blundered
into.
He has condoned and ignored the
treacherous killing of our soldiers by
the forces Of Carranza, to the lasting
| imnairmpnt 0f orr OraStiOp
BY his vacillating and aimless policy
in Mexico he has seriously impaired
the leadership and initiative in the
affairs of the Western Hemisphere
which this country has additionally
exercised under the Monroe Doctrine,
and has run up an account which will
cause us serious trouble with European
nations after the great war.
When the European war brought
this nation to consciousness of the need
Of military preparation, he first met
the movement with ridicule. Later,
when the movement was too strong to
be safely secuted, he espoused it in
sincerely. This was shown by his
failure to support Secretary Garrison,
, who had the fault of wanting real
army of defense, and by his acquies-
: cence in the absurd makeshift of the
t Hay law. The slow, costly and ineffec-
| tive concentration of the National
Guard on the border has already de-
monstrated the folly of the legislation
i which the President approved. He
9 was apparently not interested in the
/ national defense, but concerned with a
purely political use of the prepared
ness movement. An alternative theo-
J ry is that he was grossly ill-informed
! on the conditions of real defense
: Either view shows him recreant to the
. most important of trusts.
In all our European dealing he ha'
failed to express the moral impulse o
g the nation. On the contrary, he ha
8 given to the indifference of a consider
able portion of our citizens, the fai
name of neutrality. He has virtually
J. counselled us to be selfish and callous
y and has done so in the name of moral
y ity. Thus he, has increased confusion
l. of thought among us, given place TO
!, discord and diSloyalty, exalted the Os
. trich policy OF pretending that we hav
9 no interest in or right to judge grea
/ situation which deeply concerns US.
!, He has forgotten, and hidden us fol-
+ get, our murdered dead of the LUIS
d tania.
3 While he has exercised a lawyer-lik
e activity in the defense of our rights, h
y has throughout INDUCED the utter TO
ly OF following hard words with sol
y deeds or sheer surrender. Thus, with
Il out indicating or securing our rights
y he has given offence to nearly all th
q European powers. He has needlessl
n heckled the belIigerents without reall
gaining anything by it, while he hs
e utterly failed to give any supper
:, moral or practical, to neutral power