Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 230, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1916 — WHY I AM FOR HUGHES. [ARTICLE]

WHY I AM FOR HUGHES.

By Raymond Robins.

The republican party —though often dominated by the masters of special privilege - and -made by them the instrument of vast exploitation—has a rank and file of men and women reject false or dishonest leadership. Conceived in moral revolt against human slavery, it was born, baptized and nurtured in the supreme national struggle to maintain the national heritage or fulfill the promise of equal opportunity to every citizen. Is not its rank and file best calculated to support a leadership that will create a national mind and conscience, and having preserved the integrity of the nation against the heresy of secession, will_it not develop and maintain a progressive national program of social and economic organization ? I hope so, I think so,, and this is one of the reasons Why I am for Charles E. Hughes.

We need industrial preparedness with a program of standardization in our economic life. For the workers, we need living wages, fair hours of labor, workshop sanitation and fire protection with accident, sickness, old age and unemployment insurance. Trade agreements and arbitration should take the place of individual exploitation and industrial civil w r ar. For capital, we need the intelligent co-operation of government both at home and abroad. When this war s over we will face the most intense industrial competition that the world of commerce has ever known. A comprehensive protection of the home market and support for American foreign trade is indispensable if we are to preserve industrial-prosperity. For both capital and labor we should develop a progressive policy in taxation that will lift the fiscal burdens of government from labor and enterprise and place them upon monopoly and privilege. These things and these conditions I believe will be sped on their way by the election of Charles E. Hughes. I believe in the character and courage of the nominee of the republican party. He is the most conspicuous example in our history of the possibilities that American politics may hold for success in able and unselfish public service. For myself, I gladly enlist with the great majority of the progressives of the nation under the leadership of Charles Evans Hughes.