Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 250, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1916 — WHAT HUGHES WOULD HAVE LEFT UNDONE [ARTICLE]

WHAT HUGHES WOULD HAVE LEFT UNDONE

That Is Campaign’s True Angle and Not the Trite Question With Which Hecklers Are Nagging the Republican Standard Bearer.--—— ACHIEVEMENTS ASSURANCE BLUNDERING IS NO HABIT Wincing Democrat* Trying to Run Away From th* Record of the Admlniatration and to Inveiglo th* Voters Down Rhetorical Bypath*, All In th* Thinly-Disguised Effort to Chang* th* Subject. When Mr. Hughes criticises the record of the Administration the spokes- ‘ , men of Mr. Wilson cry: “What would you have done?” ’They forget that It . Is Mr. Wilson and not Mr. Hughes who is on trial. They forget that four years ago Mr. Wilson criticised Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt throughout the campaign and that Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt defended their respective records. Instead of crying, “What would you have done?” They forget these things or they refuse to confess them. They are trying to run away from the record of the Adminis-

tration- anil" induce the people to -toU low them down some bypath of rhetorical hypothesis, all in the effort to change the subject. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” When Mr. Hughes was Governor of New York he did not pay political debts by filling the public offices with unfit men. He did not champion certain principles during his campaign and repudiate them after he entered office. As Governor, he did not resort to brave and beautiful words as a substitute for firm and consistent deeds. He was careful In bls use of words, but be backed his words with deeds. He did not promise what he <;ould not perform. He did not plaster the people with compliments they did not deserve. He was not a rhetorician, he was not a flatterer, he was not "too proud to light” for labor or for capital, for the strong er the weak, when the right was on their side. Mr. Wilson’s spokesmen seek to divert attention from the attacks Mr. Hughes Is making upon the record of the Administration by asking him, “What would you do?” They are unconsciously helping Mr. Hughes. They are recalling to the memory of the people the record he made throughout his two terms as Governor of New York. It was then that ce first said “public office shall not be a private snap under my administration," and made performance square with promise. There Is this about Mr. Hughes that makes him so different from Mr. Wilson: “Hughes means what he says.” So it is that the campaign is really a contest of character between two men, with sincerity as the differentlating and deciding factor.