Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1916 — WHY HUGHES HAS FAILED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHY HUGHES HAS FAILED.

Thomas A. Edison, the noted inventor, has announced that, although a life-long Republican, he will support Wilson tor re-election. In these days of high living and the cost of high living, it is interesting to hbte that the sugar refineries have made a cut of 7."> cents per 100 pounds on refined sugar. On September 14 at 8 p. m., in. Tomlinson hall, Indianapolis, Honorable Thomas R. Marshall will be notified of his nomination for vice president. Governor Glynn will deliver the notification speach, and he is some orator. There will be a big parade before the meeting and a big . time generally.

The close of Mr. Hughes’ Western tour finds Republicans in general bitterly, not to say resentfully, disappointed in his speeches and in his campaign. No other candidate for President in a generation has failed so completely to measure -up to public expectations. When Mr. Hughes was nominated the universal opinion was that ( he would prove stronger than ius party. He has shown that he is only as strong as his party and no stronger. The belief is common today that if Mr. Hughes should be elected President it will be because the country is conservatively Republican in its politics and that any other Republican candidate satisfactory to Wall

street, and the German vote, would have done as well. Democrats exultantly declare that the Hughes “myth” has been exploded. We are not so certain that it was a “myth.” The Hughes reputation was based upon si:Dstantial public service, but the standards of public service have changed since •Mr. Hughes was governor of New York. The count thinking politically on broader lines. The war, the Wilson administration and even the Roosevelt campaign of 1912, have had an enormous educational effect upon the average American. It could not have been otherwise. When Mr. Hughes ran for governor ill 1906, his opponent was William R. Hearst, and in comparison with Mr. Hearst it is not difficult for a man of Mr. Hughes’ training and temperament to shine in a campaign, Even George B. McClellan acquired that distinction. When Mr. Hughes ran in T9OB his opponent was Lewis Stuyvesnnt Chanter, and, however likable Mr. Chanler may he, his best friend would hardly describe him as an intellectual athlete. When Mr. Hughes was governor the state was absorbed in relatively small matters like Barnes and Murphy. The most ambitious attempt of Governor Hughes was tc* enact a direct primary law that excluded New York city from its operations nr the name of fusion. He failed completely, but it. was regarded in those days as a history-making fight.

In his campaign for the Presidency, Mr. Hughes is obliged to measure up against Woodrow Wilson, who is quite different material from the political pigmies- w ith whom Mr. Hughes wrestled in New York. Bossisrn i 9 not an issue that can be raised against the Wilson administration, for the good and sufficient reason that whatever bossing has -been done has been done by the President himself, and the bread-and-butter Democrats are Ml in revolt against him. A country at peace tnat has weathered the successive crises of the most devastating war in all history and has been dealing with domestic legislation of the first caliber, is not impressed with smaller things, and Mr. Hughes dates back' to the days of smaller things. While he was an associate justice of the United States supreme cdurt he lost touch with the forward march of the American people. He does not know how they think or how they feel, and he is not able to adjust himself to a new political environment. In a wjjiy he is a political anarchronism, and while he will strive desperately, men of his age who have fallen behind in liberal habits of thought never quite catch up with the procession. Mr. Hughes still visualizes the United States and the American people as they were in 1910 when he went upon the bench. Mentally he is still living in the Taft administration. The history tjjat has been

written since that day is a blank page to him in all its larger aspects as affecting the destiny of mankind. That is why his campaign is a failure.——New York World.