The St. Joseph observer., 1916-08-19
HUGHES DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN
ARGUMENT

rIOSrlGo cGmOShAllS SNmFAl1N
ARGUMENT
Those who read the speech of Can
didate Hughes delivered at Detroit
cannot fail to note that he made an
argument for the reelection of Presi-
dent Wilson and a Democratic con-
gress which is explicit and unanswer-
able. He did so in referring to the
damage which he thinks was done
American diplomacy by replacing
trained Republican diplomats with un-
trained Democrats. lie was free to
confess that other administrations had
done the same thing, but he opined
that the Democrats should have done
better and kept every experienced Re-
publican in office. OF course this
would have suited Mr.. Hughes, and
the Republicans who were retained.
If any layman or diplomat will in
form the public how any administra-
tion could hope to carry out success
fully a foreign policy if the manage
ment OF that policy were left largely
in the hands of men who were not in
sympathy with it and did not believe
in it the columns of this paper are
open to him. Mr.. Hughes, it will be
noted, makes it very plain, as have
some of the discharged ambassadors,
how little sympathy the Republican
party has with the Wilson foreign
policy. They want a policy with more
blood and iron in il. In the language
of Colonel Roosevelt Hughes would
not write two notes on the same Of
fense." He would write one note. If
that did not bring immediate and sat
is factory results he would abandon
the ways of diplomacy and resort to
the ways of war. as Europe is now
doing with such eminently satisfactory
results.
But let that pass. Let Mr. Hughes
dictum be taken at par. Admit it is
true.
How can any Republican contend.
under Mr.. Hughes own rule, that an
experienced president should be dis
charged, in time of grave emergency
and constant danger. to make place
for an inexperienced PRESIDENT?
If it is bad policy to replace an ex-
perienced ambassador with one who is
inexperienced, how much worse policy
to replace an experienced president
with one who for years had been
cloistered on the supreme bench, and
whose public consideration of foreign
problems did not begin until he was
nominated for the office he seeks,
No other country would even think
of doing it. If any of the nations now
at war had been blessed with an ex-
ecutive who had been able to keep it
out of the war which was raging all
around it; if within that nation were
peace and prosperity and progress. as
there is today in the United States.
while without there was war and ruin
and retrogressiOn-if this had hap
pened in Europe, as il has happened
in the United States, the people of
that nation with one voice would ac-
claim that ruler and call him blessed.
1t is for a like reason the American
people thank God for Wilson. They
are not so silly as to believe him per
feet. They recognize he has made
mistakes, as he himself recognizes it.
But the mistakes have not been disas-
trous ones And they are overshad-
owed by the great monuments of
achievement that have preserved from
woe and desolation the land we love
and the homes we have builded in it.
Mr.. Hughes, in his plea for keeping
experienced men in office is putting
up a powerful argument for the re-
election of President Wilson and a
Democratic congress. The Democratic
national committee will be making a
great mistake if it fails to circulate
his Detroit speech as campaign
document.