Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-06-10

JUSTICE. HUGHES SON OF POOR
BAPTIST PREACHER WHO WANTED
HIM TO FOLLOW HIS FOOTSTEPS

College and fully sympathetic with the
decided literary tas~es of Mr.. Hughes.
for the learned Justice is not wholly
given over to mathematics and legal
problems. He likes Balzac, the elder
Dumas. good detective yarns, and is a
great admirer of Mr.. Dooley. 1t may
not be generally suspected, but he is
really blessed with n liberal sense of
humor. Like most men of intense
purpose and an Unsuitable appetite for
work. he has paid the penalty in GER
tain fixed sternness or expression, and
the reputation of being an iceberg"
But he is a capital story-teller none
the less. and on his campaigning tours
he liberated reserve stores of warmth,
humor, and even sentiment, which few
had dreamed that he was capable of
harboring
'If they perform an autopsy on me-"
he once said. "I hope they will find
something besides sawdust and briefs
inside"
Though not quite what has been
called a 'clubable" man, but rather
home-loving, retiring temperament, he
is by no means an iceberg" He
likes to hunt in the Maine woods and
to climb mountains in Switzerland.
For thirteen successive years he never
missed the Swiss trip until he was
Governor. During two of the trying
years he was in Albany he had but
one vacation-eleven days in the
woods
But hard work has it's limits, and as
early as 1891 it had all but claimed
its toll from Charles e. Hughes. He
had egregiously overdone the thing.
That was the reason he accepted the
law professorship in Cornell Univer-
sity. To be sure, he worked at about
his accustomed pace while there, but
it was new field. 1t served in lieu
of vacation from the trying New
York legal grind. But Mr.. Carter
wanted him back, and in 1898 he re-
turned, and again plunged into his
law work. 1t was soon after this that
nator Stevens picked him as the
man he wanted for counsel in the gas
investigation.
Devoid of Political Ambition
1t is idle to rehearse now either
what he did to the gas companies or
to the insurance companies. Both
events are of sufficiently recent date
to remain vividly in peoples minds.
What the relentless questioner sought
to uncover in both CAGES was such
revelation of unwarranted practices as
would form a basis for remedial legis-
lation. He refused TO be diverted an
instant from this object. He sought
no punishments, no revenges, no po-
| litical capital. He would permit no
efforts in either of these directions to
confuse or degrade the high purposes
of the inquiry. Those purposes he
in full measure attained, and in at
! tanning them emerged from a species
of obscurity to the status of COM
manding figure within and beyond the
! borders of the State.
OF political ambition he was prob
ably utterly devoid. He said he was
and every act and utterance of his
confirmed what he said. In politics
he was a Republican by inheritance
and conviction. His father was q
! fervent Republican, dating back in his
party inspiration to the days of Lin
coln-a Republican, moreover, who
never failed to do his duty as a citi-
zen on election day, and he voted
naught but the straight ticket.
/ But the masterful Republican lead
ers did not want him for a guberna-
torial candidate in 1906. Nor did
there ever come from Mr. Hughes the
slightest intimation that he wanted
the nomination. During all the dis
cussion he held himself aloof. He
would not say he wanted the nomina-
ton. He would not. permit anybody
to present his claims or his avail
ability. 1t was a matter. solely for
the people of the State to decide. The
party was split wide open at that time
with factional fights. There was no.
body else that had the remotest chance
of election, a fact which was after
ward sufficiently demonstrated at the
polls when Mr.. Hughes was the one
Republican on the State ticket who
was elected. 1t hao gone to the
people for decision, and they decided
it.
Governed in Open
AS Governor, the bitterness he evol1-
ed among some of the leaders is mat
ter of history-that and the unswerv-
ing confidence of the people back of
the leaders and the leaders masters.
He governed out in the open, for one
thing. He abandoned the inner Sc
clusion of the Governors suite in the
Albany capitol, and moved his desk
out into the big reception room. If
anybody had anything to say to him
as Governor they said it there or it
went unsaid. For days the newspa-
pers had columns of comment and
good humored chaff over the curious
new departure.
Then came the veto of the two-cent
fare bill, because no facts were pre-
sented to justify it's adoption; the pass
ing of the Public Utilities bill to pro-
vide for the gathering Of such data;
and then the race track gambling
bill. Long and keen were the knives
that were out to prevent the Gov
ernor's denomination in 1908. But the
people still had the bit in their teeth.
The leaders no longer led. Mr.
Hughes was nominated by a vote of
| S27 in convention or 1907 delegates
Thus Charles Evans Hughes was
again elected to the Governorship of
his State, and from Governor he was
appointed Associate Justice of the
United States Supreme Court-The
North American Review.