The Topeka state journal., 1916-06-10
HUGHES DEFINES
HOW HE STANDS
ON BIC ISSUES
Hughes Pans Wilson Admins
tratiOn i'm Statement.
Accepts Nomination as His
Duty to Country.
FOREIGN POLICY A FAILURE
National Honor Sacrificed
Through Lax Diplomacy.
Preparedness Is Keynote of
Nominees Strong Edict.

Washington, June 10.-Justice
Hughes late today sent a telegram to
Chairman Harding of the Republican
national convention formally accept
ing the Republican nomination fo1
the presidency. At the same time it
was announced the justice had re-
signed as associate justice of the
supreme court of the United States.
Justice Hughes sent his resignation
by messenger to President Wilson.
Following is the telegram to Chair
man Harding:
Mr.. Chairman and delegates:
'I have not desired the nomination
I have wished to remain on the bench.
But in this critical period of our ma
tona1 history, 1 recognize that it is
your right to summon and that it is
my paramount duty to respond. You
speak at a time of national exigency
transcending merely partisan consider
at1on- You voice the demand for a
dominant, thorough going American
isn1-.with firm protective -upbuilding
policies, so essential to our peace and
security; and to that call, in this crisis
1 cannot fail to answer with the pledge
of all that is in me to the service of
the country. Therefore I accept the
nomination.
Il stand for the firm and unflinch-
ing maintenance of all the rights of
American citizens on land and sea-
neither impugn motives nor underes-
innate difficulties. But it is most re-
grettably true that in our foreign re-
lationS we have suffered incalculably
from the week and vacillating course
which has been taken with regard to
Mexico-a course lamentably wrong
with regard to both our rights and
duties. We interfered without con-
sistency and while seeking to dictate
when We were not concerned, we ut
terly failed to appreciate and dis
charge our plain duty to our own citi-
ZenS
''At the outset of the administration
the high responsibilities of our diplo-
matte intercourse with foreign nations
| we Subordinated to a conception of
partisan requirements and we present
ed to the world a humiliating spec
tacIe of inaptitude. Belated efforts
| have not availed to recover the influ-
: ence and prestige so unfortunately
stripped of their force by indecision.
"Our desire to see our diplomacy
restored to its best standards and to
have these advanced; to have no sac
rifices of the national interest to par
| tisan expediencies; to have the first
ability of the country always at its
command here and abroad in diplo-
matte intercourse; to maintain firmly
our rights under international law
! insisting scteadfastly upon all our
rights as mutual and fully performing
our international obligations and by
| the clear correctness and business OF
our positions and our manifest ability
and disposition to sustain them to
dignity our place among the nations
tfI believe in making prompt pro-
vision to secure absolutely our ma ton
! al security. 1 believe in preparedness,
not Only entirely adequate for our de-
| fense with respect to numbers and
equipment in both army and navy,
but with all thoroughness to the end
that in each branch of the service
! there may be utmost efficiency under
| the most competent heads.