The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-06-29

sacred convictions in order to secure
the alignment under one leadership of
the forces opposed to the continuance
in power of Mr.. Wilson and the Demo-
cratic party.
In my judgment, the nomination of
Mr.. Hughes meets the conditions set
forth in the statement of the Progress
sive National Committee issued last
January and in my own statements.
Under existing conditions, the nomina-
ton of a third ticket would, in my
JUDGMENT, be merely move in the in
terest of the election of Mr.. Wilson. |
regard Mr.. Hughes as a man whose
public record Is a guarantee that "he
will merely stand for a program of
clean-cut, straight-out Americanism be-
fore election, but will resolutely and in
good faith put it through if elected. !"
He is beyond all comparison better fit
ted to be President than Mr.. Wilson.
1t would be grave detriment to the
country to re-elect MIR. Wilson.
shall, therefore, strongly support Mr..
Hughes. Such being the case. it is IN
necessary to say that | cannot accept
the nomination on third ticket. | do
not believe that there should be a third
ticket. l believe that when nv fellow
Progressives cody consider the ques-
ton they will for the most part take
this position. They and have but one
purpose-the purpose to serve our COM
mon country. 1t is my deep conviction
that at this moment we can serve it
only by supporting Mr.. Hughes.
1t is urged against Mr.. Hughes that
he was supported by the various So
called German American Alliances.
believe that the attitude of these pro-
fessional German-Americans was due
not in the least to any liking for Mr..
Hughes but solely to their antagonism
to me. They were bound to defeat me
for the nomination. The only way by
which they could achieve this object
was by supporting Mr.. Hughes, and
they supported him accordingly, with
out any regard to other considerations.
| need hardly repeat what have al
ready said in stern reprobation of this
professional German-American element
the element typihed by the German
American alliances and the similar
bodies, which have in the prenomina-
ton campaign played not merely an I'M
American but a thoroughly anti-Ameri-
can part. These men have nothing in
common with the great body of Ameri-
cans as those of any other ancestry.
Mr.. Hughes character and his whole
course of conduct in public affairs justi-
fly US in the assured conviction that the
fact that these men have for their own
purposes supported him will, IN no shape
or way, affect his public action before
or after election. His entire public
life is guarantee of this.
The events of the last three and a
half years have shown that as much
cannot be said for Mr.. Wilson. In Mr..
Wilson's case we do not have to con-
slider his words but his deeds. His deeds
absolutely contradict his words; and for
the matter of that his words absolutely
contradict one another. 1t is folly to
pay heed to any of the promises in the
platform on which he now stands in
view of the fact that almost every i'm
portant promise contained in the plat
form on which he stood four years ago
has since been broken.
We owe all of our present trouble
with the professional German Amer
lean element in the United States to
Mr.. Wilson's timid and vacillating
course during the last two years. The
defenders of Mr.. Wilson have alleged
in excuse for him that he confronted
difficult situation. AS regards Mexico,
the situation which Mr.. Wilson con-
fronted was nothing like as difficult as
that which President Mckinley CON
fronted in connection with Cuba and
the Philippines at the time of the
Spanish War.
Under the actual circumstances we
could with only minimum of risk have
protested on behalf of Belgium, small
well-behaved nation, when she was
exposed to the last extremity of out
rage by the brutal violation of her
neutral rights; this violation being it.
self violation of The Hague conven-
tons to which we were a signatory
power.
As regards the foreign situation gen.
orally during the great war, the fact of
the existence of the war made it far
easier and safer for Wilson to assert
our rights than if he had had to deal
with some single strong Power which
was at the time unhampered by war.
During the past 20 years questions have
arisen with Powers of the first rank,
such as England, Japan and Germany,