The Alaska citizen., 1916-09-25
WHY HUGHES HAS FAILED.

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 The close of Mr Hughes western tour found Republicans in general bitterly, not to say resentfuly, dis appointed in his speeches and in his campaign.
 No other candidate for President in a generation has failed so com pletely to measure up to public eX- peCtatiOns.
 When Mir. Hughes was nominated the universal opinion was that he would prove stronger than his 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 Presi- dent it will be because the country is conseryatively Republican in it's politics and that any other Repub- lican candidate satisfactory to Wall street and the German vote would have done as well.
 Democrats eXultantly declare that the Hughes myth" has been eXplod ed We are not so certain that it was d myth The Hughes reputation was based upon substantial public service, but the standards of pub lie service have changed since MT. Hughes was governor of New York. The country is thinking politically on broader lines. The war, the Will son 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 MT Hughes ran for gover nor in 1906 his opponent was Will liam R. Hearst, and in comparison with MT, Hearst it is not difficult for a man of MT. Hughes training and temperament to shine in a cam paign. Even George B. Mcclellan acquired that distinction.
 When MT. Hughes ran in 1908 his opponent was Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, and, however likable MT. Chanler may be, his best friend would hardly describe him as an in tellectual athlete
 When MT. Hughes was governor the state was absorbed in relative ly small matters like Barnes and Murphy The most ambitious at tempt of Gov Hughes was to enact direct primary law that excluded New York City from it's operations in the name of fusion. He failed completely, but it was regarded in those days as a history making fight
 In his campaign for the Presi- dency MT, Hughes is obliged to measure up against Woodrow Will son, who is quite different material from the political pigmies with whom MT. Hughes wrestled in New York Bossism is not an issue that can be raised against the Wilson ad- ministration, for the good and suf- ficient reason that whatever boss ing has been done has been done by the President himself, and the bread-and butter Democrats are all in revolt against him.
 A country at peace that has weath- cred the successive crises of the most devastating war in all history and has been dealing with domestic legislation of the first calibre is not impressed with smaller things, and MT Hughes dates back to the days of smaller things. While he was an associate justice of the Unit ed States supreme court 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 unable to adjust him, self to new political environment. In a way he is a political anachro- nism, and while he will strive des- perately, men of his age who have fallen behind in liberal habits oT thought never quite catch up with the procession.
 Mir Hughes still visualizes the United States and the American peo- pie as they were in 1910 when he went upon the bench. Mentally he