French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1916-11-23
TnE MEANINa OF THE ELECTION.

The American people are nsaSe
TODAY in accounting the causes that
brought Wilson his triumph j Tues
dev,s election.Now that it's an accom-
plished fact they are retelling among
themselves he basic things by which
II was determined and are reimpress-
inc mon their minds and hearts lis
neaning for the present and for the
future. They want to keep its lesson
in the treasury of their experience.
Before entering into a definition OF
its meaning it is veil to give consld-
GRAFTON to the bold combination OF
difficulties against which the president
was compelled to battle in his fight
for re-election-the o form1dabie
array that has even confronted any
Candidate.
The Republican party, generally
-outnumbering all other parties since
lis irst accession to power so tar as
It's call to strictly party ranks aValled
found itself we'll night united again -
overwhelmingly SO in the thiekIv pop
uiated states of the East. This re-
united force set forth it's strongest
possible candidate. The best party
ability among the Republicans was
nut under the searchlight. Justice
/ Hughes with the halo OF his success
as governor of New York still upon
him and his eminence in the supreme
court of the nation adding weight 10
his availability as a candidate, was the
result.
This candidate with his acknoWledg-
ed force and his high responsibility
had the backing of the wealthiest and
strongest groups of financial interests
in the world. Millions of dollars flow
ed into his campaign funds and was
spent without reserve. At the outset,
too. he started with the frantic and
>vindictive support of a solidly compact
body of foreign-born citizens-who de-
sired above everything else to punish
Wilson for his foreign policies.
In the light of these formidable
forces against him. financed by the
corporate interests and led by their
trained servants. Wilson's victory &C
quires newer and deeper significance.
Towering high above everything else
stands the gigantic meaning of Tues
days election-a meaning which is
served both On this nation and on ell
the world: The destiny of the United
States shall never be determined by
the voice of foreign-born citizens who
come here to enjoy our blessings OF
liberty and our ~boundless emporium
tiles for wealth and well-being and yet
VINO are u~ngrateful enough not to give
in return their full allegiance but on
the other hand in one of the great
CRISES Of the United States put before
it, in interest, the countries of their
hilth. German loyalists have been
hidden forever to abandon their hope
of making this country n German pro-
vince. Nor must citizens born in
other foreign countries think that anv
interest arising out of their inherited
customs and traditions can play 2
shaping hand in the course Of this ma
ton. Before they can have n efec-
tive voice in its councils they have
fbLen Enthusiastically warned that they
must first Yield it full fealty. A glance
at the after-election map will show
that Wilson was elected by the States
in which the population of native stock
vastly predominates.
War-at-any price jingoism has been
fittingly rebuked-such a jingoism as
was typified III the chip-on-shoulder
attitude of Roosevelt in the sorry
spectacle he made as he went about
the country eating fire and uttering
treason. In his attempts to bring
President Wilson into contempt at
home and abroad, he lacked little of
being as disloyaI to his government as
the hyphen&tes which he so roundly
denounced.
Sectionalism, too, will never again
be raised as an issue. Mr.. Hughes
raised it and it was one of the mosr
discreditable acts of his campaign. It
revealed him as a man of unexpected
smallness n narrowness. The we'll
night solid vote of the West for Wilson
shows it had no potency there. And
time will stretch a weary length be-
fore another supreme court Justice
dofs his judicial ermine for the long
coat of the 100 per cent candidate and
later for the sack suit of the private
citizen. Supreme court justices run
awkWardly. The people Of the nation
prefer to see them sitting in dignity
upon the bench. They resent their
stepping out of role.
The high attainments of Mr.. Hughes
and the stimulating intellectual cam
paign he was thought capable of wag-
ing was expected to obscure the fact
that behind him were the forces OF re-