Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-10-26
The Beginning OF the End.

Has the Hughes campaign reached
the beginning of the end? It would
seem so.
Republican reports and Democratic
reports agree that the swing is all
toward President Wilson. The Presi-
dent grows stronger and stronger as
public sentiment becomes more articu-
late. Mr. Hughes is weaker and weak
er.
There is no mystery about the decline
and prospective fall of the Hughes
candidacy. 1t lacked the one element
without which no candidacy has a
right to succeed-the element of good
faith. Mr. Hughes has not been sincere
with the American people. He has not
been on the level. He has not been the
Charles E. Hughes whom they had
idealized as man who met every DO
litical issue and every political situa-
ton squarely without fear or hesitation.
Mr. Hughes began his campaign with
carefully prepared programme of
lodging and ovation. In the midst of
the greatest crisis known to modern
civilization. he determined to have no
rolicies of his own. but to seek to con-
solidate all the motley opposition to the
President.
To do that, he could not afford to
have policies of his own, for there was
no policy on which such a following
could be united. What suited Wall
Street would not suit the West. What
suited the Germans would not suit the
pro- British and pro- French. What
suited the jingoes would not suit the
pacifists. What suited the Old Guard
would not suit the Progressives. What
suited Roosevelt would not suit Taft
So Mr. Hughes resolved to attack every
thing that President Wilson had done,
but to say nothing about his own plans
and purposes. He was nominated in
the dark and he thought he could be
elected in the dark. Whether or not
he has discovered his mistake. the Re
publican managers have discovered it,
Instead of consolidating all the antag-
onistic elements that were opposed to
the President, Mr. Hughes has awaken
ed their suspicious as to his own inten-
tons They have come to see that he
cannot be playing fair with all of them
and that he may not be playing fair
with any of them.
There have been campaigns when
that kind of politics might succeed; but
this is no ordinary year. Mr. Hughes
has been triffing with the destiny of the
Nation when the future of the Republic
is hanging in the balance. In common
place times it would make little differ
ence whether Woodrow Wilson or
Charles E. Hughes was President of the
United States; but these are not COM
mOnplace times.
| Now that there has been an oppor-
tunity for the sober second thought, the
American people are balancing the books.
On the one side is the definite record of
President Wilson and his Administra-
ton. On the other side is nothing ex-
! cept conjecture, speculation, fault find
ing and destructive criticism. Natur
ally the voters are turning to the Pres
ident. How could it be otherwise?
They know him. They know what he
will do. They can trust him. They
cannot afford to trust any man who
will not trust them and who will not
tell them what he would do as Presi
dent. and that is the position in which
Mr. Hughes has placed himself.
That is why the Hughes campaign
has so suddenly slumped, and that is
why the Hughes managers must make
their last desperate appeal to the power
of money.