The Republican journal., 1916-09-28
Pinchot tor Hughes.

J
zen to make and support openly his
choice among the candidates for the
Presidency. That duty is especially
solemn this year because great events
and great decisions are certain to con-
front US during the next administration.
am willing to give you my reasons for
my own choice.
am neither Democrat nor Repub-
lican, but Progressive. Yet, there be-
ing no Progressive nominee, unless l
choose to support candidate who can
not be elected, | must vote for either
Wilson or Hughes
For many months after mis- Inaugural
ton, | thought we'll of President Wilson.
In many respects | liked what he said
about what he was going to do. He
talked well and made good impression.
1t was only when l began to check up
what he said by what he did that | was
forced to change my view.
In the end | came to see that Presi-
dent Wilson had a greater power than
any other man in public life to say one
thing but do another and get away with
it.
The facts which justify this statement
are common knowledge.
We have all heard him tell Germany
publicly that she would be held to strict
accountability; and have learned after
ward that he had actually let her know
secretly at the time. by the mouth Of
his Secretary of State through the Aus
trian ambassador, that what he said he
did not mean. We have all seen him
prove that he did not mean it by his total
failure to exact reparation, apology, or
even disavowal for the murder of Ameri-
cans on the Lusitania.
| do not say that Wilson should have
thrust US into war There was no need
of war. But there was need of courage
to give US peace with self-respect. IL
Wilson had shown courage this country
would not have skidded from one crisis
to the next, again and again narrowly
escaping disaster.
We have all heard him declare against
Intervention in Mexico, while actually
intervening to dictate who should and
who should not hold office there; and de-
nounce war against Mexico while actual
ly engaged in war.
With war on every side of us, we all
heard him, IN his second annual mes
sage, solemnly assure the country that
we had not been negligent of national
defense. 1t was not true; and later on
he himself proved that it was not true
by proclaiming aloud the need for what
he had solemnly assured US we already
had.
For more than year after the world
war began, Wilson did not raise finger
to put US in a condition OF defense.
Only the proverbial good luck of Ameri
ca mas kept US from paying the biCterest
price for his unforgivable neglect.
I'd no
idea of greater navy, then declare for
lncomparably the greatest navy In the
world, and then 90 back on that.
We have all heard him declare for ex-
empting our coastwise trade from tolls
in the Panama Canal; and have seen
him show our own people and the Eng
lish that he did not mean it.
We have seen him elected on a plat
form which pledged him to single term
as President, and then become candi-
date for another term.
We have all heard him declare for the
conservation of our natural resources;
and have seen him neglect that policy,
and refuse his help to defeat the Shields
waterpoWer bill, the most dangerous at
tack on conservation since Balllnger's
effort to turn Alaska to the Guggen-
helms
We have all heard him declare for
efficiency in government, and have seen
him set the pork-barrel first and throw
efficiency away. l have known official
Washington from the inside for six ad-
ministraJions, In shat time the govern
ment business has never been so badly
and SO extravagantly done as it is now
under Wilson.
We have all heard him announce him
self as President of all the people, and
have seen him as the most partisan
President of his generation fout and op-
pose the Progressives, whom now be-
cause he needs them, he seeks to con-
ciliate and enlist.
Worst of all this: When every prin-
ciple of freedom and equality for which
our fathers fought was at stake in the
great war, when our whole country
eagerly awaited the leadership of the
President, Wilson lodged. He refused
to take sides on the greatest moral issue
of our time. He advised our people to
be neutral even in thought. undecided
between right and wrong. While our
friends abroad were fighting for the
principles we held equally with them, he
taught US that profits and ease were
better than self-respect. President Will
son has done our nation the most seri-
GUS injury that any leader can do to any
people by making US finch with him
from a great moral decision. Thereby
he weakened our hold as nation on the
principles which alone can make any