Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-10-17
WHY HUGHES IS STRONG

VIE manner OF campaigning aoopteu
by Mr.. Hughes is most gratifying 10
every one who appreciates the gravity Of
the issue at stake.
Not since our independence was estab-
iished has there been a time when our
relations to the rest OF the world we're
In so critical a state. We have had for.
eign wars in which we measured strength
with single Power. But we now have
n foreign peace which has made half
dozen foreign Powers more suspicious OF
us than any Power with which we were
ever at war.
And this condition comes when the
United States has begun to look outward
instead OF inward. We have tanned the
wilderness and have pushed our indus
trial development to the state where we
must find foreign markets for our sur
plus. We are no longer isolated. In
vention has sponged out the oceans and
made us neighbors with the peoples be-
yond the two seas. We cannot be in.
different to what the rest of the world
thinks. We cannot disregard the spirit
in which our larger entrance into compe-
tition for world trade will be met. The
great commercial nations OF Europe,
made hungry through the starvation OF
war. will engage In the fiercest competi-
ton with one another and with us in
order to fill the treasures made empty
by war expenditures. We shall meet
jealousles and suspicious and hates en-.
gendered by our course for the last two
years. The nations which have de-
manded that we Join with them in the
hight for civilization" will look askance
at us because we have not made their
cause ours; and the nations which have
charged that we have aligned ourselves
with their enemies will nurse the hate
they now feel long after they disperse
their armies and resume their peaceful
activities.
What part we are to play In the read
justment that must come and how we are
TO pay It is to be decided by the voters
next month. The question at issue is not
merely whether the Republicans or the
Democrats shall win. but whether one
of the greatest nations of the world shall
play a part worthy of It or whether 1t
shall vacillate and wabble and crumble
under the weight OF the burden which ats
statesmen must carry.
Mr.. Hughes has conducted himself in
the face Of this crisis with the calmness
that betokens strength and poise. He
has not been stampeded into any ill-con.
sidered statements. He has not INDUCED
in wild TRADES nor sought to catch the
ear OF the crowd with fiippant phrases
But with the awful responsibility OF an
attorney pleading for the life of an inno-
cent man threatened with death he has
reasoned his case. He has piled argument
on argument and statement on statement
and accusation on accusation until every
man who has heard him with an open
mind is convinced that his is the intellect
and his the character that measures up
to the needs OF the nation in the present
crisis. Through his reasoning, larger
elements have been from order brought,
"and tracts OF calm from tempest made,
and worldwide fluctuations" have
''swayed in vassal tides that followed
thought"
And yet we are told that this great
minded man, feeling the weight OF the re-
sponsibilty on his shoulders. has not put
ginger into his speeches. He has done
better than that. He has put statesman
ship into them. He has put the thinking
Of a trained mind into them. He has
put the broadest kind OF American
patriotism into them. He has illumined
them with a worid.vision that sees into
the future and dares grapple with the
tremendous questions awaiting him. In
short, he has topped the standard which
this nation sets for the men on whom II