The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1916-08-15
FAR-FAMED EDITOR
HAS CHOSEN WILSON
influential Springfield Republican De-
ciareS For Presidents Policies And
IdeaiS-Candid Review of Both
Candidates is Convincing.

I Candidates is Convincing.
n With accustomed accuracy an
= candor the editor of the Springfiel
, Republican" of Springfield, Mass
has reviewed the public careers c
l Woodrow Wilson and Charles Z
Hughes with the earnest purpose Q
= deciding upon the editorial policy Q
that newspaper in the present cam
paign.
The 'Republlcan- is one of tn
most ably edited and famous news
papers in America. It's editor ha
/, waited in the present campaign tt
hear both candidates before takins
sides.
Like a candid, broad-minded pub
licist he yields that measure o1
praise to Mr.. Hughes he thinks his
public acts must claim, but like q
true patriot he announces his allegi-
ance to the country's present policies
and pledges his splendid talents
henceforth to the reelection of
Woodrow Wilson.
The Republicans editorial, making
President Wilson the candidate of
its choice, has already become a no.
table bit of literature in the cam
paign. 1t says in part:
Mr.. Wilson, in the face of difficult
ties and criticism such as have con-
fronted no president since Lincoln,
has accomplished much. To declare
! his foreign policy futile is idle. The
conclusive answer is contained in the
bitter protests of the radical faction
in Germany that the German subma-
rines have been caught lin a net of
notes. The outstanding fact is that
Mr.. Wilson, without bringing the
United States into war, has forced a,
recognition of neutral rights.
With relation to Mexico, Mr.. Will
son has grasped the underlying prin-
ciple that we shall not have a perma-
nently peaceful neighbor to the south
of us until the most patent wrongs
under which the masses of the Mexi-
can people have suffered are righted
through their own efforts. The rec
ognitlon OF this principle in the long
run means the minimum of evil to
this country from the Mexican prob
lem. 1t is to Mr.. Wilson's everlast-
ing credit that in spite of difficulties,
dlscouragements, and possibly of in
cldental mistakes, he has not wav-
cred in his endeavor to apply this
principle to the changing circumstan-
ces of the times.
Much is made, and very properly,
of the fact that Mr.. Hughes, if cleo
ted, would take Office free from ham,
pering pledges. But if free from
pledges, he is not free from obliga-
tions. Having courted and gained
the support of Col Roosevelt, it
would be impossible for Mr.. Hughes,
as matter of practical politics, to
sign a treaty with Colombia redress
ing the wrongs done that nation
when Col. Roosevelt "seized" the ca
nal zone. Mr.. Roosevelt has angrily
and bitterly opposed such action on
the part of our government, correctly
estimating that it would be a repu-
dlation of his course and a personal
for Mr.. Hughes to support such
treaty would be to invite an expert
ence similar to that which befel Mr..
Taft. Yet adjustment of Colombia's
wrongs is important for the United
States, not merely as matter of ma
tional honor, but as matter of dol
lars and cents in our commercial
dealings with all Latin America,
where sympathy could be gained to
so large a degree by no other one act.
Under Mr.. Wilson's leadership the
Democratic. party is today a better
instrument of progressive govern
ment than in a generation, if not in
its entire history, and, what is more
to the point, a better instrument, in
the opinion of this paper, than the
Republican party promises at this
moment to become under Mr.. HUI
ghes. Various episodes have empha-
sized the fact that the Democratic
party has had comparatively few out
standing leaders of national reputa-
tion. But it is one of the chief items
of Mr.. Wilson's leadership that dur
ing his term progressive and en-
ightened Democrats such as New
ton d. Baker, secretary of war, have
been brought more and more to the
front while the reactionaries have
been sent more and more to the rear.
The party has been in training and it
has gained. But in spite of any COM
parative lack of leaders, the Demo-
Gratis meeting in caucus, whenever
caucus has been necessary, have
threshed things out and determined
to support, one after another, long
series of soundly constructive legis-
ldllNe uedSuIeS OI historic import
ance-notable among them the in
come tax, the banking and currency
act, the rural credits act, the child
labor bill, the federal unemployment
service, the humanitarian features OF
the seamen's act and the provision
! for vocational training for civil life
while in the army. To achieve such
a record without leaders, if it were
literally true that the Democrats had
had no leaders, would be in itself a
triumph of democracy and better
promise than any amount of leader
ship stamped with the political con-
ceptions of Boies Penrose.
Admirable as was Mr. Hughes rec
ord at Albany, there can be no def
mite assurance that he would be able
to force Penrose and others of that
ilk to a back seat in the degree to
which Mr.. Wilson has revitalized the
democracy. Mr.. Hughes would make
a good President; it was a matter OF
national good fortune that he was
nominated at Chicago. But Mr.. Will
son, by reason of his exceptional ex-
perience in office and his now over
whelmingly evident leadership of his
party along progressive lines, is, in
the opinion of THE Republican,
better fitted to meet the problems o1
foreign relations and social evolution
in the broadest sense, which the next
four years hold in store