Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1916-10-26
The Hughes Slump.
tst. Louis Post-Dispatch.) J

kcls LOUIS SIOsl-OlSRhtNu.I
Has the Hughes campaign reached
the beginning of the end? 1t 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 artic-
ulate. Mr.. Hughes becomes weaker
and weaker.
There is no mystery about the de-
cline and prospective fall of the
Hughes candidacy. 1t lacked the one
element without which no candidacy
has right to succeed-the element
good faith. Mr.. Hughes has not been
sincere with the American people
He has not been honest 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 po-
litical issue and every political situa-
tion squarely without fear or hesita-
ton.
Mr.. Hughes began his campaign
with carefully prepared program of
dodging and evasion. In the midst
of the greatest crisis known to modern
civilization he determined to have no
policies of his own, but to seek to
consolidate 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 iingoes would not suit the
nacifists. What suited the Old Guard
would not suit the Progressives.
What suited Roosevelt would not suit
Taft. So Mr.. Hughes resolved to at
tack everything that President Will
son has done, but to say nothing about
his plans and purposes. He was nomi-
mated in the dark and he thought he
could be elected in the dark. Whether
or not he has discovered his mistake,
the Republican managers have dis
covered it.
Instead of consolidating all the an
tagonistic elements that were opposed
to the President, Mr.. Hughes has
awakened their suspicious as to his
own intentions. They have come to
see that he cannot be playing fair will
all of them, and that he may not be
PLAY ING 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 trifiing with the des
tiny of the nation when the future o
the republic is hanging in the balance
In commonplace times it would make
little difference whether Woodrow
Wilson or Charles E. Hughes wal
President of the United States, bu
these are not commonplace 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 tn,
definite record of President Wilson
and his administration. On the othe
side Is nothing except conjecture
speculation, fault finding and destruc
tive criticism. Naturally the voter
are turning to the President. How
could it be otherwise? They know
him. They know what he will do
They can trust him. They cannot af
ford to trust any man who will no
trust them and who will not tell then
what he would do as President, an
that is the position in which MI
Hughes has placed himself.
That is why the Hughes campaign
has so suddenly slumped, and that i
why the Hughes managers must max
their last desperate appeal to tn
power of money.