Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1916-09-15
HUGHES WESTERN
TRIP! A FAILURE
CANDIDATES. MUDSLINGING AND
PETTY FAULTFlNDlNG DISlL-
LUSIONS VOTERS.

mittee.)
At last the truth is out. Candidate
Hughes was nominated by the Re-
publicans not because he was hun
dred-per-cent judge, but because for
six years he had been a hundred-per-
cent sphinx.
The net result of Mr.. Hughes
speech-making tour from New York
to the Pacific Coast was the complete
establishment of the people con-
corning the man and his candidacy.
With a reputation of a man Of high
character, an able jurist and lawyer,
possessing the respect of Democrats
as we'll as the respect and confidence
of Republicans, much was expected
of him. That he has disappointed all
expectations is to state the fact mild
~. In q large measure he has for
feited the esteem of his opponents
and the confidence of the better ele-
ment among his supporters.
Like Old Ward Politics.
Instead of intellectual discussion
Of issues and policies by a dignified
and judicially-minded candidate, the
people have been inflicted with petty
fau1t-finding, reckless misstatements
and the cheap personalities and bitter
partisanship that characterized the
ward politics of quarter of a CEN
fury ago.
Mr.. Hughes Western campaign
was conducted upon the lowest level
yet reached in a presidential contest.
Vituperation has been it's chief feat
ure. An ex-justice of the supreme
court of the United States singing
campaign mud is not spectacle to
inspire admiration or to command
public confidence.
The issues of this campaign are
contained in the constructive and
progressive achievements of Wood
row Wilson.
Mr.. Hughes has crossed the CONT
nent without having offered or sug-
gested a single constructive policy.
He has not even been INSTRUCTIVE, but
simply obstructive and destructive.
The great lawyer has employed his
legal ability in quibbling and the
other petty methods usually confined
to practice in police courts.
With an opportunity to discuss
ideals and the material interests of
America, he has chosen to ally him.
self with the worst element in his
own party and has appealed to the
most selfish and most partisan in
stincts among his followers.
Want Central Bank.
! Without discussing single vital
issue Of the campaign, he has held
out to Wall street the hope of restor-
ing the financial oligarchy of the de-
throned buccaneers of finance, whose
chief aim is to repeal the federal re-
serve bank act which set credits free
in the United States and made the
nation panic-proof, and to substitute
therefor a central bank by which
Wall street can control the private
and public finances of the nation, but
he has not dared to say so.
To the American hooters of Mexico
he intimates the hope of Intervention
by which every corrupt and fraudu-
lent concession may be legalized by a
war OF occupation and conquest.
The only construction to be placed
upon his criticism of the administra-
tons Mexican policy is that he would
have recognized the usurpation of the
assassin Huerta, and thus would have
set a premium upon revolution and
assassination in Latin-America.
Not once has he referred to or in
dorsed the idealistic and constructive
program of the Progressive party, but
apparently assumes that his indorse-
ment by Roosevelt and Perkins will
deliver those Independent and
thoughtful citizens to him in a body.
Good Man Conc Wrong.
Altogether he is the most conspic-
uous illustration in recent years of a
good man gone wrong, of fair
minded jurist descending to the most
unfair and unjudicial methods. Of a
great lawyer pettifogging and be-
clouding the matter at issue and fol-
lowing the we'll known custom OF
lawyers with a bad case by attempt
ling to conceal their own defects in
abuse of the other side.
Many people who knew the Charles
Evans Hughes who was governor OF
New York are unable to account for
the Transformation to Charles E.
Hughes, the presidential candidate of
1915. May 1t not be. after all, that
the Charles E. Hughes of today is the
same Charles E. Hughes Of eight