Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-10-20

among tne tnTee prize winners III
the series of editorials on why
Charles E. Hughes Should be Elected"
the Philadelphia Ledger announces
the name of James Weldon johnson,
an able colored author and writer,
who is vice-president of the New
York branch of the National Associa-
ton for the Advancement of Colored
People. Mr.. Johnson is native of
Jacksonville. where he was born in
1871 and has written many poems be-
sides doing much literary work. His
editorial in support of Mr.. Hughes
is as follows:
The vital consideration before the
country in the coming presidential
election is in some degree q question
OF choice between the policies of the
two great parties, but in an over
whelming degree it is a question of
choice between the personalities of the
candidates of the two great parties; 1t
is question of choice between the
man Charles f. Hughes and the man
Woodrow Wilson.
This anomalous condition has been
forced on the country by Woodrow
Wilson. He has made his own unfit
ness for the presidency a greater issue
than the unfitness of his party to be
{ continued in power. This he has done
+ by acts IneXcusable in the head of a
nation.
There are partisans of the President
! who point TO his program of legisla-
I ton, claiming that it more than over
/ balances all his shortcomings. But
even II il is granted that Mr.. Wilson
/ should receive credit for whatever
constructive legislation Congress has
/ passed in the last three and half
years, the claim of these partisans
would not necessarily hold good. Mr..
/ Wilson's shortcomings are not the
/ kind that can be overbalanced. A
/ man might become the president of a
| bank. and by his industry and his
ability as financier build it up into a
great and prosperous institution. He
may smoke or swear or drink or refuse
to join the church, and still be a good
I bank president: but if he embezzles
one dollar of the funds intrusted to
/ him he at once and forever establishes
7 his unfitness for such a position. re-
gardless of what his other Qualifica-
tions and virtues might be. Mr.. Will
son has demonstrated his unfitness to
[ be President of the United States, not
/ withstanding what his abilities and
achievements may be.
NO man of timidity. of indecision,
I of inaction and of cowardice Is fit to
be the head of a great nation, no mat
ter how learned or virtuous or elo-
quent he may be. AS we'll make such
a man the captain Of ship. Such a
man at the head of affairs constantly
places the State in danger, and his in
/ fiuence saps the very thing that makes
group of people into nation. Pres
ident Wilson has shown that these are
ingrained traits of his character; and
he has brought US the danger and
wrought us the harm.
His partisans declare that he kept
up out of war. In truth, no country
has sought a fight with us, but these
traits OF Mr.. Wilson's character have
! more than once brought us to the
brink of war and, in the case of Mexi-
SO, backed us over into a petty and
dishonorable war. But greater than
the danger has been the harm. The
very fact that a considerable number
of American citizens are not ashamed
to proclaim openly their thanks that
timidity and cowardice on the part of
the President kept the country out OF
war is proof of the emaScufating in
ffuence the administration of Wood
row Wilson has had on the nation. A
few more administrations like the
present, and the United States would
cease to be nation worthy of the
name.
But timidity, indecision, inaction
| and cowardice are not the only traits
of character that make Woodrow Will
son unfit for the presidency of the
| United States. In nearly everything
/ that he says or does there is revealed
a profusion, 4 smoothness, a shiftiness,
lack of simple directness, a sense
of calculation, a flavor of opportunism
that makes IL difficult to believe in his
sincerity. There is always the impress
sion that he is not going straight and
clean to his object And even when he
appears to be going straight and clean,
| there is the impression that the OBJ
| ject he seems to be going at is not the
main object in his mind.
Who can escape the conviction that
! Mr.. Wilson is at heart a pacifist who
| for policys sake has masqueraded as
] an advocate of preparedness? or