The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-10-22

(Extract from speech delivered in Chi- cago Wednesday nighD.
 The American people are being asked to put in peril the peace and prosperity the country is now enjoying under Pres ident wilson by turning their government over to the inexperienced Mir. Hughes and the organized band of incompatible and irreconcnable clements which is sup porting him Is 1t a. risk the American people can afford to take, and are the grounds upon which they are asked to make the change either definite or con- vincing? For two months Mir. Hughes and his supporters have been playing the roll e carping critics, condemning every act of the democratic administration in the most unfair and untruthful manner but the American people are still without definite answer from MT. Hughes and his supporters as to what they will do with the government if they get possess sion of 1t
 The only definite thing we have had jn the campaign comes from Colonel Roosevelt. He said at Battle Creek on October l, discussing the Lusitania: You ask me what I would have done--I would have seized every interned German ship. .
 On March g. 1916, the following message was flashed by wireless from Berlin to Sayville, Long Island: Germany declared war or Portugal at 3:S0 D. m. yesterday. The German declaration,' says the Over seas News agency, emphasizes the fact that this step was made necessary by the recent Illegal seizures of German ships in Portuguese ports, which Is the gravest sort of breach of neutrality and of special treaties"
 Mir. Roosevelt's action would have re- suited In war between the United States and Germany.
 The United States has treaties with Germany which would have been out ragged if MT. Roosevelt. as President. had seized the ships which happened to be In our harbors belonging not to the Ger man government, but to German citi- xens- He would have disregarded all in- ternational law, appropriated private property in violation of express treaty obligations and outraged the constitution of the United States, which confers upon the Congress alone the war making power
 And now comes MT. Hughes and admits, as far as he is ever definite, his accord with the bellicose attitude of MT. Roose- welt. This is shown by the incident at Louisville. Ky, October L, when he was asked the point-blank question: What
  was sunk?" MT. Hughes replied in sub stance that he would have threatened the Kaiser so effectively that 'the Lusitania would never have Been sunk
 CHARACTERISTIC EVASION
 This is characteristic evasion. MT. Hughes was not asked what he would have done to prevent the sinking of the Lusitania, but what he would have done after tna L4sitania had been sunk. He has not answered that question. I chal- lenge him to answer 1t He Is persist ently criticising the way the President handled the Lusitania matter, and the American people cannot judge the merit of his criticism unless he tells them what he would have done to meet that great crisis. This matter is not material how ever, except insofar as it compels a definition of MT. Hughes attitude.
 MT. Hughes adnits. and here Is its value, that he would have forced a rup- ture with Germany. without first ex- hausting the channels of diplomacy, those channels established by civilized govern ments for the express purpose of discuss ing and effecting peaceful settlements of international controversies. That Mr Hughes Is in accord with Mir. Roosevelt S violent and hectoring method of dealing with other nations is the irresistible logic of Mir. Hughes equivocations and MT. Roosevelt's. declarations.
 MT Roosevelt and MT. Hughes have performed at least this much of service they have brought into sharp relief two diametrically opposed policies; President Wilson believes that he should exhaust every honorable means to settle interna- tional controversies, through diplomacy