The Alaska daily empire., 1916-08-16
A CANDIDATE WITHOUT A POLICY
(New York World.)

(New York World)
 Mir Hughes's speech Of acceptance is the public confession of candidate who is without an issue and without policy.
 Half of it is devoted to an attack upon the foreign policy of President Wilson but Mr. Hughes does not not say what he would have done that Mr. Wilson elI undone. what he would have left undone that MT. Wilson did.
 fourth of 1t is devoted to preparedness and to censorng the President for calling out the National Guard: but here again Mir. Hughes refrains from tell ing the American people how he would nave oot9inea a larger measure of preparedness than the President has wrung from Congress, how he would have dealt with conditions on the Mexican border without calling out the National Guard
 Mir Hughes's Mexican policy is to be one "of firmness and consistency. through which alone we can promote an enduring friendship But what form are the firmness and consistency Co take? War? ln tervention? Candidates can talk about trmness and consistency in foreign affairs bu Presidents must deal with concrete matters. They must decide dell nitely to do this thing or that thing. They must act
 Tn spite of Mr. Hughes's long and bitter indct. ment of the Presidents course in Mexico. he himself has nothing affirmative 10 offer The Republican candidate fellows the same proseeungattorney taccs in dealing %ith the Presidents European policies "A firm American policy" is the thing that was needed but again what does Mr. Hughes mean by a firm American policy? Mir Wilson has guided the country through a great crisis-thrOugh e period which Mr.. Hughes himself describes as perhaps more critical than any period since the Civil War. Without sur rendering single American right, he has kept the country out of and compelled the most powerful military government know to history to conform its submarine warfare to American demands Now comes Mir Hughes the arch critic Of that President Co say that Mir. Wilson was all wrong in the way he did it, whatever the results may be.
 Would Mir. Hughes have gone to war over the Lusitana would he have sought first to exhaust all the resources of diplomacy! If he would have gone Go war he does not say so. If he would have first hausted the resources Of diplomacy in what respects would he have handled the case more wisely and more periodically than President Wilson handled t? Here again Mir. Hughes confesses by his silence that he does not know what he would have done. or that he Is afraid to say what he would have done
 Perhaps nothing is characteristic of Mir. Hughess speech than his treatment of alien eonspir acies. We denounce all plots and conspiracies in the interest of any foreign nation and then he pro ceeds hold the Administration responsible for them Tt was it's duty to stop them if the administra- ton had not secured dozens or indictments and a score of convictions But there is one plot and con- spiracy about which Mr. Hughes Is discretely silent. We refer to the German plot to make him President Co permit the German government to dictate the for eign policy Of the United States
 Mir. Hughess speech will be searched in vain for solitary word, solitary syllable, repudating this infamous attempt of foreign monarchy to control the political affairs of the United States by punshng Ia President who has offended 1t and rewarding can didate who tacity invites the support of the hyphen. ated. Mir Hughess dominant Amercanism" halts when 1t contempates the political possibilities of the German vote.
 Mir Hughes's speech is all sound and reyerbera- tion There is no substance to it and there is no substance to it because Mir Hughes, lawyer that he is. could not present As party candidate he can criticse the President and find fault with the administration but in spite of his high ability he can frame no substitute policies of his own upon which he would venture to go before the American people
 
 in he would be a better President than Mr. Wilson All of his speech is destructive None of it is con- structive.
 The independent voter will read it in vain for word of hope encouragement It is the partisan utterance of partisan candidate appealing to parti- san vote that nothing in government except physical possession of the Federal patronage and the protection of property and privilege. It might have been delivered by William Barnes Boise Penrose, Joseph c. Cannon. any other standpat Republican It is only when Mr. Hughes begins to argue in behalf Of a Republican tariff that he becomes positive and vehement and appears to have convictions of his Then he takes his place proudly and triumphantly alongside the Republican Old Guard that enacted the Payne-Aldrch schedules
 Mir. Hughes puts his denuncation of President Will into the scale against the record of President Wilson's splendid achievements and asks the Amer. people to choose There ought not to be the shadow of a possibility of doubt to their decision.
 The World recently expressed the opinion that no civilized country in the world would be insane enough at time like this to oyerturn such government as President Wilson has given to the United States and embark upon a of experiment. That conviction is strengthened tenfold by Mr. Hughess speech No intelligent man could by any process of the human mind find in it a single logical for putting Woodrow Wilson out of the Presidency and putting Charles E Hughes in.
 Mir. Hughes has spoken, and his speech is an unanswerabe argument for the reelection of President Wilson
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