THE PRESIDENCY.

Southland Times, Issue 17869, 10 November 1916, Page 4

THE PRESIDENCY.

At time of writing the result of flu Presidential election has not yet been definitely announced, and Mr Charlies E. Hughes may %ot be the next President of the United States. If the final count confirms his election, however. - the only point which greatly concerns us is its bearing upon international politics,' and particularly upon the present European situation. When Mr Hughes was nominated : he wap stamped with the approval, of the official organs of Germany, and .it was believed that he would receive the support of the great body of .the German-American voters. There is not the slighest reason, however, to believe that Mr Hughes is German in his sympathies, of that his election means that the majority of Americans are pro-Germans. The pro-Germans supported Mr Hughes only because they wanted to get “a slap” .at Mr Wilson. Why the Germans in America should be hostile to Mr Wilson it is difficult to understand, but his atti- , tude with respect to submarine warfare, and his insistence that GerinanAmericans must remember} that' they were. Americans first, incensed- them. v Mr Hughes, however, has said nothing - in.the whole course of the campaign to indicate that his attitude will- differ from Mr Wilson’s or that his election will give a pro-German bias to Anierican policy. Mr Hughes is an American first, last and ail. time, and though, like Mr Wilson, he has dealt, only in vague generalities in his references toV the war' he stands for . Americanism of a more virile and assertive type than Mr Wilson’s. This is what he had to say about Mr Wilson’s international policy: At the outset of. the. Administration the high responsibilities of our diplo- . matlc intercourse with foreign -nations ■ were subordinated to the conception of partisan requirements, and presented to. the ' world., a humiliating spectacle of ineptitude. . Belated , ef- , forts, have not availed . to-recover the influence and prestige so unfortunately sacrificed, and brave words have been stripped of their force by indecision. In another passage Mr Hughes showeo that he would tolerate no racial divisions of allegiance. He gave the German-Amerieans plainly to understand that,.they are not Germans but Americans, and that their blood ties were less binding 'tfian those of their American citizenship. Mr Hughes stands emphatically for, adequate military pud industrial preparedness, and when we recollect that Mr Wilson’s claim to a further term of,office was based upon his success in keeping America out o i the war, and in safer' guarding the prosperity and peace'of the country, and that tbc llepublican party was attacked op. the grdvmd. (hat the election of Mr Hughes might destroy these conditions, we are finable to see what grounds for" satisfaction the Germans ‘ can " find iii Mr Hughes’s election. It Mr Hughes it dissatisfied with the vacillating weakness of Mr Wilson's policy the effect of bis election may be to bring the United States into a more definite and positive position in relation to the war, and there is no doubt where the sympathies of the bulk oi the American people lie or as to the attitude towards Prussianism which , so strong an upholder of democratic constitutionalism as Mr Hughes must take., - We have had brave wcfds from Mr Wilson, but, as Mr Hughes said, “Indecision has stripped them of their force.” Mr Hughes promised, if elected, “to put that right, and more than right” He is pledged, should necessity arise, to translate into action the aggressive Americanism for which' he stands. What that means time will show, but though the Germans will probably claim that the defeat of Mr Wilson is a great moral victory for. their cause, the fact is that Mr Hughes is first and above all else the spokesman of American ideas and the guardian of American inter-‘ ests, and that if he carries into effect the policy to which he i<? pledged with the honesty and sincerity that have distinguished his whole career, the Germans may yet have cause to re-’ gret that Mr -Wilson was not again elected.