1916 ACROSS THE CONTINENT WITH HUGHES greatly needed leadership into National unity; and that, looking toward the future period of difficult international reconstruction which is soon to come, he must at least be careful to preserve for himself and his party an honorable measure of good will from the great nations with whom we shall soon have to deal intimately and intricately in time of peace. It is a difficult task, but as the campaign proceeds I expect to see the Republican candidate walk in it with wise and clear vision. Speaking from a month's experience with the many thousands of Western folks whose opinions and sentiments I have sought to fathom, I am satisfied that they are as anxious about the country and as loyal to it as any fierce pro-German or pro-Ally protagonist could possibly be, but that their highest sense of patriotic purpose in the coming election rises only to the point of desiring a party in power that will insure permanent National unity and order and welfare without the disruptions and agitations of recent years, and a President in-office who can be counted on in future emergencies to analyze the facts and then "go and do it" swiftly and righteously. And they will take him on the record of his deeds, and they care very little about what he says he thinks he would have done in this or that past contingency of the National life. I am writing it as I think I have found it in the mind of the average man or woman of the West. I am regretfully compelled to concede that the instinctive feeling in the West, and the mass of the people, for that matter, is that the danger to democracy and morality in the world at large. and the danger to the United States in particular from foreign aggression is much exaggerated by the thin line of international idealists on the Atlantic slope. Somebody ought to write a book on the political myth. Our public life is full of material. Before the trip through the West the Hughes candidacy was suffering from a political myth, namely, that the candidate was cold, reserved, an iceberg. one of the cold-storage twins, Fairbanks being the other. It is a little strange that the memory of the West was so good as to what Hughes did when he was Governor of New York, but not so good as to the kind of a man and campaigner that he was. Nowhere in his public appearances is he stern or cold or forbidding. On the other hand, he is affable to a degree, and he has a winning smile and an exuberance of 91 human interest in the presence of the people which indicates that he is enjoying every minute of it. I suppose the contrary view of Hughes is partly due to the fact that he has been on the bench and partly to the comparing of every Presidential candidate with Roosevelt, whose marvelous physical and human exuberance has long held the world's record, and who, when in the West, is as much a part of it as if he were born in it. But the success of Hughes in overcoming the view that he was a sort of Supreme Court abstraction was complete. The first day out began the dissipation of the myth, which was wholly dissolved by the time he reached the Coast. Almost his first public act in Detroit was to leap from the railing upon the concrete roof of the players' bench at the park and shake hands with both teams and chat with Ty Cobb, who is, of course, the idol of American baseball enthusiasts. And it certainly caught the crowd and did business against the myth. 'By golly," said a man next to me, there is nothing cold about him! He is a modest man, but he is all right." And it rather shook the coolness of the home team, for the first ball pitched by the Detroit twirler was lined out over Ty Cobb's head by Witt, of the Athletics, for a home run. And Ty himself didn't field that ball in perfect form. 66 66 That was a good start against the myth. And Hughes kept it up until it was demolished. He showed himself to the satisfaction of the West to be a real human being with red blood and a knowledge of his kind. One evening, as the sun was setting over the richest hill in the world at Butte, clad in miner's trousers and jumper and rubber hat, he went with the rest of us rattling down the shaft of a great copper mine two thousand feet, and far into the recesses of one of the rock chambers he talked with the miners and worked the rock drill by the light of the lamp. Every man who is a candidate for the Presidency, or for any great Federal or State office, ought to have to do that, and by the ear-splitting noise of the drill and in the sweltering temperature of ninety degrees learn something about what the length of a working day means in the hard and hazardous occupations of many of society's toilers. And we should then get the increasing influence of the human quality in government. Hughes made himself one with the cowboys at Miles City, with the knights of the barbecue at Reno, as he rode into the audi torium and up to the very rostrum in an automobile in Denver, with the rear-end crowds at a hundred stopping-places-the West was satisfied with the human stuff there is in him. And the thing you find yourself asking yourself is how a man who enjoys the world outside so much as Hughes could ever have sat on the Supreme bench as long as he did. I suppose the answer is that the Hughes on the Supreme bench was the intellectual Hughes, the profound analyst and student of legal as well as human affairs. And there is no doubt that Hughes greatly enjoyed the bench. But you cannot help feeling that he must be glad that once again he is breathing uncloistered air. I venture to say that a large number of the several hundred thousand who heard him in his trip through the West have forgotten by this time that he was ever on the bench. A very powerful impression was made upon the West by the family and home aspect of Governor Hughes's trip through the constant presence with him of Mrs. Hughes, a sensible, strong, and splendid personality. That suited the West.. It represented to the West, what above all else the West loves, the power and glory of a genuine American home life. In the Painted Desert concession of the San Diego Exposition they coddled Indian babies together, and the babies cried and the crowd laughed and cheered, and even the Indians grinned. As they stood together in front of the old Spanish lighthouse at San Diego, overlooking a harbor as blue and beautiful as the Bay of Naples, watching the Government hydroplanes hovering and flying over us, I heard a dear old chap near me say, They are very common, ain't they, just like the rest of us ?” 66 The tour of the West has made it clear that the Hughes appeal to the whole country will be the appeal of an American, a democrat who desires to see an organized country, strong, efficient, and set upon doing what is right. He is an old-fashioned American in his view of Sunday. We didn't travel on that day. We rested and we went to church if we wished to. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes always did. There is nothing narrow about it. It is a day for good cheer and recreation and rest. But neither the moving-picture concerns at Universal City nor anybody else could commercialize Hughes on that day. Politics and profit stopped at the threshold. And we all had a chance to reflect and get a new vision of the right. The reaction upon Hughes of his Western trip was the reaction of democracy. Many times he spoke of that. The great Northwest especially thrilled and inspired him. I think I didn't hear him make a better speech than at Miles City, under the flags in the park, looking down from the band-stand upon the big, husky fellows, eager and strong, upon the cowboys and the girls, upon the little folks on big horses with the colts running after. Such enthusiasm, such response to ideals, such a genuine body of folks! As we left town the bunch of cowboys followed the train full tilt down the valley, the horses leaping backwards and forwards from one side of the track to the other, or cautiously and swiftly picking their way across it. One horse outfooted them all, and the last I heard as I went inside was somebody from the rear platform shouting to the swift rider, "Where are you going?" and back came the answer, "Going to follow you to Seattle." You can't stop the spirit of the Northwest. And it is a good thing for the whole country that in that whole section of the Nation there still lives the soul and vigor of democracy. This is where Roosevelt was awakened. Roosevelt was an idealist by inheritance and became a radical in power, but he became a democrat in the Northwest. Democracy is its own inspiration to its wisest leaders. And it was the power and vigor and possibilities of democracy which again and again found expression in the message of Hughes as he wended his way to the Coast. He talked everywhere of a strong, efficient National Government and the need of the use of National power, but it was all for the sake of helping the cause of the whole people-the women and children, labor, the defenseless, those who cannot so well help themselves. He exhorted them to have no fear that any sinister power would frame up anything on him, in the tariff, in Alaska, in monopolistic practice, anywhere else. practice, anywhere else. If Hughes is going to be President, and I hope he is, it will always help that he made his first great campaign adventure into the West. Estes Park, Colorado, August 31, 1916. Mr. Davenport's next article will be entitled " Hughes and the People of the West" TWO VIEWS OF MEXICO These two views of Mexico are, we believe, with some variations, the two views most commonly held by Americans. By thus placing them in juxtaposition we hope to help our readers to solidify and freshen their own opinions by the same process of examination and adjustment by which one is enabled to overhaul one's own mental stock in trade at a debate. There is truth in both these opinions, but much more of it in the second than in the first, we believe. The Outlook has never had much sympathy for the cientificos, Mexico's aristocrats of wealth, who were largely driven from the country by the Madero revolution. The Outlook has never advocated the restoration of the cientificos to their former despotic position or the favoring of special capitalistic enterprises as a part of American intervention. We sympathized to a considerable extent with the revolutionists of Madero as the leaders of a genuine and sincere social upheaval. But that revolution failed, as others in Mexico have failed, because its leaders lacked the strength to cleave to their first aims in denial of their own selfish instincts. The Outlook wants of Mexico only safety and fair play to Americans living there and the regeneration of Mexico for the Mexicans. But it doubts Mexico's ability to work out her salvation without outside aid. And the determination of the nature of that aid, whether political, economic, military, or all three, is, in our opinion, the Mexican problem to-day. In short, the question as regards Mexico is not the question of the end to be pursued, but is rather the question of selecting the means to the end. And we believe that a study of the means used in the regeneration of Cuba and the Philippines will be an important aid in choosing the means for Mexico.-THE EDITORS. I T may be conceded that a large majority of the American people believe that there is no real reason for a war with Mexico. As a people, the Americans do not desire any Mexican territory, have no desire or ambition to govern the Mexican people, and no zeal to impose upon Mexico their ideas of civilization. However, Americans should have a desire to assist Mexico in solving some of the vexed questions which confront that distressed country, for in the solving of them we bring peace to Mexico and remove a menace to the peace of this country. So it may be plainly stated that this country has a duty to perform, and that duty should be, and can be, so performed as to make Mexico a true friend of the United States, and it is certainly admitted that a friend is desired to the south of us. It is not fair to the Mexican people to state that we have no quarrel with the Mexican Government, for the reason that there is no government, and to charge that Mexico has been and is being ruled by a mob. The fact is that Mexico to-day has a government in control of a greater portion of Mexico than any government set up since the days of General Porfirio Diaz. It should be clearly evident that the people of Mexico, as a mass, are behind this government, for they have brought it into existence. We have admitted the right of revolution; a revolution has been won, and the government the Mexicans are trying to set up is the result of this revolution. This must be admitted before justice can be given Mexico. Calling the de facto Government of Mexico, now generally recognized by foreign Powers, "the greatest of these mobs" does not change the real issue, but simply is a reflection on the people of Mexico, for the present Government is not a minority one, as have been almost all former governments set up in Mexico, but is the result of a majority element enforcing their mandates by means of a revolution. Revolutions have never been popular with tory and conservative interests, but have always been popular with the people. If dregs come to the surface during revolutions, it is the result of conditions, and with peace restored the dregs sink to the bottom. History has made this plain, especially in connection with the French Revolutions, which in their nature were similar to those which have taken place in Mexico for over a hundred years; the evidence of an attempt on the part of a people to secure, and retain, their political and economic liberty-in the case of Mexico, as of France, to correct social and economic conditions, rather than political. To-day Mexico has a real national spirit, centered for the first time on real issues which they have won through a prolonged strife and which they will hold and not turn loose again. The belief in this on the part of the old reactionaries is the real reason for their vindictive opposition to Carranza and his government. The rich and powerful interests which have in the past governed Mexico through a minority rule, hating the United States and the American people, now hope to return to Mexico and be seated in power by the army of the United States. This is the real issue. The wrongs of the Mexican people have been enlarged upon, yet those remaining in Mexico have not appealed to the United States. The expatriates, however, who never gave a thought to the well-being of the people of Mexico, now cry out their wrongs and, having failed through a Villa and a Huerta to go back, too cowardly themselves to fight, look forward with glee to the possibility of returning to Mexico under the flag of Uncle Sam, whom in their hearts they hate and despise. And is it the duty of the American people to commit this further outrage on unhappy and distressed Mexico? The Mexican people as represented now by the Constitutional Government are said by some to hate and despise us. Do not for a moment believe it. There is a vast difference between the hate for us on the part of the Constitutionalists and that of the expatriates. One hates us for the supposed ills we have brought upon him, dodging and ignoring his own responsibility for these ills; the other hates us for wrongs and aggressions which he believes are uncalled for, and the evident attempt at meddling in his affairs. This last can be overcome when the duty owed to Mexico is granted and we assist that coun try in overcoming its present economic difficulties and withdraw our troops from Mexico. The reaction will then set in and they will become our good friends. But do not for one moment believe that the reactionary element driven out of Mexico by the revolution will ever have for this country and its people other than hate. The present critical condition has been brought about by two things-border raids, resulting in sending United States troops into Mexico, where they now remain without the authority or consent of the Mexican Govern ment. Cut out everything else, the crux of the whole situation is embraced in these two facts. These bandit raids into this country have never been the acts of the Mexican Government, ordered and carried out, but of unorganized bands acknowledging no government and admitting of no control. Their acts have been repudiated and the responsibility assumed. On the other hand, acting under Government orders, the American troops invaded Mexico. No matter what the reason, the act was an invasion. Further, after accomplishing their purpose, they are now held in Mexico against the protests of Mexico and its people. In this matter the United States has a grievance; Mexico suffers from a wrong. It is admitted in this country that if the de facto Government will show ability and purpose to protect the border the occasion for troops in Mexico will have ended. Then it is the duty of this country to make the first approach at a settlement, for in fact we are the aggressors, having invaded a friendly country with which we are not at war. If the above contention is even in part conceded, this country can with good grace welcome arbitration of a form which will finally settle this trouble once and for all. Mediation will not settle it. The A B C conferences have only resulted in postponing the agony, as it were; they never healed and never settled things. The American people now demand a settlement, but they are not demanding a war to settle it, for in the minds of the majority it can be settled without war. The great burden of Mexico is now economic. The vital question is the stabilizing of its currency. This done, commercial relations may be resumed with safety and peace be an accomplished fact, for ills will soon be forgotten when business occupies the attention of the people. As soon as these pressing needs are relieved the de facto Government can give its undivided attention to organizing its administration along legal lines and in accordance with the Constitution, and it can then seat the government so organized. From a commercial point of view, it would seem better for the United States to lend Mexico what money it needs and draw the interest, rather than incur the expense of a war, which costs not only money, but the lives |