THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2794, 12 June 1916, Page 4

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

The Republican Convention to select a candidate to represent the party in the Presidential election to be .held in the United States later in the year seems to have had a good deal, of difficulty in arriving at its choice. The Progressives, who had become practically a party of their own rather than a wing of the Republican Party proper, again held their gathering separately from the main organisation gathering, and voted solidly for Me. Roosevelt. The main body preferred Judge Hughes, and as Mr. Roosevelt has withdrawn his candidature it may be assumed that tho energies of tho great Republican organisation will henceforth be concentrated on the effort of securing the Presidency for Judge Hughes. It will be a disappointment to many that Me. Roosevelt is not to be the candidate to contest the Presidency against President Wilson, who is certain to be the choice of the Democratic Party. Me. Roosevelt's attitude and utterances on questions arising out of the war naturally have won for him the sympathy and respect of the British people. Rut it is very doubtful whether he could have won the Presidential election even had he secured the Republican nomination. H,is downright utterances on the •subject of American duty in relation to tho war; his contemptuous references to tho peace-at-any-price partyand to the weak wobbling of President Wilson, have put a great fear into the hearts of'the more timid section of his countrymen, who fear that should ho return to office while the war is still on lie might embroil America and drag her into tho war on the side of the Allies. Many of those who feel the ignominy which President Wilson's weak attitude has brought on tho American people and resent it, yet fear Me. Roosevelt as an extremist in the other direction. There has been a great Roosevelt boom in tho United States, but it is doubtful whether it was as representative of numbers as of energy and noise. Tho most satisfactory feature about the Republican Convention's choice, howover, is that to a large extent ho is a , Roosevelt nominee. If reports are to be believed, Mr. Roosevelt strove very bard to get Judge llugses to offer himself as a candidate, and this being the case, it may be'expected that Mr. Roosevelt will throw himself heart and soul into the campaign to securo his election. There is something of a mystery as to tho views of Mr. Hughes 011 the American foreign policy. As a Judgoho has declined to express any opinion as to America's attitude towards tho war, but as a candidate for the Presidency ho would necessarily require to make his position quite clear. One thing is certain: he is a strong man holding strong views on most questions. It is a fair inference that if Mr._ Roosevelt_ regarded him as a desirable candidate in tho Republican interest, then his views on foreign policy cannot be very different to thoso of Mr. Roosevelt himself. It seems fairly clear that Judge Hughes is tho

strongest candidate the Republican Party could possibly find to contest the Presidency with the present holder of the oflice. His capacity is recognised, he is a man of highest character and calm judgment, lie is a popular and well-known personality in,the public life of the great Republic; he' is the candidate most feared by the Democratic Party. In the circumstances it will not occasion any great surprise should ho defeat the present holder of the Presidential office.