THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2913, 8 November 1916, Page 4

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Some months ago the coming, as it then was, Presidential election in America was looked forward to throughout thewwholee e world with intense interest. Tt was felt that on the result might depend, to a large extent, at least the duration of the war. President Wilson's remarkable conception of America's duty to itself and to the world at large;, his extraordinary silence in the face, of grave breaches of international law and the savagery with which Germany had outraged civilised ideas of warfare; his weakness and wobbling on the issues of submarine piracy and murder led many people to hope that a change would be made in the occupant of the Presidential office. When Judge Hughes was nominated as Mb. Wilson's opponent that hope was strengthened. To-day there are few iudeed outside of the United States itself who hope for much from the change should yesterday's poll have resulted in favour !of Judge Hughes. In spite of the fact that Colonel Roosevelt decided to support Judge Hughes and declared his conviction that the Republican candidate, if elected, would formulate a strong and firm foreign policy which would regain for America the respect and confidence of other nations, there has been nothing in tho utterances of the candidate himself to give rise to such a belief. On the contrary, Judge Hughes, if we take his published utterances in American newspapers to hand up to this week's mail, has consistently evaded this iss(ie with generalisations that count for nothing at all. Moreover, there was a very disquieting disclosure a few weeks back indicating that he had been in communication with the German-American organisation concerning their support of his candidature. It. is true that there was nothing to show that the Republican candidate had committed himself in anyway to tho hyphenated American clement, but the fact that he had been in communication with thenleaders cannot be ignored in weighing tho possibilities of the situation.

It has been a striking ie'ature o! the Presidential election campaign that the further it. has progressed the greater the anxiety of the candidates appears to have been to avoid the vital question of foreign policy. Both Me.' Wilson and Judge Hughes have concentrated their energies almost entirely on questions of domestic concern, though the Mexican fiaEco or tragedy, as it is variously termed, has been dragged in from time to time. If we may assume that the candidates have correctly gauged public [opinion, then the American public are quite indifferent to_ the great war in Europe and the issues arising out of it. Their only concern, it would seem, is that America > should be kept out of the war and make profit out of the needs of the. belligerents — German atrocities, German breaches of international law, German submarine piracy are matters of little or no account with the mass of the voters. There is, of course, a large section of the American people which does not hold with this view, but , the campaign speoches of tho candidates for the Presidency plainly suggest that neither Mr._ Wilson nor Judge Hughes believes that votes in any numbers are to be won by a clear and definite pronouncement on issues arising out of the war. It is easy to. understand that Mr. Wilson should be content to leave tho question severely alone, but that Judge Hughes should be equally anxious to avoid the subject leaves little room for doubt as to the dominance of the peace-at-any-price sentiment. Although the election took place yesterday, the result, owing to the difference in New Zealand time, should not be known here until late to-night or to-morrow at the earliest.