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the rank and file, is making such a consideration inevitable. Though there are plenty of candidates, there are only three -Hughes, Root, and Roosevelt-that have other than a local strength. Only these three have developed other than a professional, worked-up following. From all parts of the country come reports of a spontaneous movement for the present Justice. Not the politician, not the newspaper editor, but the farmer, the workman, the merchant are putting forth this cry. Strong as Mr. Hughes is in the East, his strength increases as one goes West. His great speech-making tour in the Taft campaign has left an impression of his character and mental force that apparently only deepens with time. "I made eight speeches on a recent lecture tour in the Middle and Far West," one Republican Congressman told me. "One fact made a particular impression. I could mention many names of public men and get only a perfunctory response. I never mentioned the name of Hughes without getting a spontaneous roar of applause. These WesThese Westerners believe in him-they want him."

HUGHES AND THE SUPREME COURT

The most pressing political question now afloat is this: Will Justice Hughes accept the nomination? He discountenances all discussion of his name; he peremptorily restrained a few absurd enthusiasts in Nebraska who attempted to place his name on the primary ballot. This attitude is well understood. Suppose, for a moment, however, that the Republican convention next June finds itself deadlocked over the rival claims of a lot of colorless candidates. The situation discloses no chance of agreement. Outside is Roosevelt-perhaps installed in the Florentine room-ready to bolt once more and reorganize his third party. A repetition of the campaign of 1912, with the certainty of Wilson's success, again confronts the tired, hot, disappointed party leaders. Then some one mentions the magic word, "Hughes"; a word that spells party reunion, party harmony, not improbably party success. The champions The champions of all booms now find an excuse for burying all their differences and getting to work

for a hearty old-fashioned campaign. Can any one doubt what the response would be? The delegates would break out into one roar for Hughes and the nomination might even go to him without a dissenting vote. Under these conditions could he refuse? Could any man refuse?

Most newspaper readers now understand that Mr. Hughes believes that he has a great duty to perform to the Supreme Court, and that is to safeguard it, in so far as his influence can, from the taint of politics. Once or twice in American history Supreme Court judges have been receptive Presidential candidates. Clearly, political activity or receptivity ill becomes the Supreme Court bench. In maintaining this position Mr. Hughes has in mind the future of that bench. He is thinking not of his present fortunes, or the fortunes of his party, but of the future of his country. What effect would his nomination, even more his election, have upon the character of his present office? Would it not establish a dangerous precedent? Would not political managers in the future turn to this place for their candidates; would not justices have the White House constantly in mind? The precedent once established, the descent in general character would be insidious but certain. Only occasionally has politics influenced Supreme Court decisions; with Presidential candidates on the bench, however, such considerations would inevitably play a part. This means utter destruction for this branch of the Government.

Some people have denounced Mr. Hughes's attitude as pedantic, almost priggish. After all, they say, the Presidency is a greater office than a justiceship of the Supreme Court; evidently Mr. Hughes regards it as inferior. But this contention entirely misses the essential point. Our system makes the Supreme Court bench our great umpire; and the first essential of an umpire is that he be impartial-that he decide questions in the clear, cold light of justice. He cannot perform this function if personal ambitions lead him to one side or the other. The use of the Supreme Court as a nesting place for Presidential ambitions would detract from its usefulness as an interpreter of the

Constitution. The black robe and the Presidential aspirant are incompatible.

Mr. Hughes has maintained this attitude from the first. I can personally testify to that. I well remember a meeting with Mr. Hughes a few days after President Taft, in 1910, had appointed him to the bench. That was a critical moment in Mr. Hughes's career. He was waging the greatest fight of his governorship with the Barnes machine at Albany. For four years the people of New York had looked upon Governor Hughes as their greatest asset in the fight for political decency. His acceptance of the Supreme Court justiceship disappointed many, to whom the act seemed almost like a desertion. But Governor Hughes had his own point of view. He had served two terms as governor, at great personal sacrifice; and he had definitely decided to return to private life when Mr. Taft's offer came to him. It opened up the chances of public service along lines for which Mr. Hughes's training especially fitted him and which were extremely congenial. It also removed him definitely as a Presidential candidate.

"Don't be too sure of that," I interjected, when Governor Hughes had reached this point in his explanation.

He wheeled around like a flash. "You mustn't say that," he said. I quickly perceived that my remark had not been a happy one. There was an energy and finality in the Governor's statement that definitely removed him from my mind as a Presidential possibility. I have had no reason to change it since.

A "STAMPEDE" THAT FAILED Mr. Roosevelt's present enthusiasm for Justice Hughes makes no great impression. Had it not been for the Colonel, Mr. Hughes would now be President of the United States. Governor Hughes was an acknowledged candidate in 1908, and had the New York delegation, but Mr. Roosevelt insisted on Taft. Had Hughes been nominated then, he would have been elected, and unquestionably reëlected in

Nor do those who know Mr. Hughes think much of the "stampede" theory. He is the last man in the world to be

"stampeded" into anything. In fact, politicians have tried to "stampede" Mr. Hughes before, and with indifferent success. In the fall of 1905 Mr. Hughes was engaged in a great public work, also of an essentially judicial character-the life insurance investigation. Probably the historian, in tracing the causes of the improvement that has taken place in Amencan politics in the last ten years, will find the most important of them in this proceeding. One result of Mr. Hughes's sudden fame was to place him among the political "availables." He had hardly begun when a Republican convention assembled to nominate a candidate for mayor of New York. The politicians picked out Mr. Hughes, partly, it is generally suspected, because the campaign would close his career as investigator and forestall certain facts which he afterward disclosed concerning Republican politics in New York. The parallel to the present situation is almost exact. He was engaged in a great work. of the utmost importance to the public interest; and he refused to be beckoned away by any temptation of political place. He said "No" and he meant "No." But the politicians did not believe him. Like their successors in the national party to-day they fell back on the "stampede" theory. Once let the convention nominate him, they said, and how can he refuse? Well, they tried it. The convention met, and, with loud huzzas, nominated Mr. Charles E. Hughes for mayor. When the "notification committee" proceeded to his house and solemnly presented the nomination, Mr. Hughes met them courteously and declined in a few well chosen words.

The crestfallen Republicans reassembled and chose another candidate. The “stampede" theory failed in 1905; may it not fail again in 1915? He has made one Republican convention go back and nominate another man; he is entirely capable of making another do so.

THE QUALIFICATIONS OF ELIHU ROOT

Outside Justice Hughes and Mr. Roosevelt, Elihu Root is the only name that arouses national interest. On his inherent merits, Mr. Root has many qualifications

The two pressing problems facing the Nation now are military preparedness and foreign policy. Mr. Root seems uniquely qualified to handle both these issues. He has presided over the two federal departments that are concerned with them-he has been Secretary of War and of State, and he served with great distinction in both places. Such army as the United States has at present it owes almost entirely to Mr. Root. As Secretary of War he inherited the rabble organization with which we bungled through the Spanish War. When he entered upon his duties, the Army's authorized strength was 25,000. Mr. Root, after a characteristically protracted struggle with Congress, succeeded in increasing this to 100,000, and he also obtained the reforms that laid the basis of the present organization. Lord Haldane, once War Minister of Great Britain, has publicly testified that he gained his greatest inspiration and information from Elihu Root's reports as Secretary of War. Certainly a President with this background could render great services to our military progress in the next four years. Mr. Root also knows the State Department as do few other living Americans. He is one of the few Secretaries of State we have had in fifty years whom the European diplomats have really feared; for his shrewdness, his smoothness, his complete devotion to his country's interest they had the most wholesome respect. Consequently Mr. Root enjoys great prestige in Europe; and his election as President would lift the United States in European eyes. In the present movement for Pan-Americanism we must not overlook the fact that it was Mr. Root's famous visit to South America that laid the basis of better relations with our neighbors.

MR. ROOT UNAVAILABLE

Still, politically, Mr. Root is probably the most unavailable man before the public. The old-timers like him; many thinking people, who forgive certain things in his career because they believe in his innate patriotism and have the greatest respect for his talents, would gladly vote for him. But would Mr. Roosevelt support him? Once, indeed, the ex-President said that

he would crawl all the way from the White House to the Capitol, if such an obeisant act would make Elihu Root President. "He is the greatest man who has appeared on either side of the Atlantic in my time," was another tribute. Things have changed, however. When Mr. Root presided over the convention of 1912 he became the great architect of the greatest crime of the ages. If, as seems likely, the present tendency is to forgive and forget, the strangest beginning would be Mr. Root's nomination. For this would arouse all the old animosities. Mr. Roosevelt is not the only one who feels this way, for that 1912 convention was an odious performance in the sight of all men. Most Americans want to forget it. The voters, by giving Mr. Taft the votes of only Utah and Vermont, rendered an effectual judgment of Mr. Root's handiwork. Despite all this, and despite Mr. Root's record as Thomas F. Ryan's attorney and as Tweed's legal defender-to mention only two high lights that would figure, justly or unjustly, in any Root Presidential campaign the old bosses who still control the Republican machinery have been assiduously grooming Mr. Root as their candidate. They had all their plans laid for a delegate-hunting campaign to begin on January 1st. But one cold, blanketing fact has disarranged all their calculations. Mr. Root's political unhappiness consists in that he makes so excellent a presiding officer. As already said, his chairmanlike ability at the national convention of 1912 put the first cog in his Presidential aspirations. Last summer he presided again, this time over the New York Constitutional Convention. This time he did a highly creditable piece of work. The constitution adopted by that convention, in the judgment of most observers, represents about the finest one ever turned out in this

country. Yet the freemen of New York rejected it by a vote of nearly half a million. Why this amazing hostility? There can be but one explanation: that they regarded it as Root's constitution. They could not believe that a document which this skilful constitution lawyer had had a hand in drawing did not contain pitfalls. The public judgment was cruel;

it would be easy to show that it was unjust -for Mr. Root, despite his reputation, has stood for many liberal things, such as direct primaries and the income tax, while his terrific fight against Lorimer and against the attempts of Big Business to retain that corrupt politician in the Senate showed that he was no passive instrument of the "interests." In Mr. Hughes's struggle with Mr. Barnes and the other New York "bosses," Root also placed himself upon the Governor's side. But it didn't matter -he had been Tweed's lawyer and the legal light who made possible the deals of the Metropolitan Street Railway; that ended the matter. The rejection of the New York constitution has probably ended the Root Presidential boom.

Of the big figures, therefore, Mr. Roosevelt is the one remaining choice. Perhaps he, more than any other candidate, would harmonize the two wings of the party. The veterans of 1912 detest him; they say that no circumstances can possibly make him the candidate. All political theorizing, however, cannot get away from the fact that Roosevelt carried all the non-Wilson states four years ago except Utah and Vermont. He is one of the greatest vote-getters who has ever appeared in American politics, and, after all is said, vote-getting is a desirable qualification for a Presidential candidate. His nomination would displease many people-mostly the judicial, sober living, logical, respectable kind, who, after all, do not exist in sufficiently large numbers to determine an election. The politicians who hate Mr. Roosevelt are, when all is said, politicians, and politicians who are hungry for victory. Part of their trade is to forget inexpedient animosities; the acceptance of Mr. Roosevelt would, therefore, not seriously strain their principles.

"It will be Hughes or Roosevelt"-this is a common saying in Washington to-day. THE REPUBLICAN "FAVORITE SONS"

Outside of these three men-Hughes, Root, and Roosevelt-there are a group of candidates of the kind who usually figure in the public prints in the preconvention months. Why there should be such things as "favorite sons" is not entirely clear.

Benjamin Harrison was the last favont: son who received a Presidential nomination; that happened in 1888-twentyeight years ago; each succeeding for: years, however, brings in a new crop Several of these are already shopwor Charles W. Fairbanks, for example. Others like William Alden Smith, of Michigan, and Boise Penrose, of Pennsylvania, are merely absurd. Senator Borah, of Idaho, belongs in a different class. He is sc different from most favorite sons that hs friends really regret that he seems in danger of becoming one. He makes an excellent speech, is personally attractive. has a record for honesty and progressivism. Mr. Borah, however, has no illusions concerning his candidacy, and has prohibited the use of his name on the primary ballots in certain states. He is still a young man: his reputation is growing perhaps four or eight years from now conditions will be more favorable. Meanwhile, why should he permit himself to become shopworn? Senator Cummins suffers somewhat because his name has been so commonly associated with the Presidency. He is one of the original Republican insurgents; he voted for Roosevelt in 1912, and inserted a plank in the Iowa platform which practically declared that a Republican might vote for either Taft or Roosevelt and still remain "regular." Possibly this may make Mr. Cum mins a "harmonizer" candidate; but it is not certain. The fact that he is not particularly strong on the preparedness issue will not recommend him to the Roosevelt wing. The same objection lies against ex-Senator Burton. He has been a peace man and a small-navy man, besides being generally regarded, in his own state, as extremely conservative. His political life in Cleveland has represented antagonism to the Tom Johnson movement; it is significant that Mr. Burton did not care to stand for the United States Senatorship on the popular vote. Nevertheless, he has great ability and character. He has also what few candidates have, a real issue

anti-pork barrelism. In other times his successful fight against wasteful federal appropriations would make platform enough for a Presidential campaign.

There remains only one figure of consequence that of Senator John W. Weeks. Here, many say, is the real standpat candidate. The old campaigners may talk Hughes or Root or Burton; but they also have their eyes upon a trim, energetic, well-groomed, businesslike person from eastern Massachusetts. Senator Weeks is one of the few candidates who has under way a well organized campaign. The impression prevails in certain quarters that the Nation has outgrown its spasm of Progressivism. It has been fed for ten years, these philosophers believe, on a diet of railroad regulation, tariff reform, "social justice," "popular" government, and the rest, and is now yearning for a return to the sober, common sense of business men. has had about all it can stand of La Follette, Wilson, and other "uplifters" in both parties; it would like to return to

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McKinley or Taft. The Nation is sick of "agitators"-it is looking for the constructive" man. Mr. Weeks is apparently the candidate who best represents this school of thought. He has spent the larger part of his life as a banker and broker. His speeches, usually made before bankers' and traffic men's associations, contain suggestions for curbing the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission, condemning the Wilson trust bill and Trade Commission, advocating ship subsidies, the protective tariff, and the like. Mr. Weeks is sincere in all this and would not conduct a Presidential campaign on any other basis. But little in it awakens any loud popular echo. One can imagine It what would happen to this unimaginative mind if it once attempted to measure wits with the keen and subtle intellect now stationed in the White House.

CORPORATION SCHOOLS

HOW NINETY-THREE BIG AMERICAN CORPORATIONS ARE MEETING THE NEED FOR BETTER MECHANICS, BETTER CLERKS, AND BETTER SALESMEN-BRIDG

T

ING THE GAP BETWEEN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AND THE

JOB, AND TRAINING WORKERS FOR PROMOTION

times, and the correction of the mental deficiencies of John Jones and Willie Brown is full of million-dollar potentialities for the future of American industry in general and the Santa Fé Railway and the New York Edison Company in particular.

HE National Association of two great economic problems of modern Corporation Schools is an organization at present comprising ninety-three American corporations that employ more than one million people and that use capital in excess of 3 billion dollars. Their 3 membership signifies that each of these corporations wants more education for some or all of its employees, and wants it badly enough to pay the bills to get it. But why should the Atchison, Topeka, & Sante Fé Railway care whether John Jones, engine wiper in a roundhouse at La Junta, Colo., knows the multiplication table; or why should the New York Edison Company, which supplies practically all the electric light and power for New York City, worry because Willie Brown, office boy, thinks that the Suez Canal is in the western part of New York State? And yet the reasons why they care are at the root of

The Santa Fé Railway cares because John Jones is a specimen of the kind of halfbaked mechanic that modern industrialism has been turning out since the decline of the apprentice system. In the “good old days," that really did have their good points besides being old, a lad who wanted to learn a trade was apprenticed to a journeyman, and after six or seven years of precept and example and experience he knew as much as his master and was graduated as an all-round workman, skilled with his hands, familiar with his tools, and proud of his craft. But along came the inventions of specialized machinery in the

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