PUBLIC OPINION by WALTER LIPPMANN TO FAYE LIPPMANN ...

subject which would not only ignore 1912 but would avoid also the
explosive conflicts of 1916. The speaker skilfully selected the spoils
system in diplomatic appointments. "Deserving Democrats" was a
discrediting phrase, and Mr. Hughes at once evokes it. The record
being indefensible, there is no hesitation in the vigor of the attack.
Logically it was an ideal introduction to a common mood.
Mr. Hughes then turns to Mexico, beginning with an historical review.
He had to consider the general sentiment that affairs were going badly
in Mexico; also, a no less general sentiment that war should be
avoided; and two powerful currents of opinion, one of which said
President Wilson was right in not recognizing Huerta, the other which
preferred Huerta to Carranza, and intervention to both. Huerta was the
first sore spot in the record...
"He was certainly in fact the head of the Government in Mexico."
But the moralists who regarded Huerta as a drunken murderer had to be
placated.
"Whether or not he should be recognized was a question to be
determined in the exercise of a sound discretion, but according to
correct principles."
So instead of saying that Huerta should have been recognized, the
candidate says that correct principles ought to be applied. Everybody
believes in correct principles, and everybody, of course, believes he
possesses them. To blur the issue still further President Wilson's
policy is described as "intervention." It was that in law, perhaps,
but not in the sense then currently meant by the word. By stretching
the word to cover what Mr. Wilson had done, as well as what the real
interventionists wanted, the issue between the two factions was to be
repressed.
Having got by the two explosive points "_Huerta_" and
"_intervention_" by letting the words mean all things to all men,
the speech passes for a while to safer ground. The candidate tells the
story of Tampico, Vera Cruz, Villa, Santa Ysabel, Columbus and
Carrizal. Mr. Hughes is specific, either because the facts as known
from the newspapers are irritating, or because the true explanation
is, as for example in regard to Tampico, too complicated. No contrary
passions could be aroused by such a record. But at the end the
candidate had to take a position. His audience expected it. The
indictment was Mr. Roosevelt's. Would Mr. Hughes adopt his remedy,
intervention?
"The nation has no policy of aggression toward Mexico. We have no
desire for any part of her territory. We wish her to have peace,