When Justice Hughes was nominated for the Presidency by the 

 RepubHcans in 1916, I wavered, for a time, in my allegiance to Presi- 

 dent Wilson, in the hope that Mr. Hughes might carry us into the 

 War. But Mr. Hughes' speeches, especially his formal address in ac- 

 ceptance of the nomination, soon drove me back to Wilson, for the 

 Republican candidate seemed to have no ideas or policy of his own and 

 to be satisfied with railing at the Administration. At the August meet- 

 ing of the Trustees of the Marine Laboratory at Wood's Hole, Mass., 

 Mr. Charles R. Crane, president of the board, had us all at his house 

 for luncheon. Mr. Crane expressed the feeling of almost every man 

 present, when he told us that he had written to Governor Hughes, say- 

 ing that he hoped to vote for him at some future time, but could not 

 do so at that juncture. Nevertheless, the country seemed to be displeased 

 with the Democrats and determined to have a change. The betting odds, 

 an almost infallible forecast, were against the President from the begin- 

 ning, though diminishing as the campaign progressed. For some days 

 after the election, it seemed that Hughes had surely won, for he had 

 carried New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, to mention only 

 the largest states, but California turned the scale against him. 



When Congress formally recognized a state of war with Germany, 

 the Russian revolution had overthrown the imperial government and 

 this enabled us to enter the struggle whole-heartedly and without re- 

 serve. Like many other people, of both parties, I hoped and expected 

 that the President would form a coalition administration, as Lincoln 

 had done in the Civil War and as nearly all the Allied governments 

 were then doing, but he could not overcome his repugnance to Repub- 

 lican politicians and would not admit them to his Cabinet. I cannot but 

 think that this was a great tactical mistake. President Masaryk, of 

 Czechoslovakia, tells in his Memoirs of his call upon President Wilson 

 at the White House and expressing his surprise that Mr. Wilson did 

 not summon members of the opposition to his Cabinet, as had so gener- 

 ally been done in Europe. The American President merely replied: 

 "I come of Scotch Presbyterian ancestors and I am stubborn." (Masaryk 

 gives that last word in English.) 



Mr. Wilson has been much criticised for leaving the country so un- 

 prepared for war, but I do not think that any feasible preparation could 

 have been a factor of importance, when war actually came. Be that as 

 it may, the conduct of the war by his Administration was far superior, 

 as it was on an incomparably larger scale, to any similar effort in our 

 history. For the first time in that history there were no political gen- 



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