mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm WHAT DOES C. E. HUGHES BELIEVE INT MANLY BREAKS SILENCE ' ' BY BASIL M. MANLY What is the attitude of Chas. E. Hughes on the great economic and social questions that determine the welfare of the American nation and the liberties of the citizens of Amer ica? Since -his nomination Hughes has made a number of public statements, but except gor a clear-cut endorse ment of a high protective tariff and some very indefinite statements re garding the desirabliity of general welfare legislation, he has confined himself to the verbal exposition of his "Americanism." This question of his real attitude is the one to which above all others the American people should have an accurate, unbiased answer. Not only is this the most important campaign since the days of Lincoln, but there is an even more important reason why in 'the case of Hughes the exact truth is vital. 'the American people have, at the urgent insistence of Theodore Roosevelt, already chosen one pres ident, Wm. Howard Taft, from the federal bench and later overwhelm ingly repudiated him for his reac tionary subserviency to big business. They are now asked, again by Roosevelt, to choose another presi dent from. the federal bench. The question must therefore be asked is Hughes another Taft? Fortunately the answer to this question can be given, free from all bias, by an analysis of Hughes' rec ord as a justice of the U. S. supreme court. This is the best possible test, for during the six years since Hughes was appointed to the supreme court by Taft nearly every important eco nomic and social question has had to be considered, either directly or indirectly by this court. The accuracy and validity of this test is apparent from the case of Taft If the American people had analyzed Taft's decisions as a federal judge, exalting the rights of proper ty above human rights, instead of accepting the encomiums of Roose velt upon Taft as the great progres- 0 sive, there can be little doubt that there would have been no Payne Aldrich tariff and no Ballinger scan dal. In makingtjiis analysis of Hughes' record in thVsupreme court I have taken every case in which he deliv ered the opinion of the court or dis sented, all of the cases in which he concurred with the majority of the court against a dissenting opinion, and the most important cases in which he participated in the unani mous opinion of the court. Alto gether 219 cases are involved, of which Hughes personally wrote either majority or minority opinions in 148. In these cases his opinions on mo nopolies, labor, public utilities, rail road rates, public lands and all the other big questions about which the people have been in conflict with privilege, are clearly revealed. They are the true index of his views and must override any statements of policy which he may make in the vote-getting excitement of the cam paign. What do these decisions show? They show that During his entire six years on the supreme bench, Hughes dissented from the majority of the court 29 times out of the 1,412 opinions hand ed down during that period. Thus in . 97 cases out of 100 he stood on the w platform with the other justice. In four cases he wrote his own dissent ing opinion. In the other hundreds of cases he either went with the ma jority or concurred in the dissent of some other justice. The cases in which he handed down the opinion of the majority of