Democrats Favored as "Liberal."

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

On theory, I should think college men would have come out strong this year for Wilson, as the representative of the liberal party in the campaign. But as a matter of fact, we are quite comfortable here, and have many preoccupations, and the issue between liberal and conservative principles in national politics does not greatly interest us. That may explain why the University has divided between Wilson and Hughes this year in about the same proportion as it does between the two parties in an ordinary Presidential year. There was a noticeable difference, however, in that many men who voted for Hughes professed to admire Wilson--which was a sign that some thinking was being done. Many thought that Wilson and Hughes were both "good" men, but they voted the Republican ticket as a matter of course. Were the experiment possible, it would be most interesting to see how men would line up if the Republican party should suddenly decide to call itself the Conservative party, and the Democratic party the Liberal party.

It seems to me that we have in fact developed a liberal and a conservative party, and that the Democrats are, for the time being, the liberal party. The Republicans, a few years ago, gave promise of becoming the liberals, when the insurgents, under La Follette, fought for the control of the party. But La Follette and his band appear to be out of the reckoning, and the rank and file of progressive Republicans who put their hopes in Roosevelt have had a discouraging experience which has undoubtedly caused a great many of them to lose heart. Within the Republican party, the reactionary forces, represented by such men as Penrose, Lodge and Barnes, are completely victorious. These men are sincere and able statesmen. They are sincerely afraid of "mobs" and they sincerely believe in the divine right of the few.

President Eliot, in an article in the October Atlantic Monthly, entitled "The Achievements of the Democratic Party" gives a list of the things that President Wilson has accomplished. The article ought to be read by those who wish to form an enlightened opinion upon the questions involved in the campaign.

I have written thus far of domestic issues. These, however, have at times been overshadowed by international questions--the Mexican problem, and the problem of our relations with Great Britain and Germany. As to the first, the issue seems clear. On one hand, there are a great number of people who, in the course of the European war, have been gradually working themselves up into a "heroic mood," and who seem to feel that at a time when most of the world is at war, it is somehow unmanly for us not to be doing some fighting. They feel that our differences with Mexico ought to be made an affair of honor. President Wilson's view seems to be that it would be dishonorable and cowardly to make war upon a weak nation, distracted by civil wars. Remembering that this Republic is dedicated to certain great principles, he apparently feels that we ought to put no difficulties in the way of those Mexicans who are fighting, however blindly, for the same things for which the men of '76 fought.

German-Americans Being Fooled.

The German-American problem does not present so well-defined an issue. There are those who believe that President Wilson has been too lenient towards Great Britain and too severe in his treatment of Germany. And there are others who believe that the President has not been sympathetic enough towards the Allies, and not severe enough towards Germany. Strange to say, both parties are lined up behind Hughes, and apparently someone is being fooled. Probably it is the German-Americans who are being fooled, for Mr. Hughes is, after all, an American, and cannot be much in-sympathy with the things for which Prussia stands. He would probably have dealt with Germany about as Mr. Wilson did. It is not the fashion among nations to go to war until certain formalities have been complied with. In the month of August, 1914, the nations of Europe exchanged a good many more notes than Mr. Wilson has exchanged with Germany before they took up arms. What Mr. Hughes would have done, however, is only a matter of conjecture, for he has not dared to express his opinion, either on this or on any other subject.

But these questions of foreign policy, after all, are only transient. The most important issue in the present campaign is, as I have started out by saying whether liberal or reactionary ideals are to triumph. That is what the campaign ought to decide.  S. D. SMOLEV 2L