"
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.
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