If Charles Evans Hughes defeated Wilson in 1916

[brucejoel99]

Unlike Wilson, he could probably get some sort of League of Nations through the Senate (because he'd be much more willing than Wilson to compromise), but he'd almost certainly lose in 1920. The postwar discontent with the inevitable regimentation that would go along with war (even if people would accept it as necessary during the war itself), the resentment that ethnic groups would feel toward any conceivable peace treaty (Germans were bound to feel that it gave Poland too much, Poles that it didn't give them enough, etc.), the resentment of "profiteers," the inflation likely followed by a deflationary collapse, etc. would all help make 1920 a Democratic year, maybe even under a returning Wilson, provided that his health might very well have held up better when he was out of the White House.

Otherwise, I don't see Hughes getting any great domestic progressive measures enacted with a GOP Congress. And that even assumes he wanted them enacted, which is far from clear, considering his 1916 campaign was pretty conservative.