The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-09-24
BOOTH IS IN FINE PICKLE Lees Friends in Ninth Cast Him Out; Morris Friends
 Won't Have Him ALLEN AFTER JOB
 GOTTHARDT HAD Storm Center of Republican Warfare Continues in
 East Side


 Republican warfare which. is waging in the city between the insurgents and the regulars to remove the storm cen ter from the Ninth district. That the Republican machine recognizes that the strategic point in the campaign is in this district is indicated by the promptness with which the regulars got their delegate ticket into the field. Today, and it is two or three weeks in advance of the primaries. one of these ballots is probably in the pos session of every person who can be expected to vote it and in the hands of many persons who will not vote it. Policemen have the little white slips of paper, firemen have them, employees in the public works department have them. The insurgents, who will se- cure the nomination of Charles H.. Morris, if they can, have not sa far issued a ballot, although the delega- tion has been named.
 One of the tragedies of the situation, so far at least as it's victim is con- cerned, is the situation Of former Town Clerk James N. Booth, who de- sires to be renon1inated to the same office. Booth had picked Mayor Lee as the winner of the nomination for Mayor and as the man who would probably control the Republican con- vention and sought an alliance with him. But in the meantime it began to look as if the Morris Republicans might control the convention and Booth, it is alleged .e went into nego- tiations with them to arrange a dicker in the Ninth. The Lee men, having no time to finger, allied themselves with B. J. Cooney.
 learned of certain conversations a1- legged to have taken place between Mayor Lee and the former Town Clerk. They inquired of MT. Booth and found his explanation not quite candid. In other words whether or not an injustice was done to the for mer Town Clerk, they concludM that he had been dickering with Lee, and that he had so stated what had oc- cured as to convey to them the inn ing with Lee. Thereupon all negotia- tions with the Booth faction were sus- pended, and unless a change occurs the former Town Clerk will be obliged to go it alone.
 The earlier indications pointed to four delegate tickets in the Ninth, two pledged to Lee and differing in the respect that one group of delegates would be favorable to Cooney for Town Clerk, and the other to Booth; and two Morris tickets, differing in the same way. I
 But 1t is now apparent that there will be only one Lee ticket, which will also be for Cooney and a ticket which will be for Morris for mayor and prob ably not for Booth, or anybody else for town clerk, although it is barely possible that the former town clerk may so far dispe1 imputations of un- candor as to be admitted into the in- surgent fold. Unless he is able to such an alliance it is diff acult, Republicans say, to see how he >a n COnVantiOn with his own district behind him. If he cannot do this his chance of getting the town clerk nom- nation will be somewhat less than his chance of reaching the moon in an air. | ship. |
 Republicans who are frankly allied | with the machine are beginning to | admit that the prospects of party suc- cess this fall are exceedingly slim. | The nomination of the present mayor ,or victory and a practically unlimit- ed opportunity for defeat. They con- cede that the Morris men are at least | very strong on the East Side. The | Eleventh and Twelfth Districts are to them, it is admitted that | hey ought to carry the Tenth, and i hat unless they can be beaten in the | Ninth, they will come across the river | with a solid East Side.
 A solid East Side against the ma | ,hine would mean almost certainly it's | allure to control the convention. The | insurgents base their hope of victory 1pon a number of events, the chief of | which is the strength of Harbor Mas ear Charles H. Morris among the ank and file of the party voters, but ilso they point to the fact that the machine has been on the edge of de- eat for a number of years, as for in- tance when in the last election it vas enabled to nominate Lee only by he vote that F. A. Bartlett, the then own chairman cast against himself. | n two earlier occasions, they point l ut that it was only saved by the
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