The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-11-04
HELPED TAKE PAIN OUT
OF PAYNE-ALDRICH- BILL
Judge Hughes, Who Has Just Taken Fail Out of Boss
Smith, of New jersey Was Once Mill Hand
and Later a Congressman

If interest had not naturally CEN
tered in the defeat of James Smith.
Jr., and the victory of the Woodrow
Wilson forces in the New Jersey pri-
maries this week. people outside the
State would probably have paid more
attention to the man who did the de-
feating and thereby put another
feather in the cap of the Democratic
candidate for president. Jim Smith
was beaten; Wilson won-and Incl
dentally, II would seem, man named
Hughes, william Hughes, of Pater-
son, fell heir to the right to go to
Washington next March as United
States senator from the State of New
Jersey.
That is not exactly how it hap
pened. In fact it didn't happen at
all. 1t was a fight, and the man who
came out on top. came out on top
not solely because he was Wilson's
man and was fighting an anti-Wilson
man and ex-boss of the State, but be-
cause he was-well, because he was
Billy Hughes. Is that difficult to I'M
derstand? 1t would not be If you
lived somewhere In Jersey; in Pat
erson If you wish,
Hughes is not Princeton man.
and up to date he has not contested
any mans claim to being the original
Wilson man. Nevertheless, he does
like to be classed among the progress
sive Democrats and as one of many
who worked hard at Baltimore for
the governors nomination. Other
distinctions he has, of course, and
they will be mentioned in their prop
er place.
He Was Born in Ireland.
Hughes and not any old John Doe
or Richard Roe who happened to be
a good Wilson Democrat. to carry the
primary, it is necessary to go back
nearly forty years to the day that
Master William came toddling into
the United States of America and
then toddiing over to Paterson with
his parents. Hughes was born in Ire
land, you see. The exact date was
April 3. 1872.
They sent him to public school, OF
course. but when Hughes was ten
years old and getting along we'll at
school, it became necessary to take
him out and put him to work. He
got a job as a reel boy in one OF
the big silk mills of Paterson. the
Barbour Flax Spinning company. of
which Colonel william Barbour was
the head. Make note Of the celonefs
name. please, because later on he and
the reel boy are to appear as rival
candidates for congress. You see,
there is something of the story-beok
touch In the history of the reel boy
who rose to political fame. Hughes
went back to school after a while,
but before he had got very far he was
again sent to work, this time In an
other silk factory. In time he be-
came a weaver. Then he took UP
stenography and typewriting studying
them at night, and at the age of
twenty-one he was able to quit the
silk mill and come to New York as
stenographer for the American Gro
Gerry company. Another year saw
him back in Paterson, working in the
law Office of William Rysdyk. and
reading law on the side.
Then the war with Spain came
along, and ne enlisted in Company A,
Second New Jersey volunteers, regi-
ment which was held in readiness at
Sea Girt and later at Jacksonville, Fla,
but which never crossed over to Cuba.
II he did not see active service, Hughes
was able to turn his stenography to
good account by serving as stenogra-
pher to General Fitzhugh Lee. On his
returned he plugged away at the law
once fHoTet StuuyiHS III hS 'HiSe Va
William Nelson and. later under John
W. Griggs, ex-Attorney- General, SO
that by 1900 Hughes was able to pass
his bar examinations and become a
full fedged lawyer.
Won Case ror Strikers.
There was a strike In the silk mills
at about this time, and thousands of
operatives were out OF work and try
Ing to keep others from going to work. |
The situation became pretty strained, |
and the mill owners went to Chancellor
AAhlon PitQcy -(now on the Federal