The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-26
DEMANDS ETRACTION OF CLERKS LETTER Commissioner Declares Rob inson's Statement to
 Press False NAMES MAN WHO
 RETURNED CHECK City official Says He will Stand Back of Asser-
 tions He Made


 In a letter made public today. Nor Eman Leeds, president of the board of lcontract and supply, demands that ICfty Clerk J. Alexander H. Robinson,
 chairman of the Republican town com I1nittee, make a public retraction of the letter given to the press Wednesday. declaring that his (N1r- Leeds state- IInent before the board. when they de- Iposed George L. Catlin,- clerk of the $10O contribution was false In his lIetter MT. Leeds declares that the Iaa-. Iguage is 1ibelous, and fntimates that lcivil action. will be taken unless the lretraction Is made.
 I In writing his letter to Clerk Robin lson, MT. Leeds declares that he had iverided the charges. James Turner, Isecretary of the Bridgeport club. at Itorney, and Republican politician. is named by MT. CatIip as the Republi- lean who demanded $1o0 contribution Tor nothing.
 MT. Robinson, in his letter of We'd tuesday,, declared that MT. Catlin's lcheck for $15 had been returned with
 Leeds statement before the board that f$1Oo was demanded of MT. Catlin, as
 false.
 John T King personally requested the contri button, according to MT. Cat ilin's letter to MT. Leeds repudiatirg tnance committee of the organization,
 latter discussion, delegated one mem
 Der to talk the matter over with Cat lin.
 druggist and a member of the organ I izatfon was sent to see MT. Catlir. In Il the conversation. Mr. Ballard ipqu1red
 whether he Cat1in) was correctly
 quoted in stating that he did not think sthee clerks bfp political one \ ags fSIATfr SfSfa-
 fnson is as follows:
 Leeds Letter
 Your letter of June 24th, post
 marked from Westport, Conn. ats p.
 m.. written upon the paper of the
 Republican town committee, and Il City of Bridgeport, was received by
 me some nineteen hours after it was
 made public through the press. 'T, have delayed answering your let
 ter until had opportunity to
 again verify the facts on which [ re- lied in my statement in the meeting 3 of the boa 1 .uf cortract and supply. t herewith enclose copy Of a letter from George L.. CdLli>. to me with re- gard to the action of the Republican : town coInmittee You will notice in
 the last paragraph of MT Cat1ir's lat-
 ter that he writes that at the time the demand for $1OO was made on him, he : referred the matter to Mr. Kirk, who : : was chairman of the board. and Mr. : Mcdonald, ex-cfairnlan, as well as -. -. both by MT. Kirk, MT. Macdonald and : myself.
 ' "In your letter, you state that . A member of the finance committee was
 delegated to see MT. Catlin, and, after considerable talk over the matter. he : reluctantly rendered his check for $15
 As an actual fact Afr. Catlin sent his z check for $15 on the request of John T. King and there was no talk on 2 the subject further than that MT. King asked Mir Catlin to make suc1 contribution to the campaign fund as
 he saw fit, making to reference to any e amount. A member of tha finance committee did not collect this eneck T but it was sent through the mall. The check was returned to MT CatIin by s a member Of the finance committee
 who made the request that Mir. Catltn n contribute $100 to the campaign fund r "In looking Over the list of con " tributors to the Republican campaign n fund, mote that seventy-five per t cent of these contributors gave s15 r or less. all of which money was ap- d parently thankfully received. It was r. evidently because the Republican r town committee considered MT Cat n fn's job a purely political one thai l. they saw fit to request the additional e amount. Quoting from your letter y The writer explained to MT. Catlin s that he was not appealing. to him e from a political standpoint' but nev- It ertheless you sent Frank Ballard tc l. see MT. Catlin to find out if he was s correctly quoted in stating that he n did not consider his position a poli- v tical one.
 e Answering my statement that MT e Catlin was approached by member q of the Republican town committee 2 and told he must contribute $1OO or t nothing, quote from your letter, as v follows: This statement is absolutely
 false and without foundation,' and V again., Therefore again cali your 7 attention to the fact that your state 5 ment that he was asked for $1OO is 1 without foundation of fact, and I an = surprised you should make such g s staten ent'
 +sI consider the language, as used
 by you, as nbelous, and I think it i: g very much in order from the evid. ence presented herewith, that you re. T T tract these statements at once and U as publicly as you made the origina
 accusation. Beyond, that, it seems tc
 me that the attitude which you have
 taken in this matter is one which re. ' fleets credit upon yourself as the 2 resp onsible leader of the Republican
 party or upon the campaign commit : tee"
 > (Continued on Page Twop