The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-06
Look With Suspicion on Din ner With Elihu Root.
 Barnes Is Sarcastic
JUSTICE HUGHES IS
 SILENT AS SPHINX
Publication of Probable Roosevelt Cabinet Taken to Mean That Pro- gressives and Standpatters
 Will Amalgamate
By HUGH w. ROBERTS

Washington, April 5.-(Special.)- .)-De- spite the .disinclination of Colonel Roose- welt to figure in the various preferential primaries, that he is an active candi- date-is accepted in the capital with a great deal of assurance.
 For months it has been the subject of gossip that the 'standpat" and the bull moose factions would amalgamate with either Justice Hughes or Colonel Roose- welt as their presidential offering. The latter it begins to appear evident, Is de- termined through q series of political maneuvers, to eliminate Justice Hughes. In the beginning he dined with Senator Root, regarded as the pet candidate of Boss Barnes of New York. and the man chiefly maligned by the colonel as the rch-conspiiator against his ambition in 1912. Later. there appeared, probably with the sanction of the colonel a pros pectus of his cabinet. On April % the colonel, it is said by those close to re- publican headquarters. will deliver an ad- dress in which he will outline his plat form.
 THE CABINET MEMBERS
 Nothing has been more constantly the subject of gossip in Washington than the recent actions of the colonel. When he and Root dined and apparently buried the hatchet, the idea prevailed that the lion and the lamb were lying together, that as a result of the discovery of some subtle alchemist, oil and water were joy ously intermngled, and that the wooden spoon was displaying the pewter handle with which it was happily welded to- gether.
 And then. as climax to the startling gossip there was published in New Yorl; the Roosevelt cabinet. According to this dispatch-and it was dated at Oyster BaX-Root will be the next Secretary oi State, Lodge the next Secretary of War Representative Gardner the next Secre, tary of the Navy and Robert Bacon-whc brought Roosevelt and Root together the next Secretary of the Treasurer Since these unexpected developments political students have been endeavorine to find the answer. Has Root yielded hi. own to the Roosevelt policies? Has Roo forgone his own ambition to be President n that Roosevelt's ambition might no again be frosted? Or has Roosevelt, sad ly in need of the support of the 'old-time republicans, forgiven Root for his ma licious deportment'' in 1912, and as a re. ward for his promised effort in 19lt agreed to make him the premier of the nation?
 BARNES IS PEEVED
 Among the principals there is silence as inpenetrable as among those who sat with Judge Gary at the feast of Bel shazzar. The opinion among repub- licans in Washington-and the wish is this repect might be father to the ex- pression-is that Roosevelt has conquered the old-line republicans by meeting them more than half way, and that as a result the two factions will combine against Wilson the coming fall.
 MT. Barnes, in. his newspaper, professes to know nothing. But he editorially inti. mates that the meeting between Root and Roosevelt was the result of the de sire of the latter to sue for peace and beg support. Root. recalling the assault of Roosevelt following the 1912 conven
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