Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-03-31
SILENCE FOLLOWS
JOHNSON'S LETTER
RESIGNING POST
Neither Governor Nor Atty.
Gen. Will Add to Replies
Made Last Evening
w. J. RONEY'S NAME HEARD
Chief Examiner Is Mentioned
For Head of the Insurance
Department

The first break in the State ad-
candidacy of Governor Martin G.
Brumbaugh for the Republican nomi-
nation for President and the contest
for control of the Republican State
committee came last night about 6
O'Clock when Insurance Commissioner
Charles Johnson, Republican leader of
Montgomery county, sent his resigna-
ton to the Governor, who accepted it.
For days Capitol Hill and men who
observe politics have been expecting
an explosion as the result of the man
ner in which Attorney General Francis
Skunk Brown and others in the inner
council of the State administration
have been conducting the campaign
in the interest of the Governors
candidacy and control of the State
committee on the side. But no one
was prepared for the dramatic man.
ner in which the veteran Johnson
hurled his defiance at the political
manager of the Governors campaign,
while officially severing his connection
with the government. Even the
startling moves in the famous contest
of 1895 were not in the same class as
the politics played by Johnson and
the events of 1912 pale into in
significance compared TO what oc-
CURED in an hour last night. What
the effect will be no one can foresee.
The Governor has been dragged into a
controversy and scathing denuncia-
tion of methods being used in his
name and for his interest have come
from man who has been on the in
side. Hope of harmony has disap-
peared from Capitol Hill.
Johnson's Climax
The close of Mr.. Johnson's connec-
ton with the administration stirred
Harrisburg as ii has not been stirred
for many, many months. For days it
has been rumored that the insurance
commissioner was antagonistic to the
attitude of the Attorney General and
that he was bitterly resentful of things
being done by another high official,
head of a branch of the State govern
ment not supposed TO meddle with
politics. Mr.. Johnson came here on
Tuesday and spent most of the time
since i'm his office working TO get af-
fairs in shape. He had again and
again declined to make a statement.
To questions whether he would re-
sign he returned a blunt refusal to
talk.
About 4:SO o'clock yesterday after
noon the Insurance Commissioner
shook hands with his office force and
left the Capitol. When he locked his
| desk he sent a letter to the Governor
resigning and giving as the reason a
letter sent simultaneously to the At
torney General, fairly sizzling with
criticism, Then he went to Norris
town. He said nothing when he left.
Brown Surprised
Mr.. Brown was preparing to leave
when he got the Johnson letter and he
Immediately went to the Executive
! Mansion where he met the Governor
who had also received a communica-
tion in writing from the Insurance
Commissioner. Soon after o'clock
word that Johnson had resigned got
out, but efforts to get any informa-
tion at the office or residence of the
Governor. the office of the Attorney
General and the office of the Insurance
Commissioner were alike unavailing.
Then Mr.. Johnson's letters were made
public and at o'clock the Cover
nor's office announced acceptance of
/ the resignation.
Early last evening the Attorney
General "came back" at the late In
surance Commissioner, passing the lie
and using harsh words TO express his
opinion of him.
State officialdom relapsed into
silence, but individually plenty was
said.
Silence the Rule
People connected with the State
government from TIE high officials
down to the clerks were rivals to the
sphynX to-day. Governor Brumbaugh's $
refusal to add to his letter of accept
ance of the Johnson resignation last
night was taken as a cue by every
one connected with Capitol Hill and
caution and silence were more than
usually prevalent. State officials, in
| cluding some who have been said from
time to time to be opposed TO the
methods for the furtherance of the
Governors campaign, refused point
blank TO talk About developments or
| possibilities.
None of those mentioned by the
| Attorney General as attending the
conference of State officials and others
would talk, either.
While officials were silent there was
considerable speculation about the
successor to Johnson ana William j,
Roney, examiner in CHER, a Philadel-
phian and nephew of David Martin,
former Secretary of the Common