New Britain herald., 1916-07-24

] night at his home at Pleasantville' N. ; Y, that the members of the progress ! siv9 state c mCmmittee could give , Charles F. Hughes a substantial en- ! dorsement by signing a letter strong 1 Iy urging progressives to vote for him.
 ''It would be very easy to get a ma l iOritv of tho committee to sign such | a statement" said MT. Johnson. "A 1 large majority favor MT. Hughes in
 spite of the fact that the minority suc-
 ceeded in blocking action in his fa- vor at Syracuse. The adjournment sine die is not in any sense a victory for the opposition to the endorsement Of Mir. Hughes, because the meth ods by which the adjournment was ob- tained will be appreciated by voters. l Under the circumstances, an endorse
 ment for Mr. Hughes by the commit
 tee would have been Of no benefit to
 him. His supporters there did not
 want such an endorsement.
 "Thore may be another meeting of the progressive state committee. That
 matter has nOt been decided yet, al though it is not likely that aOnther ef-
 fort will be made to have a vote on the matter of endorsing the republi- can candidate. The next steps to be
 taken will be decided within the next few days.'
 Perkins Knows Of No Letter.
 George w. Perkins said he did not know of any movement to get an informal endorsement of MT. Hughes through the medium of a letter. He said the opponents of MT. Hughes had no reason to consider that they had won a victory at Syracuse.
 T think every rtRht-minded man will see," he satd, that those who pre- vented action at the meeting were serving their personal political ends and not seeking to express the will of the party in the state of New York. It is clear that a very large majority wanted to endorse Mr. Hughes, but were prevented by the filibuster of a minority composed of men with axes to grind"
 Robert H Elder denied that the anti Hughes faction had prevented a vote and said that the contrary was the fact.
 During the day session a mum Der of men who after sending proxies to be voted for Hughes, had appeared at the meeting in person, altered their views and began to oppose any en- dorsement. The vote would have been so close as to rob the endorsement of any weight, or else would have been against endorsement. The fear of this l caused the men who favored Hughes to put through the adjournment mo- tion in order to escape this danger.
 "Refore the faction favoring Hughes | began to appreciate the situation | there was a practical understanding that the three resolutions should be debated together, each side to have l an hour and a half. There would have l been plenty of time for a vote. The 1 result showed that the progressive l party is opposed to committing itself | in favor of either of the old parties | and favors having the men of the l rank and file of the party pick their l own candidates. The decision that an of Hughes from such body would be valueless was made by the Hughes men when they saw their supporters were rapidly slipping from them.
 q have heard that George w. Per- l<ins and his associates may try to have Mir. Hughes endorsed informal ly by the signatures of committed men to a letter, but that could not be considered a ratification of his Candi- dacy on the part of the progressive | party A real endorsement could | come only through a vote following an l open discussion. The round robin, l which has been suggested would be | an expression of a few individual opinions"