The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-31

Century club by Herbert Parsons EV- erett Colby. George w. Perkins, F. w. Esta brook and Ava H. Martin. All Pledged to Secrecy. | The first to emerge from the after | noon conference was ex-Secretar"
 Wilson. He admitted the members l had decided not to discuss what had taken place.
 | T have always been free with news paper men when I could,' said MT. Wilson nut today I cannot say word about the meeting"
 Were any changes in the Republi- can National Committee discussed?" he was asked.
 Really, you will have to excuse for the elevator. Raymond Robbins, who acted as chairman of the Progressive National Convention at Chicago, was next ap- preached.
 T am as happy as a May morning, but I have nothing whatever to say" was his only comment. Chairman Wilcox, in a hurry to depart for In- dianapolis, said the conference was very fine one.
 We talked over many phases of the Irampaign,' he volunteered. We found no suggestion that the cam paign was limping. We heard no sug- gestions that the Hughes campaign in the West was not successful. I have not heard of any change to be made in the makeup of the campaign com mittee."
 MT. Wilcox then admitted that to all suggestions that the campaign was not going just right he had pointed out that any such drawback was due to it's early start, and that the prima- ries had interfered.
 Victor Rosewater made this state- ment:
 'The advisory committee held its first meeting today with very grat- flying attendance. All of the mem bers were present except two-Senator Fulton of Oregon and William Ward of New York. The committee went into detailed discussion of the general situation, and especially in our re- spectiVe sections of the country. It made suggestions. and after discussing them put them in writing, on which the chairman could act had he not al- ready covered the ground. The com mittee will meet again in Chicago about Sept. 1S.''
 Hughes Speeches Lacked a Punch.
 A member of the committee who asked that his name be not used said later:
 ''It was generally admitted at the conference that everything has not been going just right with the Hughes trip. There has been much criticism of MT. Hughes speeches, and we dis cussed plans to overcome that. We realize now that this trip was planned too early, but MT. Hughes himself is primarily responsible for that. He wanted to go through the country and size things up for him. self. Luckily we have plenty of time to overcome any mistakes that might have been made. From now on things are going to be different.
 Some of the members thought that MT. Hughes lacked a punch in his speeches, and that he should have given more attention to the so-called hyphen vote. So far as the East is concerned that may be true, but we are going to get T. F. supply what is lacking in this regard, and he can be depended upon to do it.
 "Out West it is different. In my | part of the country the people do not | want that. There is a large German l population in some of the Western states, and we decided it was better to go lightly on German attacks. We | are not altogether downcast over the outlook, for there is plenty of time | to recover from our mistakes"
 One of the matters discussed was the threatened railroad strike. The ! committee to man considered that it | would have an important bearing on | the campaign. and that it would not | hurt Republican prospects.
 ''We decided to leave that matter | entirely in the hands of President | Wilson to develop further" was the | way MT. Rosewater expressed 1t. It