The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-26
HUGHES CHOICE
 OF ''SOLONS" IN
 RANKS OF COP.
Admitting Wilson Will Be Hard to Beat, Believe Justice
 Has Chance.
FIRST DUST COLONEL,
 CAMPAIGNERS' PLAN
Desire T. R. to Say 'I Am Republican, n"-Guessing
 About Hitchcock.

Washington, May 26-A majority l of the 268 Republican members of
 both Houses of Congress are of the | opinion that Supreme Court Justice Hughes is to be nominated for Pres1- l dent by the straight goods RepUb-
 lican Convention two weeks hence.
 The fact is more interesting than l important because Congressional op1n- | ion on politics is usually. wrong. Like | all officials of the government, Con
 gressmen are influenced largely by
 their environment and not by what | the entire voting population Of the country thinks.
 Still, the Republican Congressman
 are confident they will break their record for being wrong and get on the right side They are more con cerned and occupied with politics than | with the legislative program which 1 the Dem ocratic majority is putting | through with neatneSs and despatch, l and which is certain to provide the i President with a splendid platform upon which to make his second bid 1 for the vindication of Democratic l principles.
 l Even the more optimistic of the Re- publicans admit the President will be a hard man to defeat by any candi- nominate. Consequently they want the best candidate They believe Hughes exactly fits the bill but in common with all other Republican guessers the legislative representa- | tives lof that party are compelled to qualify their predictions upon various contingencies that turn upon the plans of Roosevelt.
 They know he is the man they will have to beat; that they will have to placate before their party candidate whether it be Hughes or some one else, will have a ghost of a show of beating President Wilson.
 Fundamentally, they are convinced the Justice will appeal to more Re pub1icans than Roosevelt or any other man under consideration. They say reports from their home districts tn- dicate the existence of this opinion among the party workers, who are really more interested in e1ecting their local candidates than in the person a1ity of the presidential candidate The congressman themselves express greater confidence in their own indf- viduaI political fortunes if Hughes is nominated than they would feel with the Colonel at the head of the ticket.
 The sum and substance of their opinion is that the chief value of MT. Hughes will be as peacemalzer who will rally all factions of the party and make them forget their troubles of four years ago. They express doubt of the ability of Roosevelt to recruit the full party following which on the basis of four, years ago, showed a majority of anti-Democratic votes of 2s450,504 votes, as reflected by the combined vote for the colonel and Taft
 Dissecting the inclinations of the 869 delegates already elected, the Congressmen believe Hughes will fall heir to a large percentage of the votes now instructed for tfavorite sons''- Sherman, Cummins, Fairbanks. Weeks, Ford. La Toilette and du Pont.
 In addition to these they believe that more than enough of the tsunin- structed'' delegates will jump on the Hughes band wagon, particularly from tn esouth and middle western states. The men who have under taken the promo otion of the Hughes been at work trying to call off some of the 'tfavorite sons.'
 So far they have met only stubborn refusal, which is undoubtedly based upon the theory that Roosevelt, Hughes or Root cannot get votes enough to win and that the prize is likely to fall to one of the dark horses"
 Congressional associates of flavor ite sons'' Cummins, Weeks and Sher- l man. while publicly proclaiming their final selection, privately admit that after the first ballot or two the dele gates instructed for each of these l men will be found either in the 1 Hughes or Roosevelt columns.
 At the Capitol the Root vote is fig ured holding the balance of power l because the supporters of it are con fdent they will be able to keep it fairly intact until the moment arrives 1 for the delivery to either the Justice or the Colonel.
 Root has probably more admirers in Congress than either of the other | two, but there exists there the same | degree of scepticism regarding his l value as a, candidate that seems to be generally reflected throughout the l country. Conceded to be the best | party nominee, the prejudice against him, which is held to be decidedly un- just, will be sufficient, according to Republican Congressmen, to prevent his nomination.
 With Root eliminated from their | calculations the legislators are lean ing therefore toward Hughes, for they believe his nomination will help them | personally and their State and local candidates. The one thing the Con gressiona1 supporters of the Justice appears to fear is that the Colonel will turn down his thumb on Hughes as he has done in the case of every other man that appeared to have a chance of landing the nomination.
 A declaration by the Colonel that ! Hughes will not be acceptable to him and his Progressive followers would, l it is apprehended, cause the Justice | to refuse to permit the presentation of his name at the convention or re- suit in the injection of a third ticket in the field by the Colonel himself.
 Republican Senators and Congress men who still cling to the belief that | the Colonel will make the best candi- date and that in the end he will be nominated, are strongly of the opin- ion that the Colonel will move to ''put Hughes out of business" before the actual balloting is begun.
 They have good reasons to justify their statement that the Colonel will 1 be found in the thick of the fray and fhat tha first thing that the "straight |