The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-29
HUGHES TO TELL
HOW HE STANDS
Associate Justice VIII Make
Public Declaration Soon
Regarding His Position on n
Presidential Nomination.
HE WILL REFUSE IF chosen
Chicago Tribune Is Authority
for This Statement.
Says Roosevelt Is Not Men,
toned in Washington.
HE WILL REFUSE IF CHOSEN

Efforts of W. Y. Morgan, Governor
Capper and other Republican leaders
to secure an instructed Hughes dele
cation from Kansas might prove an
empty victory even by winning. Re
ports which have recently come from
Washington have indicated that JUS
tice Hughes may fatty decline to
accept the Republican presidential
nomination. Now the report is veri-
fled by the Chicago Tribune and other
papers.
In a special dispatch from their
Washington staff correspondent, the
Tribune declares Justice Hughes will
refuse the nomination and that
Roosevelt is ignored" in Washington
discussion OF presidential possibilities.
The Tribune dispatch says:
Associate Justice Hughes of the SUI
preme court will soon make a public
declaration that he will not not ac-
cept the Republican nomination for
president under any circumstances, ac-
cording to a western Republican lead
er who has been interested in ''smok
ing Hughes OUT
The authority for this statement.
who would not permit himself to be
quoted by name. said he and his
friends recently undertook to sound
Mr.. Hughes to discover whether he
would accept the nomination if it
should come to him as the free will
offering of the Republican convention.
Must Reject Honor.
| The justice, it is alleged, made it
clear if he were nominated he would
| be compelled to reject the honor.
Mr.. Hughes is represented as as
sorting the improperly of a supreme
court justice permitting himself to be
considered as a possible presidential
candidate. 1t would drag the court
| into politics and establish dangerous
precedent, he said. He hoped to see
the day when no one would think of
/ suggesting a supreme court justice for
political preferment.
| According to this account the posi-
| ton of Mr.. Hughes is this: He would
not resign now to become candidate
for the nomination, because he is not
| seeking the presidency, and he is COM
PEELED to say he would reject an I'M
sought nomination because otherwise
he would be guilty in the meantime
of the Improperly of participating in
the final decision of litigation while
being considered for political office.
Refusal in Next Few Weeks.
1t is said Mr.. Hughes will take him
self out of the presidential field of pos
sibilities within the next few weeks by
making public letter to friend stat
ing he would not accept the nomina-
ton under any circumstances and out
lining his views of the ethics involved
in the question.
The accuracy of this account could
not be verified tonight. Justice Hughes
declines to discuss for publication any
phase of the question Ardent advo-
Gates of Hughes for president say they
hope the report that he will not &C
1S
misgivings on the subject
Roosevelt Is Ignored.
Theodore Roosevelt is not mention
ed as a presidential possibility by an
organization known as the presiden-
tial canvass committee for 1915. which
is conducting a sort of preliminary
presidential preference primary
among the members of congress.
This committee, which is lin charge
of Henry Green, rs Broad street, New
York city asks the national legis-
lators to indicate their choice for the
presidential nomination from among
fifteen men whose pictures are borne
at the head of the circular letter that
is being sent out
The likeness of Colonel Roosevelt is
conspicuous for its absence.
list of G. o. p. Possibilities.
The Republican possibilities who are
listed include Representative James r.
Mann OF ILLINOIS, republican lestueT OF
the house; Mayor Thompson of Chi
cago. United States Senator William
E. Borah of Idaho. former Senator
Theodore Burton of Ohio, President
Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia
university. New York; Senator Albert
B. Cummins of Iowd, Henry d. Esta-
brook of New York. former Governor
Herbert S. Hadley of Missouri, Myron
T Herrick of Ohio, formerly American
ambassador to France; Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge and John W. Weeks OF
massachusetts,, Governor Whitman oil
New York. and Governor Willis OF
Ohio.