The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-06
COLONEL DENIES HE'S REFUSED TO AID HUCHES--BUT His General Manager, MT. Perkins, in Same State
 ment, Raps Judge. PEACE" CONFERENCE:
 BECOMING WARLIKE Washington Speech of Jurist is Liberally Handled By
 Many Boomers.

! Chicago, June 6-Immediately be- l fore he went into conference with
 Republican leaders, George w. 1 Perkins, leader of the Roosevelt ad- 1 herents, today gave out a statement | declaring that Colonel Roosevelt had | not said that he would refuse to sup | port Justice Hughes or any other man
 and assai1ed Hughes supporters for
 making capital of his ''preparedness
 speech in Washington last night. l Political leaders who profess to be
 willing to accept any man for the
 presidential nomination who is able
 to claim the support of both Republi-
 cans and Progressives, are trying to- l day to determine whether Justice
 Hughes has been strengthened or
 weakened by the concentration of all
 forces upon him with the avowed pur- pose of eliminating Colonel Roose- welt as Republican possibility. Un- i-questfonab1y the effect of the Hughes drive has been to play the whole field of candidates against him.
 Conferences between Republican and Progressive leaders which lasted far into the night were resumed early today but it was not believed that any
 of them had proceeded far enough to
 clarify the situation within the next
 few hours.
 The two latest elements to be
 brought into consideration today were
 Justice Hughes speech in Washing ton touching on Americanisn and dis
 cusslon of Senator Lodge. of Massa- chusetts as a compromise candidate for the Republican nation likely to l command the support of Col. Roose- welt. Justice Hughes supporters pointed
 to his speech as substantial dec1ara- ton on Amerfcanism and they consid- cred that it cleared up the only issue 1ioI1 Ja1 7 1y announced his attitude. They contended that his public utterance before he went on the supreme court bench made clear his position on all other paramount issues and that in-
 asmuch as the question of American ism has arisen since l1e went into the seclusion of the court a statement on
 that subject was the only thing to be desired.
 Those opposed to the justice char acterfzed his speech as "on1y list of p1atitudes'' and charged that the speech was carefully timed for the
 present occasion. As to the latter the
 friends of the justice pointed out that
 his engagement to speak was made
 several weeks ago and that the subject
 fitted the occasion which was the pre- sentation of a flag to graduates of a
 girls school.
 The practical politicians, on the oth- CT hand, almost unanimously held to
 the view that the speech was without
 significance in the present situation.
 Almost overshadowing the maneuv-
 ering among Republicans today is the question of what the Progressive con- vention will do when 1t assemblies to- morrow. The Republican leaders re- gard it as charged with possibilities of the most potent sort. On every hand they expect a tremendous dem onstratfon for Colonel Roosevelt, de- spite efforts to hold back a nomination until the Republicans have indicated their purpose and there has been op- portunity for further conferences be- tween the two factions.
 WOOD IS "ACCEPTABLE.' Oyster Bay, N. r., June 6-The uor71ina ton of Gen. Leonard Wood for the presidency would be Acceptable" to Colonel Theodore Roosevelt as a solution of the situation at Chicago,
 according to two visitors who called upon the former president today just before he left for New York to visit his publishers. They asserted that
 Colonel Roosevelt told them that while he was neither for nor against any candidate,'' that General Wood
 would be the most acceptable to
 him. and that he would throw his hat in the ring and go out and work
 for him as a candidate who is for
 thoroughly United States and whose election would mean the return of the true spirit of Americanisn.''