The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-17
HUGHES SILENT
AS To HIS PLANS
FOR The FUTURE
Report. He. Will. Become
Partner of George W.
Wickersham Denied.

Wickersham Denied.
Charles E. Hughes had nothing to
say to-day, at the Hotel Astor, when
ported he was contemplating law
partnership with George W. Wicker
sham, Henry w. Taft, and one or two
other well-known attorneys. Mr..
Hughes took a walk after breakfast,
and then went through the mass of
mail which daily arrives at the hotel.
Lawrence II. Green, secretary to Mr..
Hughes, said there was no foundation
for the report about the law partner
ship. He also said that Mr.. Hughes
had not sent congratulatory tele-
gram to President Wilson and had no
appointments for the day.
William r. Wilcox chairman of the
Republican National Committee, af-
ter running through the headquarters
mail, went to court to attend trial.
There was no word from California,
and the headquarters staff, at least,
has taken the position that nothing
short of miracle could change the
election result.
Herbert Parsons, national commit
teeman from New York State, called
on Mr.. Hughes. but neither he nor
the interview.
Mr.. Hughes had expected to play
golf this afternoon, but changed his
mind, presumably because of the
bleak weather.
Looking Into the Slump
"Post-mortem" examination of the
strictly locally unexpected demise Of
Republican Presidential hopes contin-
ues from day to-day at Republican
National Headquarters. Verdicts have
been returned that the Old Guard bos-
ses in Ohio and New Hampshire were
particeps criminis to the slaughter.
These verdicts have been accompan-
| led by recommendations of clemency
because of the absence of premedita-
| ton. AS to Kansas a mixed verdict
| has been returned. Part of the jury
decided that Kansas Republicans de-
| 1iberately sought to put "a streak of
yellow into the old flag in return
for the boon Of $40 wheat, and part
| of the jury decided that Charles e.
| Hughes had not grown politically and
| Intellectually as fast as had Kansas,
| and therefore Kansans weighed him
and discarded him as reactionary.
Sitting on Mr.. Hughes capabilities
as candidate, or more properly the
countrys receptivity to his candidacy
as compared with candidates. that
might have been, the jury at Republi-
can National Headquarters returned
/ xyor6iof fn ho ho for
anything that Elihu Root, of New
York; Theodore Elijah Burton, of
| Ohio; Samuel Walker Mccall, of Mas
| sachusetts, or any other Fastener
| who at any time held the serious at
tention of the Republican National
Convention, excepting only the we'll
| known Theodore Roosevelt, of<Oyster
Bay. Roosevelt as the joint no1f1i-
nee of the Republican and Progressive
! conventions could have carried Ohio
and New Hampshire, it was said, and
| his sojourning in California would
have been a social and fraternal re-
union with Hiram W. Johnson, the
Republican Senator-elect, who had
nearly 100000 majority
| Testimony adduced in the course Of
| the "post-mortem' was, in substance,
that strictly judicial attitude doesn't
go" in California. Mr.. Hughes, visit
/ ing the State in advance Oftthe Repub-
lican primary election, considered that
he must take an impartial attitude be-
tween the old Guard faction and the
| followers of Johnson. Mr.. Hughes be-
lieved that, as he had some reputa-
| ton as the sponsor for direct nominal
tons, he was particularly under OBJ
| legation not to seem to take sides in
a party controversy to be settled by
party voters. This attitude, ac-
| cording to legal minds, is impeccable,
but California merely understands
that, if mans not with one side
he's with the other, and that under
standing-"goes."
Roosevelt, who has never pussy
/ footed in his life except when he
wasn't sure Of the consequences, would
not have pussyfooted in California be-
cause he knew that Johnson was DOM
mating the State. Therefore, the
| jury decided, he would have swung
California and maybe topped John
sons plurality. And then, think of all
the other States he would have held
in line, the verdict concluded
/ Testimony was introduced to-day to
show that Myron T. Herrick, Of Ohio,
would have carried his own state and
made a better run than Hughes, but,
as Mr.. Herrick could not elect him
self to the United States Senate, while
Ohio went for Woodrow Wilson, it was
the general opinion that Herrick could
not be put into the Johnson class, let
alone ranked as better-than- old
Hughes proposition.