The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1916-12-15
John Lyon, Private Secretary 10
Chairman Wilcox Voices
Opinion Of New York
DECLARES CANDIDATE WAS +
SURELY DOUBLE CROSSED"
Finds Colonel Roosevelt Support
Actually Harmed Hughes In
the Western States

"'Hiram johnson, Governor of Cali
foTRia, senatOrtelect, and the Benedict
Arnold Of his party" is the man who
defeated Charles E.. Hughes, Repub-
HeAp candidate for the presid ency at
the last election, according to John
Lyons, who was private secretary for
Mr.. Wilcox, chairman Of the Repub.
lican national committee during the re.
cent campaign, and a leading lieuten.
ant Of William Barnes. Incidentally,
Mr.. Lyons, who arrived on the Lurline,
asserts that the West feels bitter
against Theodore Roosevelt and is in
clined to believe that "Wall Street got
10 him and Perkins,
Mr., Lyons Is Republican in poll
tics and has been prominent in the G.
y. p. ranks Of Manhattan Isle for
years. He holds q post as appraiser
of inheritances in the Office of the city
comptroller, which he left temporarily
to take up his work for the national
committee.
TWhat beat Hughesi is the question
that l have been asked all along the
line from New York to Honolulu" he
said last night, land it's pretty hard
question to answer, for there are a
great many angles to the fight, and
some of them were about as obvious as
German submarine just before she
fires q. torpedo.
"Back East, in the highest circles of
the Republican party, we feel that
there was something rotten in the Cali
forpia ,election-in short, that Hughes
was double crossed tthere. l do not
-, thok oil hak Tnh
deliberately went to work to knife the
candidate of the party, but that he saw
a chance to help himself and make
himself the biggest man in the West,
and did so without any thought Of
what the result would be.
"He probably accomplished his OBJ
ject 30 far as California and the other
Western States are concerned, but as a
national figure believe that he is
dead. l. am confident that he is re.
rcrded throughout the East as the
LsBedict Arnold p, of the Republican
party in the last campaign; that he un'
dQubtedly killed the chances that
Hughes had for election, at least in
California, and that that feeling will
persist as long as Johnson is in public
life II ever the presidential bee
buzEed about his head, he might just
as well shoe it from him, for if he
doesn't the Eastern States will.
"On my way through the country as
I,passed through Arizona, New Mexico
and California, found a state of af:
fairs that puzzled me. 1 had fancied
that Roosevelt was so strong out there
that he could do almost anything he
wishes, and that the people would stand
back of him. Instead l discovered a
marked sentiment against him. 1
talked to many prominent people in
those States, and everyone told me that
they wanted ito hit Roosevelt, as they
were convinced that he had thrown
down the Progressive party by his re-
fusal to accept the nomination of the
Bull Moose convention. One man told
me, and others echoed his words, that
Teddy was got to by Wall Street and
sc was Perkins Another said to me:
We all feel sorry for Hughes, but we
wanted to take a crack at Roosevelt
for dumping the party. and we had to
hit at him through Hughes.
latter listening to so much of that
talk | became convinced that one Of
the factors of the Wilson strength in
those States was this very feeling, and
that Roosevelt was u drag upon the
Republican eandidate,'