Norwich bulletin., 1922-08-10
ARE REPUBLICANS OF
 NORWICH ON THE FENCE?

teenth senatorial district, including the town of Norwich, Preston and L.sdyard appears to be sitting on the fenca, says a special despatch 10 The Hartford Times bearing a Norw.eh date line. Like other districts whose representative op- posed the election cf I. Henry R9raback to the chairmanship over Michael iIs- nealy in 1912, the ilinateetth district has been passively regular during all the years of Roraback regime. What tt will do now that a contest actually looms uU is matter of guesswork, so far.
 The district committeeman IS Albert J. Bailey, attorney and former repre- sentative, who has bee1 active in Nor wich politics for iec.lde and half. | Mir. Bailey made his debut in politics | in 1908 when not ,ong 3u1 Gf Jaw school. | He was put forward as a candidate for | representative and everything looked | rosy for him until tremendous ou:- pouring of millworkers from tie Taftville | section invaded the caucus and demand | ed that a representative be chosen from | their territory. That defeated Mir. | Bailey, but he later was nominated, 1 elected and reelected and serve1 upon the judiciary committee. He went on the state central committee in 1915, three years after the Kenealy- -Roraback con- test and after the pull moose split sL he has not been obliged to participate in any contests over the cAairmanship here l tofore.
 MT. Bailey is a close friend of Attor ney General Frank E. Healey, whp is reputed to have teamed up with Colonel I. M. Ullman of New Haven and John
 T. King of Bridgeport to knock the
 crown of party control off the head of l MT. Roraback There is little doubt l but MT. Bailey would be for MT. Healy in
 almost any sort of a contest which was
 merely between Connecticut republicans.
 Whether he will be for him in contest that inolves taking sides against the ex-
 isting regular party organization is what
 MT. Potash and Mir. Perlmutter would re- fer to as something else again" It is | possible that the answer depends upon | how much of an effort is made to secure MT. Bailey's vote. As has been stated he likes Frank Healey and would hate to
 deny him anything. At the same time
 lining up with rebels and insurrectionists is serious matter.
 It is known that there are those in Norwich who entertain the belief that
 there will be no contest over the chair
 manship ana who are hoping that there
 won't be. They have heard rumors of
 war before and always have seen diff
 f1cult situations strengthened out as they
 expect this one to be, before the con
 vention meets Therefore, they say, why
 cross bridges until you come to them.
 One thing certain Is that Lieutenant
 Governor Charles A. Templeton, the only announced rival of Governor Lake for the gubernatorial nomination has
 done some quiet work in Norwich and is well regarded here. There appears to be no present reason why MT. Temple ton cannot believe today that he has the
 Norwich delegation. It is known that
 he has enlisted the sympathy, if not the
 open support of some of the men who are
 most influential in selecting state con-
 vention delegations. If they were to do any selecting today they would choose a TempIeton delegation, somewhat be- cause MT. Templeton was first in the field. Whether he halds his advantage until convention time, in Norwich as elsewhere, is something for the future to r decide.
 V There are some evidences here of sore $ ness againust the Roraback organization
 Attorney General Healy is reputed tu D. f displeased because he did not get any strong Roraback support in the 1920 n convention after Roraback had acquie- n esced in making ham the organization
 candidate. In Norwich they match that 2 story by declaring that earlier in 1926 S MT Templeton and ex-Speaker James F . Walsh, who were rival seekers after the - gubernatorial nomination both came tC Il Norwich seeking support and announcing h that they had the promised support o t Mir Roraback. There were some re 5, publicans in Norwich who didn't under IT stand how Mir. Roraback could give hi e support to two seekers after the same of e flee. There is also some Norwich com
 plaint failures in fulfllment It is claim Le ed that there have been quite numerou d Rorabacg promises of this and that t d one another prominent Norwich republi IS cans but that the promises have not bee1
 kept Naturally this does not make fo l. enthusiasm for the Roraback faction i le Norwich.
 lg Still there is a disposition not to b re carried away with the idea that thos IS who would down MT. Roraback will fin es it is simple as rolling off a log. Som r. Norwich republicans shake their head al sagely when the proposition is put { 1t them and point out the tremendou
 strength the organization has by reaso
 of the job holders, state and federal, wh
 have been put in office and who must g,
 out and work for those the organiZatio II indicates or lose their heads There m an old story about beautiful lady wi ty was imprisoned on a pirate ship by he captain who threatened that except ul st der certain conditions with which Il nd lady must comply he would scuttle II lUCHuQlnE K, lady, to the bottom. Next day, writir ok in her diary. the lady set down the nun ad Der of lives she had saved from beir
 lost in such a disaster. Here in NorwiC ng they expect federal and state job holde w to have as much concern for their lv
 as the beautiful lady did for hers ar ed they do not discount the effectivene yo with which such creatures of the ssachil ve may work against its demolition
 as Norwich has just experienced a polit he cal holocaust which swept Milo Water
 democrat and a printer. into office
 an unheard of plurality over Rev. Charl
 H. Ricketts, a Congregational clergyma
 There are some republicans who discu lE the incident as a republican victory. pr ed cisely as did the republicans of Bridg nd port after a democrat had overwhelm, to ex-Mayor Clifford B. Wilson there IT he Norwich campaign was most interestin ed me repuphc2n town committee decid h. upon ex-Senator John H. Barnes as il IT, mayoralty candidate. Judge Barnes WI n- not particularly ambitious but he is
 good soldier and responded to the drat
 It happened. however. that when he VI
 in the legislature Judge Barnes was
 bitter opponent of woman suffrage al es' in 1917 he was picked by the Roraba, ay machine as chairman of the woman su ,d- frage committee, in accordance with t de usual plan of packing suffrage and lab ill committees with the enemies of suffra he and labor In 1918. when Judge Barn nd sought to pass the senatorial toga alol on to his friend A. J. Bailey. the wem ,y- remembered the suffrage matter and d
 feated Bailey. They also remembered