SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE
Special Correspondence Bi-partisan Machine Still Working New York, May 21, 1910. ON MAY 11, the Assembly at Albany rejected Governor Hughes' direct nominations bill, known as the Hinman-Green...
...it is being alleged that Root urged the Governor to drop direct nominations prior to the Hughes nomination for the supreme bench...
...In a nut shell, the argument for Hughes is that he could not consistently use boss methods even to destroy "boss-ism...
...In any event, the people of the whole State are aroused, and, if this legislature adjourns without enacting a bona fide direct nominations law, the coming election campaign will be fought on this issue.—p...
...intensely disappointing to come so near to victory and then lose...
...He could have easily forced the passage of his bill by methods which have always been used by Republican governors and presidents—excepting himself...
...Naturally, the Republican voters of the State do not accept the verdict delivered by a minority of Republicans in the legislature aided by Tammany Hall...
...Still, it is admitted that Hughes has been rigidly consistent up to the present in his fight for direct nominations...
...In the Assembly, 49 Republicans, 16 Democrats and 1 Independence League representative voted for the bill...
...The roll call in the Senate showed that 21 Republicans and 2 Democrat...
...There is much talk about the conference between Governor Hughes and Senator Root some time ago...
...The Republican voters of the State are puzzled- If, they say, the legislature is overwhelmingly Republican, and a majority of the Republican legislators are in favor of a Republican measure proposed by a Republican governor, why can it not be passed...
...Probably there were reasons, but the average Republican voter doesn't know of any, so he is puzzled...
...Yet nobody except the bosses and their henchmen have accepted the "killing" as a fact...
...They have been used to the caucus system in legislation during as many years as they have had the convention system of nominations...
...These 32 Democrats included 18 Tammany Hall men and thus it is being shown that the old bi-partisan alliance between the Republican machine and Tammany is still in working order...
...voted for the bill, and 13 Republicans and \2 Democrats voted against it...
...So they ask why the Republicans did not caucus on the measure...
...Both Republican and Democratic machines exultingly declared that the bill was "killed...
...There is no parallel between this situation at Albany and the situation at Washington where insurgent Republicans have voted with the Democrats, for it is the regular machine Republicans at Albany who are allied with Tammany Hall against a Republican governor and the overwhelming sentiment of the Republican voters of the State...
...His closest friends defend him by saying that he would not depart one iota from the policy he has pursued during his four years of office, even when a great victory was within his grasp if he varied a little and reached out for it...
...They rather angrily charge that Hughes is a "quitter," and has washed his hands of the business now that he has been appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States...
...against it were 45 Republicans, and 32 Democrats...
...There is considerable indignation among the most active diiect nominations partisans because of the neutral attitude of Governor Hughes...
...He has refused to threaten any legislator, and so the machine legislators, having no fear of him, defeated his bill...
...It wa...
...ON MAY 11, the Assembly at Albany rejected Governor Hughes' direct nominations bill, known as the Hinman-Green bill, by a vote of 77 noes and 67 ayes...
...On May 18 the Senate defeated it by vote of 25 noes to 23 ayes...
...r. d...
Vol. 2 • May 1910 • No. 21
