Congressmen Fear Roosevelt Campaign.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 16, 1912:
Even the Colonel's Own Followers Hope to Get on the Taft Ticket, Too.
DEMOCRATS' CHANCES CROW
Expect to Profit by the Republican Split In Most of the States Politically Close.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, July 15.— An extraordinary effect of the split in the Republican Party that Col. Roosevelt is working hard to effect throughout the country is the reuniting of the party ranks in Congress. In the Senate on the two last tariff roll calls the insurgents and regulars voted solidly together, and in the House the same thing may be seen. The explanation is that every member of each faction desires his own re-election and the control, if possible, of Congress by his party.
    To these men Roosevelt is strictly a local issue, and they are all thinking hard to find some way by which the local issue may work itself out and still leave them their seats. Republicans near the Southern line, where Democracy is a shibboleth, have to reckon with Roosevelt heading a "Progressive Democratic" ticket. In the North he heads a "Progressive Republican" ticket. In Pennsylvania, where the organization is his, he will run as a "Flinn Republican," while in Illinois he is as much the anti-
Lorimer leader as anything else. The one common ground of an these Roosevelt factions is hostility to President Taft.
    Republican Congressmen are gradually coming together on a plan for preventing these splits in the various States from making Democratic victory a certainty. Their plan is to confine the split as far as possible to the presidential fight. If Roosevelt runs as an independent in New York they want their names as Congressional candidates to be on both his and the regular tickets. And if President Taft is forced to run on a ticket got up by petition they want their names in both columns. Their idea is for the electoral vote to go to the man in whose column the most votes are cast, while every Republican vote polled will help along the Congressional tickets.

La Follette a Big Factor.
    But in many States feeling is so high that this sort of team work between the factions is impossible, and in those States the, outlook is all for a Democratic victory.
    Senator La Follette in Wisconsin is trying hard to defeat Col. Roosevelt, while Gov. Hadley in Missouri declares for regularity, though not actively opposing the choice of Roosevelt Electors. The Governor expects to head the regular Republican State ticket. In Idaho Senator Borah has declared for Taft and there may be no Roosevelt ticket in that State.
    That Col. Roosevelt at best expects to be head of a faction is indicated to observers here by the fact that he will not wage his war in every State, but only where he can reap some benefit or sow some harm. In Indiana he will run where his candidacy means a Democratic State. Old politicians see in the mere fact that he will have one delegate instead of two at his Bull Moose convention from each district recognition of the fact that he lacks the broad basis of a real party.

Won't Pledge the Electors.
    In Michigan, a curious tangle exists. At the Republican National Convention.
the delegates stood for 20 for Taft and 10 for Roosevelt and the Presidential Electors are thought to be divided on about the same lines. But no way has yet been devised for instructing them to vote for one candidate or another. The primary will be held there in August, but leaders here have advised against any attempt at instructing the Electors already named.
    In Georgia, though that has long been a, straight-out Democratic State, Roosevelt will make a fight to better his record of carrying twenty-five counties, and he has already appointed Julian Harris, son of Joel Chandler Harris, as his manager.
    In Nevada, usually a Democratic State, the field is still left entirely free to either candidate, with a possibility that neither will have an Elector, and that the Republicans will be disfranchised. In that State the convention "forgot" to nominate Electors, and it is still a question whether the primaries in August can remedy the mistake. The delegates to Chicago from that State were for Mr. Taft.
    Minnesota has been a strong Roosevelt State, and it had been expected that the party machinery would go over to him bodily. But lately there have been signs of weakening. Senator Clapp, a strong Roosevelt man, has been backing water in the face of a great reluctance among the rank and file to follow a bolt. It is even said that the farmers there are beginning to lean to Wilson, and the hope of the Republicans is that Senator Nelson may lead them back into the regular fold by showing up the Democratic free trade policy this year, as he did in 1896, by attacking free silver.
    Nearly all politicians believe in omens, but the most superstitious of them are wondering this year how the standard can be read when the Republican Party is so divided in the National contest as to make the party emblem mean different things in different places. The regular omen is the vote in Vermont on Sept. 1, for its Congressmen and State officers. The theory is that if that election goes Republican by 30,000 or over, the country will go Republican. But if it is 20,000 or under, the country will go Democratic. But what kind of Republican can claim the omen is the puzzle.
    In New England itself, however, the answer is clearly for President Taft. Only in Maine has the Colonel any real strength, and even there the Republicans in the face of militant and victorious Democracy are reluctant to bolt.
    In Massachusetts the Colonel just missed carrying the primaries when he was the regular candidate. Mr. Taft has nothing to fear from the third party in that State. Senator Lodge, who was neutral between Taft and Roosevelt before the convention, is unmistakably for Taft now, and the rest of the party is expected to travel the same road.

RATIFY TAFT'S NOMINATION.
Newcomb Deplores Party Split at 23d Assembly District Meeting.
    The renomination of President Taft and Vice President Sherman was ratified by the Republican Committee of the Twenty-third Assembly District at a special meeting last night at 2,005 Amsterdam Avenue. The resolution was introduced by Senator Josiah T. Newcomb. He deplored the division in Republican ranks caused by the third party movement, chiefly because, he said, it would militate against any successful attempt to loosen the grip of Tammany on the State administration.
    "It is a matter of profound regret," he said "that our party has sustained even a temporary cleavage. But for our differences on National matters there can be no doubt that the supporters of Mr. Taft and of Col. Roosevelt would be working shoulder to shoulder in this State  to dislodge the Tammany machine which through the election of a Democratic Governor and a Democratic Legislature has fastened its sway upon our State Government. The record of the Dix administration, dominated by Tammany Hall, is a reproach to every citizen. Yet our opposition, it seems, must be divided.
    "Moreover this unfortunate cleavage destroys at a blow all that has been accomplished and might have been accomplished toward higher standards and better leadership in our own party. Those who believe in the spirit of public service as typified by Gov. Hughes are divided by this new issue. Standing together they had an opportunity by energy and persistence to rid the party in this State of all taint of corruption and bossism. Divided they can do nothing except, if possible, view with charity their differences of opinion."