To Fight Hard For Electors.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 18, 1912:
Taft Refuses to Make Any Compromise with Roosevelt Men.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, July, 17.— President Taft made it plain to-day that he intends to join issue squarely with Col. Roosevelt in every State and make a straight-out fight for the entire Republican electoral vote of the country. The President's position was set out to-day by Senator Gamble and Representative Burke of South Dakota, who were authorized by him to announce the determination reached last week, when the Pennsylvania situation was discussed.
    When this tangle was under consideration State Chairman Wasson, representing Boss Flinn and the Roosevelt faction, showed hostility to a plan for calling the State Convention together again and solving the problem of doubtful Electors. He realized that the defection from the Roosevelt ranks of Mayor Magee of Pittsburgh and others would probably mean the indorsement of the President by the same delegates who before the Chicago Convention recognized Col. Roosevelt as the regular candidate.
    But the President saw that the plan to place the names of all the Electors, whether favorably disposed to himself or to Col. Roosevelt, under both emblems, with the understanding that they should vote for the man under whose emblem they received the most votes, might leave him, even if victorious, at the mercy of hostile Electors, and he sent Mr. Wasson away in defeat. The same question came up in regard to Maryland, where the Electors have shown signs of bolting the party nominee, and in a still greater degree it is true of South Dakota, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, and West Virginia.
    The story of the rejection of Mr. Wasson's scheme was carried to Oyster Bay a few days ago by Editor Van Valkenberg, and Col. Roosevelt repudiated the entire plan. Apparently smarting at the position to which he had been forced of seeming to have made overtures, only to have them rejected, he came out in a characteristic statement, declaring that he would never compromise.
    That statement of the Colonel's was received with great amusement in Washington, where the efforts of Flinn and the Roosevelt leaders in Maryland were still fresh in public memory. That explains why the President's statement to-day is not taken at all as an answer to the Colonel, but merely as carrying another step further the decision that forced the Colonel to repudiate his own lieutenants.
    In South Dakota the Presidential Electors were nominated by a convention controlled by Roosevelt men, although the convention posed as a Republican body. These Electors are known as Roosevelt men, and will, it is believed, vote for the Colonel if they carry the State. The Taft people are helpless as matters stand, and a number of prominent Republicans went to the White House to-day to confer with the President.
    The committee, which is going from here to New York to consult with Chairman Hilles of the Republican National Committee, consists of J. C. Simmons of Aberdeen, Chambers Keller of Leeds, George Jeffers of Dallas, and J. T. Cash of Bonestell. They will be accompanied by Senator Gamble and Mr. Burke.
    The detailed answer which President Taft's advisers will make to charges that his nomination at Chicago was procured in illegal fashion was one of the first subjects that greeted Carmi A. Thompson of Ohio, when he assumed today the post of Secretary to the President. He discussed it with former United States Senator Charles Dick of Ohio, who had charge of the Taft contests before the Republican National Committee at Chicago.
    The statement reviews every contest and is longer than any Presidential message, but a comprehensive abstract will be drafted. Republican leaders intend to arm Taft speakers with all the facts in every contest in every State they visit. The abstract probably will be made public through the newspapers, and the full answer published in pamphlet form.