Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1901-07-10
AN UNBIASED STATEMENT.
The Gubernat0rial Situation as it is
up to the Present.

! MONIES, tne nome Oh non. "A. ID.
Cummins, to the Minneapolis Tribune
of Monday night, is an unbiased state
ment of the gubernatorial situation,
and we believe presents the facts in
the case as they now stand, without
prejudice or favor to any candidate:
Des Moines, Ia, July S.-Iowa Re
publicans with the state convention
one month distant all agree that no
one of the candidates for governor will
go into the convention with enough
votes to nominate on the first ballot.
Seventy-one county conventions have
already been held and 1905 delegates
have been selected. Twenty-eight con-
ventions are yet to be held and 435
delegates remain to be selected. The
standing of the different candidates is
as follows: A. B. Cummins, instruct
ed, 434; uninstructed, 14l; John Her
riott, IL; w. F. Hartman, l4l; J. II.
Trewin, 9S; +. III. COnger, 80; unin-
stracted but known to be against Cum
minis, 275. These figures are generally
accepted, the Cummins men claiming
a few more of the uninstructed dele
gates. Their claims are largely with
out basis, however, and express their
hopes rather than their convictions.
Since it is apparent that no nomi-
nation can be reached upon the first
ballot there is great speculation as to
the chances of the different candidates
after that.
Much will of course depend on the
conventions that are yet to be held.
Giving Mr.. Cummins all of the second
district, which he claims, but which is
being contested with good chances of
success by his opponents and one more
county i'm the fourth district which
will also be contested, Mr. Cummins
would have 494 instructed delegates.
The fight against him in Iowa, jack
son and Muscatine counties of the
second district will be hard, however.
Johnson county, in which the state
university is located, will divide, in all
probability, as it always does. Worth,
in the fourth district, will also divide.
Half of Johnson and half of Webster
are also conceded to him uninstructed.
| Should he carry all of these as is
hardly probable he will have total of
654 on the first ballot.
Mr.. Herriott, who already has II !,
will have the rest of the ninth district,
which will bring him up to 147.
Mr.. Hartman, who now has 14l,
will probably secure Buchanan county,
which will make him l57.
Mr.. Trewin now has 9S votes He
expects the rest of the fourth district
with the possible exception of Worth
county, which would give him 1Sl.
| He NAV also secure some more votes
out of the fifth district. Mr.. Conger
has 80 instructed delegates and large
number of the uninstructed are under
stood to be for him than any other
candidate.
There are now 275 delegates who are
uninstructed and whose exact pre-
ference is not known, except that they
are against Cummins. The indica-
tions are that there will be many adj
ditions to this list from among the re-
naming % counties.
1t takes S21 votes to nominate.
Granting that Mr.. Cummins will start
in with 654, which is rather problem.
atical, for he has among these, two
counties, Polk and Carroll, in which
part or all of the votes are contested,
| the question is, will he be able to gain
enough to secure the nominations?
These figures are of course more or less
arbitrary. 1t is extremely probable
that some of the delegates counted for
Mr.. Cummins will never vote for him.
1t is also probable that some which
are not counted for him will cast their
votes for him.
Ii is fair to assume, however, that
Mr.. Cummins will have nearly $50
votes on the first ballot. The question
really is, first, will he be able to hold all
of them, and second, will he be able to
secure enough more to nominate him
on the second or third ballots?
The real situation is that Mr.. Cum
minis has forced q fight in almost every
county i'm the state In which he had a
chance before the convention. They
have all lined up one way or the other
and il is significant that not county
has thus far held its convention but
L
may be defined as either for or against
Cummins. When he goes to the con-
vention he will find little or no work
that can be done. His campaign has
been well managed, but it has been a
| fight to the death in which no one
was permitted to remain neutral. The
Cummins men now perceive that those
who are not their friends are their foes.
The 2S conventions not yet held are
distributed as follows: First district,
Des Moines, Henry, Van Buren,;
Second district, Jackson, Muscatine,
Johnson, Iowa; Third district, Bucha-
nan; Fourth district, Clayton, Fayette,
Howard, Floyd, Cerro GOrdo, Worth
Fifth district, Jones, Benton; Sixth
district, Monroe, Wapello, Davis;
Seventh district, none; Eighth dis
trict, Lucas; Ninth district, Pottawat-
tamie, Shelby. Harrison, Mills; Tenth
district, Crawford, Webster, Emmett
Eleventh district, Monona.
Conventions have been called as
follows: July 8. Jones; July III, Jack
son, Howard, Monona; July Is. EN-
met, July IL, Pottawattamie; July 20,
Muscatipe; July 90, Floyd; July 27,
Iowa, Clayton; July 80, Fayette: Aug.
!, Mills; Aug. 3, Buchanan, Henry,
IAII Is< A. H..