The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-08-15
REVOLT is GROWING
TO LOSE IOWA TO RE-
PUBLICANS
DEMOCRATS ARE ENCOURAGED
If They Accept Their Opportunity
to Force Tax Issue Their
Chances for Success Arc
Excellent.

CHICAGO, Aug. IA special to the
Chronicle from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says:
The revolt against A. B. Cummins, of
DeS Moines, Republican candidate for
governor, and the alibi character of the
Cedar Rapids platform on state issues,
have given the Democrats of Iowa po-
liticaI opportunity which has not been
presented since the time when Horace
Boies rode into power ten years ago and
broke long succession OF Republican
victories. lie uprising against Cummins
has had a wonderful tonic effect upon
the Democratic leaders, and the senti-
ment in favor of making a campaign on
state issues pure and simple is rapidly
growing in favor National issues in all
probability will be dismissed in a few
lines, and a drastic declaration will be
made in favor of reform in the executive
council, and equitable assessments as be-
tween corporations on the one hand and
city and farT property on the other
The Democratic platform probably will
also declare in favor of a repeal of the
mulct law and the enactment of a ju-
dicious license law. The present muIct
law first declares a seller of liquor to be
a criminal and then sells him an indul-
gence to commit the crime Democrats
also are generally in favor of abolishing
the offices of state binder and state print
er, around which numberless scandals
have clustered in the last few years.
The Democratic state convention will be
at Des Moines a week from tomorrow, by
which time the party leaders will have
had ample time to gauge the effect of
the anti-Cummins bolt ard the resent
ment of the Independent press of the
state upon which the Des Moines man de-
pended when making his fight for the
nomination
Up to date not a single Republican or
independent paper of the state has at
tempted to reconcile the INSTRUMENTATION
canvass of Mr.. Cummins and his tax re-
form pretensions with the silence of the
Cedar Rapids convention, and Mr. Cum
Minis own failure to carry out his pre-
tended reforms. The proceedings of the
Cedar Rapids convention showed that the
crusade made by Cummins or in his be-
half against the executive council was a
mere sham. In his speech Of acceptance,
Mr.. Cummins fawned on the machine
which he had so bitterly attacked and
1t is now apparent that he has made his
peace with the dangerous elements of the
old machine and that the inequtable
system of railway assessments In vogue
In this state will be continued without
hindrance from Mr. Cummins should he
be elected this fall. The much advertised
Republican fight at Cedar Rapids de-
Yeloped into a row between the Chicago.
burlington & Quincy and the Chicago &
North Western railroads on the one hand
and the Chicago, Milwaukee & ST. Paul
the Chicago Great Western, the Chicago
Rock Island & Pacific and the Burling-
ton, Cedar Rapids & Northern railroads
on the other Cummins represented the
latter bunch of railroad interests.
In the nomination of Mr. Cummins it Is
generally admitted even by Mr.. Cum
Minis most jealous friends prior to the
Cedar Rapids convention that no forward
SteD taL
the tax administration of the state
Ihere has been a shift in bosses, but the
desperate character of the defense which
Mr.. Cummins will be called upon to make
probably will result in the coalition of
the railroad interests as against Demo
cratic candidate who will stand on a tax
reform platform.
If the Democrats accept their oppor-
tunity to force the tax issue and to en-
list In their behalf the independent cleo
torate of the state, Mr.. Cummins doubt
less will find himself in predicament
which, many Democrats assert will cost
the Republican party control of the state
Neither the Grand Army of the Repub-
lie nor the prohibition vote of Iowa mas
any promise in the candidacy of Mr.
Cummins. The "old soldier" candidate
on the state ticket was Col Welcome
Mowry, of Tama, who sought renomIna
ton as railroad commissioner. 1t was
generally supposed that Col Mowry's
denomination would be rendered as a.
matter of courtesy, no scandal having
to his first term, but the Tama
man was slaughtered In the interest of
the Cummins combination and the Grand
Army of the Republic men are incensed
On the other hand, Mr.. Cummins was
elected to the lower branch of the state
legislature in 1887 as an independent anti
prohibition candidate. He also boIted his
party and supported Horace Boies in 1889
and 1891. While in the legislature he was
Identified with corporation interests and
voted against every measure which pur-
ported to remedy the railroad evils which
eliminated in the executive council scan
dals
Mr. Cummins' plight IS made all the
more embarrassing by the fact the word
has gone out through the state that ne
is all but an avowed candidate for the
United States senate either to succeed
Allison or Dolliver. Mr.. Cummins tried
for this place after a vacancy in the
upper branch of congress had been
caused by the death of Senator Gear.
Gov. Shaw, however, ignored Cummins
and named ]. p DOlliyer to the place.
Incidentally the Cedar Rapids platform
announced the hope Of the party that
Senators Allison and Dolliver might be
reelected, but this fact, it is said, will
not deter Mr.. Cummins from pursuing
his phantom 1t is noteworthy that Mr..
Cummins agreed with Senators Allison
and Dolliver that they should not par
ticipate in the Cedar Rapids convention.
They did not, but the impression will
not down that Mr.. Cummins left them
out of his counsel in order that he might
be free to slaughter the one of the two
that might stand in mis- way as a sena-
torial aspirant.
Democratic leaders express the opinion
that the railroad interest represented bv
Cummins will now attempt to influence
the action of the Des Moincs convention
by seeking to force the nomination of a
railroad man for governor on the Demo.
cratic ticket. The Democrats of the
state prepared to make campaign
against Drake on the railroad issue sew
eral years ago, but the railroad inter-
ests rallied and forced the nomination OF
w l. Babb, of Mount Pleasant, VINO was
an attorney for the Chicago. Burlington
& Quincy Railroad company Gov Drake
was president of a belt line known as
the Indiana, Illinois and Iowa but the
party leaders were unable to make
railroad fight when their own standard
bearer was a railroad attorney. 1t is
generally conceded that the nomination
by the Democrats of a railroad attorney
for governor would abort any effort that
tiiS POI ~ AAll5hl 14ieiAC OIl dn dull-TdllTOdQ
platform, and therefore the Democratic
leaders are putting out pickets to guard
against a groundswel for some railroad
candidate.
Several well known Democrats. in
Guiding Cato Sells of Vinton; George w.
Ball, of Iowa City, and Judge Kline, of
Toledo, have been mentioned for the
Democratic leadership, but Mr.. Sells
seems to be the favorite 1t was he who
started the movement which resulted n,
a conference of Democrats at Des Moines
last June in which the tax issue was
foreshadowed Mr.. Sells mas been a close
student of tax nrohlems in Iowa for