Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-07-30
CUMMINS ON MONEY
IOWA GOVERNOR TELLS BANK.
ERs OF HIS IDEAS.
CONSERVATISM OF PROSPERITY
This is the Name he Gives the "stand-
Pat" ldea-Expresses Himself AS
Strongly in Favor of Currency Re.
form.

Davenport, July 30.-Governor A. B
Cummins yesterday took another op-
portunity to declare his stand against
the "stand-patters" in an address de-
liyered before the bankers of Iowa and
Illinois at their closing session in this
city in Turner hall and was attended
by 1000.
Nothing is as present SO needful, .
said the governor, as a proper, reas-
enable and efficient regulation of the
DISQUALIFICATION perpetrated by au-
dacity, or genius in the last six years of
protect society in the things in which
it cannot protect itself We have a
right to demand that it protect us in
the matter of wrongly inflated stock
values.
Effect Far Reaching.
Il do not mean that the government
should see that the stock values OF
these overcapitalized companies re-
main steady, but / do think that the
government should see to it that these
stocks are founded upon values reas-
onably fair and enduring. There is
no man, no matter how conservative,
whose business Is not affected by the
rise and fall of the existing inflated Sc.
curities.
'sIn legislating to protect the coun-
try in this direction there might be
some confiice between the powers eX-
ercised by the national and state gov
ernments, but this difficulty should be
overcome. The easiest form of legisla-
ton would be the restriction of the is
sue of stock certificates to the values
represented by them They should at
least have a value that would endure
through competition"
Blame on Bankers.
Governor Cummins told his hearers
that they were themselves in some
measure responsible for the existence
of the many "undigested securities y
Il believe said the speaker, 1.that the
bankers of the United States are large
ly to blome for the menace which has
now written some signs in the indus
trial Sky. / must remind you that the
last six years have witnessed the most
wonderful over-capitalization that the
world has ever seen and ask you what
has been your share in it. Why have
bankers been permitted to use their de-
posts in bringing into existence these
inflated corporations. You have aided
in erecting an edifice the fall of which
will wreck not only those in it, but
thousands of those that are near it.
1.-THE conservatism of prosperity
was the name given by Governor Cum
minis to the stand pat" attitude which
he asserted comprised the death of
the Aldrich and Folwer bills in the last
congress.
Need of Currency Reform.
"There is no greater mistake" said
he, than to suppose that the laws
which transform ed the country's adj
versity into prosperity will therefore
conserve and perpetuate that prosperi-
ty. This error appears to be deeply
rooted in the minds of the people, and
it's so-called conservatism bids fair to
destroy that which the people want
most to live. A reform in the currency
is shown to be necessary by the agony
attested daily in the movements of bus
mess. We should not wait for disas-
ter or the paralysis of adversely before
we take action on this matter.
In closing the speaker begged his
audience to remember that the great
industrial combinations had not killed
competition. but that this force was
and would ever be vitality actice in bus
mess. HE who does not sustain COM
petition" said Governor Cummins, be
comes an apostle Of socialism. This
country will not submit to the pricea
fixed entirely by selfish interests, nor
will it bow to the alternatives offered
by the other extreme. We're afraid