The Topeka state journal., 1905-08-29
CUMMINS COMES BACK.
Iowa Governor Replies to Attack of
Secretary Shaw.


Des Moines. Aug. Ex-Governor A. B.
Cummins has made public rather
scathing reply to the attack made upon
him by Secretary of the Treasury Les
lie NJ. Shaw, who criticised him for mis-
quoting the secretary in his speech be-
fore the Chicago reciprocity convention.
Governor CumminS shows that he said
the quotation was from an editorial in
the Des Moines Daily Capital, whose
editor attended the banquet of the Des
Moines bankers where Mr.. Shaw made
the address and who is a warm sup
porter of the secretary. In his letter
Governor Cummins says:
1 have the honor to acknowledge your
letter of the 26th inst, in which you
challenge a statement tnat l recently
made in an address deljN cred before
the national reciprocity conference at
Chicago The statement is as follows:
The secretary Of the treasury, in
speech recently delivered in Des Moines,
is reported as saying that the explane-
tion of the refusal of the senate to con-
slider the French treaty is that it gives
everything to France and nothing to
the United States. I must do him the
justice to believe that he never read the
treaty, for otherwise he has committed
a grave offense against the proprieties
OF debate"
The quotation is accurate. maze
the statement You say respecting it:
Il know that I did not say 1t or
anything that could be so interpreted,
but was not so sure about the report.
The occasion was an informal lunch
con. and the speech was impromptu,
though not extemporaneous.
You further say: Knowing, there
fore, that you would not violate the
proprieties of debate by quoting me
without authority as having made a
specific statement. [ write to you to in
quire where YOU saw the report OF my
speech as given in your Chicago ad-
dress. I have not seen it and l wish
to correct the record as soon as pos
Rible."
1 am sincerely gratified to know that
you deny having made the statement,
for it was impossible for me to recon-
ciie it with the truth; and L am not
less gratified to be given the oppor-
tunity to advise you of my authority
for imputing the sentiment to you.
You may be against the French treaty
and I may be for it, but you can no
more afford to mislead the public con-
cerning it's provisions than 1 can af-
ford to misrepresent the statements
you make to Justify the inaction of the
senate.
You are quite right in determining
that both of us have had too long an
experience in the trial of cases to be-
lieve that any substantial victory can
be won either through any falsehood
or passive suppression of the truth. I
therefore promptly give you my au-
thority for stating you were reported
as saying in your speech a t Des MOines
that the senate failed to approve the
French treaty because it gave France
everything and the United States
nothing.
In the Des Moines Capital of Satur-
day, May 81, 1905. the day after your
speech here, you will find a long editor
ial entitled Secretary Shaw" It deals
wholly with your speech of the day be-
fore. quote that part of it upon which
I relied in my address at Chicago:
In his own original way he drove
home certain facts that will be remem-
bered. He exposed the proposed
Friends treaty in all its deformities,
demonstrating that we were offering
France q tremendous bargain and get
ting practically nothing in return
If this be not a sufficient basis for
the statement that 1 made in Chicago
have yet to learn the meaning of the
comnonest words of my mother tongue
Lafayette Young, the editor of the Des
Moines Capital. was present at the
luncheon and heard your speech. He is
your political friend and ally. He is in
sympathy with your views. He is him
self a speaker of wonderful power and
knows what words mean. He writes
constantly concerning the tariff and re-
ciprocity, and could not have been mis-
taken with respect to the trend and
conclusion of your argument.
When he vote in his vivid and
striking way that you Exposed the pro-
posed French treaty in all its deformi-
ty. demonstrating that we were offering
France tremendous bargain and get
ting practically nothing in return" it