New-York tribune., 1906-08-03
THE RESULT IN EnHA.

Reason and good temper carried the day in
the Iowa Republican convention and senseless
war of factions was avoided. Trouble was
threatened because the state committee, con-
trOlled by Governor Cummins's opponents, was
credited with purpose TO revise the roll of del
egates. and by sharp practice with certain elec-
tlOn contests to convert opposition minority
into an opposition majority. On the face of the
returns Governor Cummins had clearly defeated
his chief rival, Mr.. George ID. Perkins, and an
attempt to reverse the verdict by returning
board methods would undoubtedly have led TO
schsm in the convention and the nomination of
two sets of candidates. Senator DOllver and
nine of the eleven Republican Representatives
in Congress from Iowa Joined in a public pro-
test against any arbitrary tinkering with the
roll and the state committee needed this warn
ing. The Cummins delegates were left in con-
troll and they gave their leader 933 votes, against
603 for Mr.. Perkins. The convention seems TO
have been impressed with the perils to party
harmony and welfare which the situation pre-
scented, as well as with the faultiness of the
machinery through which the will of the ma
jOrity had to be declared, for it pledged the
Legislature to pass a statewide" primary cleo
tiOn law, under which candidates for state offices
and for the United States Senate should be
voted for directly. This change, it is argued.
will take power often abused out of the hands
of middlemen in politics and eliminate much
superluOus and dangerous party friction.
Governor Cummins, now nominated for third
term. has been knOwn-outside Iowa, at least
chiefly as a dissenter from "stand pat" doc
nines and an advocate Of tariff revision Since
his first election, in 1901. he has frequently
criticised the Dingley schedules as obsolete in
many details. and has urged the necessity of
recasting them to fit new conditions in COM
merce and industry. Between nominating con-
ventiOns and away from home he has sometimes
seemed TO antagonize protection sentiment. Yet
to judge from the Iowa platforms of 1901, 1903
and 1906-all of them framed by his supporters
for him TO stand On--his position is in no way
extreme or unreasonable. This years tariff dec
laratOn, which merely repeats that of 1908, GER
tainly reaffirms the best Republican teaching.
1t says:
We uncompromisingly in favor OF the
American system of protection. Wise
and unsefSh tariff laws. maintained in the in
terest of the general welfare, equally opposed to
foreign control and domestic monopoly. are es-
sential to our commercial and industrial pros
perity. We believe that all inequalities
in the tariff schedules which inevitably arise
from changing industrial and commercial cOndi-
tions should be adjusted from time to time. and
condemnng without reserve all assaults upon
the protective system we favor such reasonable
and timely changes as will keep the tariff in
harmony with our industrial and commercial
progress.
No exception can be taken to such statement
of Republican policy. The Dingey tariff as
tariff has had tremendous vindicatiOn. 1t has
more to show in positive. practical results than
any other tariff in our history. But the extraor-
dinary impetus given in the last ten years both
TO home industry and to foreign trade has neces-
sarily altered our own status as producer and
our commercial relations with the rest of the
world. The United States of 1906 is not the
United States of 1897. tariff made to fit
conditions nine years ago cannot he expected TO
hit present conditions exactly; still less nearly
Will it presumably fit them in 1908 or 1910. AS
Speaker Cannon wisely said last winter, the
tariff will have to he revised before long what
ever the stand patterS' say and however much
they may regret the necessity of revision Gov
ernOr Cummins and the Iowa Republicans are in
line with intelligent Republican sentiment in
foreseeing that change and in getting ready to
undertake it. But they realize at the same time.
as Republicans in general realize, that there
were other urgent political problems to he dealt
with, and that it was wise to delay an overhaul
ing of the Dingley tariff until we had corrected
political and economical abuses which come
much more directly home to the people,