The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1908-05-14


ly nothing to do with his duty as an
official in other specific instances. 1t
would be we'll if all lawyers could see
clearly this important distinction.
Helped to Build Railways.
To complicate matters still more.
Cummins' early associations had been
almost wholly with the railroads
when in his capacity as civil engineer
he had built or helped to build sew
eral lines. The only seeming influence
of this fact, however, was to give him
q clearer insight into the question and
to make more certain his action in be-
half of the people. He knew, and
therefore his duty was the palmer and
the greater.
Albert Baird Cummins was born in
1850 in Pennsylvania. His people we're
originally southerners. He attended
the common schools, an academy and
a college until nineteen years Of age
He then went to Iowa, where he be-
came clerk in a county recorders
office. Afterward he worked for some
time as carpenter and then became
an express messenger. This did not
last long, and next he was an assistant
surveyor of a county in Indiana. It
was then he became a civil engineer
! on railroad and was advanced rap
idly. He still was dissatisfied, how
ever, and threw up his engineering to
study law. At about this time A. B.
Cummins had that mossless rolling
stone backed off the pier
1t was 1878 before the future govern
or located in Iowa as a lawyer, and
it was sixteen years later before he
took prominent part in politics. He
was then a candidate for United
States senator, but was defeated by
John II. Gear, who was old enough
for political death and met physical
death before he took his seat This
was generally expected, and it was
agreed that when the aged senator
did shuttle off Mr.. Cummins was to be
his successor.
Leslie M. Shaw was then governor
of Iowa, and thereby hangs a tale
not one of the antediluvian anecdotes
told by Shaw, but one of the more
recent ones told about him. Instead
Of calling together the legislature to
let it fulfill its compact with Cum
NUNS, Shaw took matters into his
own hands and appointed Dolliver to
the vacant seat. This gave Dolliver
an advantage in the race, and when
the supreme test Of strength came in
1899 he beat Cummins by three votes.
That was nine years ago, but the
sequel to the story is only now coming
to pass. This year Leslie Nj. Shaw is
a candidate for president, at least in
his own mind, and Albert B. Cummins,
while really candidate for the United
States senate, apparently takes great
pleasure in putting a spoke into the
Shaw wheel by entering the presiden-
tial game himself.
| One of the most exciting periods of
Mr.. Cummins' life was when he fought
the prohibitory law. This act had been
passed several years before, ard it
was considered political death to op-
pose it. Cummins did oppose it, how
ever, and with effect. He spoke against
it, ran for the legislature as an indie
pendent with a Democratic indorse-
ment and overcame an immense Re-
publican majority. In the legislature
he was instrumental in bringing about
a radical modification of the law
| The Women's Candidate.
It is one of the anomalies Of a strik-
ing career that despite his fight against
prohibition Cummins is considered the
'women's candidate. They flock to hear
i him, electioneer in his behalf and pro-
claim him their beau ideal Of what
public man should be. This may be
! due to the fact that he is very hand
some figure of man-tall, with iron
| gray hair and mustache, possessing all
the graces of the finished orator and
| endowed with a large share of that
| peculiar something known as personal
magnetism. Moreover, the governor adj
| dresses many Of his most effective ora
! torical appeals to the fair sex, who, al
! though they cannot vote in Iowa, can
make it mighty uncomfortable for
those who do.
Governor Cummins' influence with
the better half of the world, however,
may not be so far to seek. Mrs. Cum
Minis is quite an adept as politician,
! and it is not at all impossihla that she