Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1910-08-11
Cummins' Speech.

Gentlemen of the convention. uar.
n ,noa is IKE the poet it is born, not
ilI ba. u II Is amongst us we will speed
i n.y. near its sweet sounds; but if it is not
ae LEI the effort to create it with deceit.
dul protestations and false phrases viii
d di .lor m m failure. There is more
u is; IN the suppression of honest con.
s than in the open, candid expres-
sion N, of opposing views
II ms Is not an age of splain living but
fo,c Is an age OF plain speaking and there
charity for air l speak to YOU according
10 the truth as l see it, and according
10 my my duty as l understand it.
who nls &C. convention although composed
political struggle carried on with en-
ceealng earnestness in every county OF
e eates state ate There , may be few dele.
SITES VINO are here by accident, but sub
stantially all of you are here by desisn.
a conscious purpose is behind YOU and "a
eie,lr opllgation is before you.
orn Every man who believes in free gov
majority. but that implies no more than
peaceful submission to the will of the
majority rendan and and does not imply the sur
sincere belief.
at 1t was a vain and idle thing to pass
,ha the fight of the primary and
ane county conventions unless grave
would be the climax of folly for this body
OF men, after the republican voters had
eha , the issue, to fail in recording
IN ine wefalct and In publishing to the world
III nt!ing terms, the decision which The
republican electorate has rendered 1t is
not my perpose to define at this point Just
M Mnat the issue between republicans has
throughout the length and breadth of the
country 1T is sufficient for the present
TO say that 1t relates wholly to those
questions, guest which concern the control. regu-
iatlon and restriction of the powers and
practices of combined or concentrated
wealth. Or. to phrase it again,-to the
| ..iaue ana dlsproportionate share which
pfohts OF industry, and the injustice 1t
Is able to infiict upon helpless individuals
ana defenseless communities
In dealing with these problems the mem.
| pefs OF our party have ranged themselves
| aiong the whole stretch of economic
| thought and governmental action-from
me hopeless and retreating reactionary to
the extreme and visionary radical The
| rear division of this long line, with all
Its varying shades of political doctrine.
| mas come to be known as the standpatters
| while the other, with some diversity of
opinion upon specific questions marches
| forward under the name of progressives.
~ is probably true that some of the
progresslves want to 60 too fast and do
TOO much. 1t is. certainly true that there
are many of the sandpatters who want
| either to go back or to do nothing at all
Assuming that the divisions of the party
are equally honest. it is obvious that the
| contest between them is not trivial, al
though it is to be hoped that it is but
| temporary.
-, recur in this unparalleled situation to
the calm and optimistic philosophy of
Abraham Lincoln. who, in the epocha
| debate of 1858, after quoting the maxim
| "a house divided against itself cannot
81 believe this government cannot en-
dure permanently half slave and half
\ free | do not expect the union to be dis
| solved do not expect the house to fall
but do expect it will cease to be di-
vided. 1t will become all one thing or
| all the other"
1t is even so with the republican party
| 1t cannot endure permanently half pro-
gressive and half standpat. do not ex-
| pect to see either defeated or dissolved.
| but it must speedily become all progress
| i've or all standnat