POPULISM TO INSURGENCY 4 1 



insurgents as La Follette and Cummins, acting through one or the other 

 of the older parties, now provided in generous measure. Indeed, the con- 

 tagion spread to the entire nation, and an era of reform set in which 

 materially changed the character of state government in the whole United 

 States. 



In Iowa, Albert B. Cummins had found his aspirations for a political 

 career blocked by forces similar to those which had fought so tenaciously 

 against La Follette in Wisconsin. A Pennsylvanian by birth, Cummins 

 had read law in Chicago, and in 1878, soon after being admitted to the 

 bar, had opened a law office in Des Moines. He first attracted attention 

 as chief attorney for the Farmers' Protective Association, which sought to 

 break up an offensive barbed-wire combine. This combine, by the simple 

 device of buying up all available patents and then closing competing 

 factories, had succeeded in advancing the price of barbed wire to figures 

 that were obviously exorbitant. For five years, beginning in 1881, through 

 suit after suit, Cummins fought the farmers' battle, until at last he obtained 

 a decision from the Supreme Court of the United States so favorable to 

 his clients that the monopoly was broken. 30 



Cummins' growing interest in railroads led him to give up general 

 practice and specialize in railroad law. His outstanding ability won him 

 clients among the railroad corporations, but they "soon learned that they 

 did not own him." 31 He was never willing to play the role of lobbyist, 

 and as a member of the lower house of the Iowa legislature in 1888 he 

 introduced a "long-and-short-haul" bill that was by no means pleasing to 

 the carriers. During this session, under the leadership of Governor William 

 Larrabee, an outstanding liberal, the legislature enacted a series of reform 

 measures designed to facilitate the regulation of railroads by the state. 

 Cummins participated fully in this program without losing his standing 

 as a regular Republican, but his unwillingness to submit to their control 

 cost him the confidence of the railroads. When he sought election to the 

 United States Senate in 1894, an d again in 1896, they branded him as 

 undesirable and defeated him. The excellent showing he made in the 



30. Ibid., p. 293; E. W. Harrington, "A Survey of the Political Ideas of Albert 

 Baird Cummins," Iowa Journal of History and Politics, XXXIX (October, 1941), 

 p. 340 n. 



31. Francis Ellington Leupp, National Miniatures (New York, 1918), pp. 105-6. 



