POPULISM TO INSURGENCY 45 



excluded in every form from participation in political affairs." 40 Cummins' 

 drive for the direct primary in 1907 got results where his earlier efforts had 

 failed. His opponents claimed that his interest in the reform was due in 

 part to his desire to have an expression of the popular will in his impend- 

 ing candidacy for the United States Senate. If so, he must have been 

 greatly disappointed, for when he entered the primaries in 1908 against 

 the aging Senator Allison, he was defeated. Two months later, however, 

 the subject was reopened by the death of Senator Allison, and after a 

 special primary had endorsed Cummins' candidacy, he was at last chosen 

 by the legislature to the office which he had coveted for so long. Mean- 

 time, he had recorded his ardent support of an amendment to the national 

 Constitution which would require the election of United States senators 

 by direct vote of the people. 41 



The direct primary was not, of course, the cure-all that many people 

 had hoped it would be. When the time came for voting, the average citi- 

 zen was likely to be apathetic, while the professional politicians worked 

 without ceasing. Verdicts of the electorate were not always clear-cut. In 

 the Iowa Republican primary of 1908, for example, the Standpat candi- 

 dates for governor and senator were nominated, while Progressives won 

 the nominations for lieutenant governor and numerous other state and 

 legislative offices. But the results, in general, were good. No longer could 

 it be said, as formerly, that "delegates to political conventions were selected 

 by the railroad attorneys; were dead-headed [by free passes] to the places 

 of meeting, and were then herded and voted by flocks"; or that "delegates 

 were selected by dead-heads, hauled as dead-heads, herded like sheep, and 

 voted as they were told." It is by no means demonstrable that the primary 

 alone broke the back of the old railroad machine; in Iowa, as in Wiscon- 

 sin, the first important victories of the Progressives were scored before the 

 direct primary was instituted. But undoubtedly the primary system threw 

 the bosses' noses still further "out of joint," and brought "true rule of 

 the people" closer than it had ever been before. 42 



Cummins' interest in national politics clearly had much to do with the 

 emphasis that he placed, while still governor, upon national affairs. One 



40. Haynes, Third Party Movements, p. 456. 41. Ibid., pp. 464, 467. 



42. Wallaces' Farmer, XXXIII (June 19, 1908), p. 807; XXXVI (February 3, 

 1911), p. 162; XXXVII (June 7, 1912), p. 950. 



