4 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



subject that he stressed without ceasing was tariff reform. The Republican 

 state convention of 1900, which contributed the "Iowa Idea" to the age- 

 old tariff controversy, did not abandon the protective principle, but it did 

 advocate "such changes in the tariff from time to time as become advisable 

 through the progress of our industries and their changing relations to 

 the commerce of the world." After endorsing "the policy of reciprocity 

 as the natural complement of protection," the Iowa Republicans went on 

 to advocate "any modification of the tariff schedules that may be required 

 to prevent their affording shelter to monopoly." These last three words 

 "shelter to monopoly" were the essence of the Iowa Idea. Neither the 

 language of the platform nor the much-used term, Iowa Idea, were the 

 work of Cummins, but they were both given wide publicity by his fre- 

 quent public statements. His first and foremost objective, he maintained, 

 was the prevention of monopoly. "I am not an advocate of a general 

 revision of the tariff," he said in his first inaugural address, "but I stand 

 for competition, the competition of the Republic if possible, but of the 

 world if necessary. I regard the consequences of a monopoly, or substantial 

 monopoly, in any important product, as infinitely more disastrous than 

 the consequences of foreign importations." 43 



With reference to the railroads, Cummins again showed his conscious- 

 ness of the national aspect of the problem. State regulation at best could 

 be only partially effective; by the time a railroad was big enough to need 

 regulation, it was too big for the states to regulate. As early as 1905 

 Cummins appeared before the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce 

 to argue for the greater protection of states and localities, as well as in- 

 dividuals, against rate discriminations. Both as governor and as senator 

 he showed genuine interest in restraining railroad monopoly and pro- 

 moting competition. The disappearance of competition, he believed, only 

 opened the way to socialism. 44 



43. Haynes, Third Party Movements, pp. 452-54; see also George E. Roberts, "The 

 Origin and History of the Iowa Idea," Iowa Journal of History and Politics, II (lanu- 

 ary, 1904), pp. 69-82. "It is, of course, not possible to give the farmer protection on 

 very much," wrote the first Henry Wallace, "for tariffs never become operative, no 

 matter what may be on the statute books, when products are shipped abroad in large 

 quantities." Wallaces' Farmer, XXXIV (February 12, 1909), p. 221. 



44. Harrington, in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, XXXIX (October, 1941), 

 PP- 3 66 > 37 n. 



