Albert Baird Cummins (February 15, 1850July 30, 1926) was an American lawyer and politician. He was the 18th governor of Iowa, elected to three consecutive terms and U.S. senator for Iowa, serving for 18 years. Cummins was a leader of the Progressive movement in Washington and Iowa. He fought to break up monopolies. Cummins' successes included establishing the direct primary to allow voters to select candidates instead of bosses; outlawing free railroad passes for politicians; imposing a two-cent street railway maximum fare; and abolishing corporate campaign contributions. He tried, with less success, to lower the high protective tariff in Washington. Early life Cummins was born in a log house in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania, the son of Sarah Baird (Flenniken) and Thomas L. Cummins, a carpenter who also farmed. He attended different schools including the Greene Academy at Carmichaels, and was matriculated at Waynesburg College. He completed required classes at Waynesburg College, but was not graduated because of a dispute with the college's president regarding Darwinism. After leaving college, he initially became a tutor and taught at a country school. At age nineteen, Cummins came with his maternal uncle to Elkader, Iowa, finding employment in the Clayton County recorder's office and also worked as a carpenter. In 1871, he relocated to Allen County, Indiana, where he labored as a railway clerk, carpenter, construction engineer, express company manager, and deputy county surveyor. Lawyer Cummins moved to Chicago where he studied law while clerking in an attorney's office; he was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1875. After practicing law in Chicago for three years, he set up a practice in Des Moines, Iowa. At first, Cummins mainly represented businessmen in court, thus improving his finances and achieving prominence in Des Moines' high society. However, in his most famous case as an attorney he represented a group of Iowa farmers from the Grange movement against Washburn and Moen, a barbed wire trust, as farmers tried to break an eastern syndicate's monopoly of the production of barbed wire by running their own factory. However, historians consider his representation of farmers in the barbed wire case to be an anomaly because more often he represented corporations or businessmen. Political career After identifying with the Republican Party, Cummins became active first in state and later in national politics. He attended every state and national Republican convention between 1880 and 1924, he served as an Iowa state legislator