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__ ?? * 1 ' " * I j FEDERAL APPROPRIAT! IMPROVEMENT 0 Right and Duty of Congress U tion of the 1 (Extracts from speech of Oscar \V. resentatives, April 1, 1908.) The House being in Committee of Union, and having under conaiderai appropriations for the Department of June 30, 1909? Mr. Underwood said: Mr. Chairman: Objection is made 1 provement of our pubiic-road system I SPrvfH nnwcrc r\f +V?^. ? rvi.v>d wi mt .ji.ai.cfc. I Wlfcll this House more jealous in his desir States than 1 am. 1 believe the sove their duties to perform and should pei the part of the Federal Government, should enter into the legislative fields believe that the Federal Government, duty to perform under the powers giv< give force and effect to the grants of of these grants of power, to u^e the la lish post-oftices and post-roads." There can be no question whatever to build post-roads in the United St< build post-oliices, and to establish post tlemen may scoff at the proposition a: plate our present development and n they contemplated building roads to ca did not dream of a time coming whe farmer's door. But I want to say, Mr in the United States was no greater ****** Mr. Douglas. Where does the gent authorizing the Federal Government t Mr. Underwood. Why, it is very c to the Federal Government "to establi Mr. Douglas. The language of the and that has been held to be a very c Mr. Williams. That question was d decided in favor of the construction c very men who wrote the Constitution. Mr. Underwood. The contention th Republican party that the Government tional power to aid the States in buile tained by the leading men of the nati existence as a Government ****** On March 14, 1818, the House of f olution: * "Rcsolzcd, That Congress has p propriate money for the eonstructi roads, and of canals, and for the p. Thomas Jefferson said, in a letter to "Give us peace till our revenues war he neeessarv. it ran he rarrierl during peace we may checker oui etc. This is the object to which a! While Secretary of War in 1819 M: I of Representatives on roads and canals *'No object of the kind is more i State or individual capacity is nio: by the General Government or not In addition to this, Congress has a making this appropriation, under the *'to establish post-offices and post-roa' * tional Law, says: A * v m . "-F.vptv rnari n jr 1 vision is made for tl^e transportatic A Southern Presidential Possibility In the mention of. Oscar W. Underwood, of Alabama, for the Democratic Presidential nomination resides a good deal more than a suggestion that we nave got too far away from the Civil War era to regard a statesman as necessarily "unavailable" because he comes from a commonwealth that was a member of the Southern Confederacy. Of the men now before the country as possible or probable Democratic candidates for the Presidency, Underwood is certainly one of the strongest. He has had a fine training in Congress, and is in himself a man of natural force and large capacity for work?and workers are what we want in executive positions. He has been a member of the tt _ r r> r?_ c.c riouse 01 ivcpi cscmdu vcs ivi sumc mteen years, and has risen by force of merit, and nothing but merit, to a position which made it inevitable that he should be Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means when the Democrats came into control of the popular branch of the Government. He has the youth, the environment, the enthusiasm, the courage, the political sagacity, and the statesmanly qualities fully to justify his consideration in connection with the Presidential nomination. Mr. Underwood is a conservative man, who is capable of entertaining progressive ideals and at the same time of realizing fully the duty and the necessity for conserving substantial interests of the community. The Democratic party might go farther and do vastly worse than if it should nominate him as its standard-bearer of 1912.?Munsey's Magazine, January, 1912. UNDERWOOD IN THE WEST "I am gratified to see this State moving onward in almost every line and I note the wonderful growth of Birmingham. I observe that The Age-Herald has kept full step with the progressive spirit and has led in the work. "The growing strength of Oscar Underwood in the minds of the people throughout the United States has given Alabama a kind of publicity that the State could obtain in no other way, particularly on the great question of the tariff, for it was not thought that one would come out of Alabama with its varied interests who would be a David to defy the trusts. Oscar Underwood is regarded by many men as the best equipped, cleanest, fairest man to-day mentioned for the presidency. If he is nominated, he will undoubtedly win. If any strong sentiment of the South demands his election he will be nominated. Out in Colorado, with its thousands of visitors from all parts of the United States, he is the first man named bv most of them. The prom inence given to his candidacy by the magazines and the public press has caused a strong tide to rise which I hope and believe will carry him to the White House. I took much pleasure in aiding in organizing the Underwood Club in Denver, and it is doing good work unquestionably."?Harry Hawkins, of New York, in the Birmingham, Ala., Age-Hercid, January 8. 1912. ? IONS FOR THE F OUR PUBLIC ROADS ???i nquestioned from the FoundaGovernment Underwood in the U. S. House of Repthe Whole House on the state of the don the bill (H. R. 19158) making Agriculture for the liscal year ending to this appropriation looking to the im- J on the ground that it invades the reto say there is no man on the lloor of e to protect the reserved rights of the reign States composing the Union have form thein without aid or hindrance on t do not believe the Central Government that belong solely to the States, but 1 within its well-defined powers, has its tn it by the Constitution; that it should power given it by the States, and one .nguage of the Constitution, is *'to estabthat the Constitution carries the power ites. To establish post-oihces means to -roacis means to build post-roads. Uennd say that the fathers did not contemtiodern methods of transportation; that rry the mail through the wilderness and :n the mail could be delivered at every . Chairman, that the need for post-roads in the days of the fathers than today. ****** :leman find anything in the Constitution o build post-roads? lear. The Constitution gives the power ish post-offices and post-roads." Constitution is to ''establish" post-roads, lifferent thing from building them, iscussed in the Third Congress and was >f the Cumberland road by some of the at is made today by the leaders of the : of the United States has no constituling good roads was certainly not mainion during the first half century of our ****** Representatives passed the following resower under the Constitution to apon of post-roads, military and other improvement of waterways." Mr. Lieper, in 1S08: are liberated from debt, and then, if [ on without a new tax or loan, and r whole country with canals, roads, 11 our endeavors should be directed." r. Calhoun made a report to the House , in which he said: mportant and there is none to which re inadequate. It must be perfected perfected at all." stronger and more specific warrant for authority conferred by the Constitution ds." Cooley, in his book on ConstituicbidHqL. tunjpike?. >n of the mails upon or over it." The Conservative South Not many days ago, it was suggested in an editorial in this paper that the people of that section of the Union that tried a half a century ago to break up the Union of the States, might possibly turn out to be the home of a conservatism tha> would stand as a barrier against a enange in our scheme of government that would destroy the fabric of the Constitution adopted by our wise forefathers, and ratified by the States that had fought for and achieved independence and freedom. As evidence that such a thing may be among the possibilities a paragraph is here quoted from a speech made by Hon. Oscar W. Underwood, of Alabama, to the Young Men's Democratic League of St. Louis: ''Some Democrats want to put the initiative and referendum plank into the national platform of the Democratic party. I think that would be unwise. The initiative and referendum as a local issue is sometimes successful. But when you attempt to apply it to the United States you destroy the entire fabric of the Constitution. We are not a true democracy. This is a representative Government." As the reader knows, Mr. Underwood is the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives at Washington. But for the fact that he is a native and a life-long resident of the South he would stand a fine chance to be made the Democratic candidate for President next year. Candor compels the statement that he is as well qualified for the performance of the duties of the great office as any one in his party who has been mentioned in that connection, and it is not doubted that if elected he would make a safe President.?Knoxville Journal and Tribune, October 24, 1911. nniunrD ATir i c a ncDCHto 1/juiTiv/vi\/t i iv i^iuni/uxv^nir The most salient fact connected with the story of the bill in the present Congress is the remarkable strength of the Democratic tactics, and the high quality shown by Mr. Underwood, the leader of the party on the floor. The "farmer's free list" bill was a master stroke, and Mr. Underwood utilized it in the debate with an effectiveness that left nothing to be desired. What gives real strength to the Democratic position is that the party is grappling with a big and difficult question in a spirit that is at once courageous and practical. If there is to be an era of such leadership as that represented by Mr. Underwood, the term "practical politics" may be rescued from the ignominy into which it has fallen and recover the meaning to which it is legitimately entitled.?Nezv York Evening Post, reproduced in The El Dorado Suit (Weekly), El Dorado Springs, Mo. UNDERWOODCLEAN O PA] His name is Oscar W. Underwood; \ his years are on the sunshine side of fifty. As chief of the Ways and Means, and chairman of the Committee on Committees, he is Speaker Clark's right arm in the House. Mr. Underwood's cry is "Tariff for revenue only!" When Mr. Bryan, eaten of a rule-or-ruin spirit, came to Washington at the beginning of the special session to trouble the waters of party hope with an attack upon the wool bill as proposed by the Democrats, Mr. Underwood, in going after Mr. Bryan, stated his own tariff position. Said he: "The Democratic party stands for a tariff for revenue. The Democratic party does not stand for free trade, and I do not believe the people will be misled by the statement of Mr. Bryan." That Mr. Underwood is against protection, and fights it, evinces his courage. He comes from the Birmingham district in Alabama?a breeding-ground of protection. In Mr. Underwood's district there are nine railroads, one hundred and forty-eight miles of street-car tracks, $150,000,000 of invested industries, an annual pig-iron output of 2.000,000 tons, and a production of 15.000,000 tons of coal. The city of Birmingham has an annual pay-roll of $50,000,000. The Tennessee Coal & Iron Company, which is a part of the Steel Trust, controls one-third of all the prod-1 UNDERWOOD'S CI In this morning's magazine section of The Times our readers will find the very interesting report of an inquiry by a staff correspondent into the record and repute, in his own home, of the Hon. Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama, who has recently been discussed as a possible Democratic candidate for the presidency. It is needless to say that The Times is not concerned to advance the interests of any gentleman in this direction in preference to any other: It is concerned only in laying before its readers such information, carefully gathered and impartially presented, as will aid in the formation of sound public opinion and a choice that will be to the greatest advantage of the Nation. We think our readers will agree that any party may be congratulated among whose prominent men, to whpm the eyes of the party are directed on the eve of a presidential campaign, there is one with such standing among those who know him best as Mr. Underwood has. Plainly he is a man to be trusted, because he is trusted, for his integrity, pii#L\> civic courage, and a?<ity, by his own people. Whether, when the time, is one^element that will enter into the pr^lem which may well receive attenA Voice From Virginia "All of the avowed aspirants are men of distinction and merit, but my individual opinion is that the party has an opportunity to make a magnificent selection by choosing for its standard bearer in 1912 the wise, well-balanced and thoroughly equipped Alabamian* Hon. Oscar Underwood. "Mr. Underwood's record in states* manship is a good enough guarantee of his fitness for the White House. He measures up to all the requirements of the exalted position. He is fearless and broad-minded, and there is nothing of the demagogue in his composition. Some will cavil at his Southern origin and raise the oft-reoeated crv that no Southerner can be elected to the presidency. This bugaboo is raised in spite of the fact that all the leading papers of the North and South and all writers of any note have declared time and again that sectional feeling and prejudice, based on the war of '61-65, have died out completely. "If that be true is there any longer any valid reason against going to the South for a candidate? If Mr. Underwood's personality and public service render him peculiarly available should the matter of location bar him from the nomination? The idea is absurd."? Hon. A. C. Broxton, of Richmond, Va., in The Baltimore Sun, January, 1912. UNDERWOOD LOOMS UP Whether the disclaimer of Representative Oscar W. Underwood of candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president is to stand or not, there is no question that he is looming large and seriously, no less at the North than at the South, as a possibility, if not this time, then in the near future. Mr. Underwood is making a widespread and distinctive impression, not only as the honest, bold, sagacious leader of the House majority, and not only as a masterful Southern Democrat, but as an American publicist and statesman?a man of affairs and broad concept of his responsibility to the whole people.? Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch, reprinted in the Birmingham, Ala., AgeHerald, January 22, 1912. HEARS MUCH POLITICAL TALK "In traveling through the country I hear no end of political talk/' said James A. Braun, sales manager of the Wyeth Chemical Company of New York. "During the past five or six weeks 'I have heard Underwood very much discussed as a presidential proposition. I found in the Carolinas a great deal of Underwood sentiment. I have been keeping up with Underwood's record in Congress, and I believe that his commanding position in the Democratic party will be appreciated by the rank and file of the Democracy."?AgeHerald, Birmingham, Ala., Jan. 7, 1912. -HOUSE LEADE DURAGE, HIGH [THFUL IN HIS ucts of the district. One-third of all the iron-ore holdings of the Steel Trust are in and around Birmingham. Surely, at first glance, a bad outlook for a tariff reformer! And yet Mr. Underwood succeeds and re-succeeds himself with ever climbing majorities. It is the Underwood honesty that does it?that, and his clean courage. The dominant quality in Mr. Underwood is honesty, and folk have found it out. Honesty is among the scarcest of earthly commodities, and when a community has discovered it in the possession of an individual, it guards it and works it like a gold-mine for every final ounce. Mr. Underwood is honest: His election was not the work of money. He was not chosen as either the pet of the railroads or the first-born of the trusts. Ilis seat was given him by the people, and because they believed he would fill it to the best of public advantage. 1 ins emanation or the popular gives ; Mr. Underwood the House high ground,! and he is so far military in his genius ; that he knows how to fortify and hold it. From his place as a people's representative, he can overstare and keep in check the Paynes and the Dalzells and the Crumpackers, who are present merely by the grace of pirate money, and dwell, therefore, on House levels much lower than his own.?Alfred Henry Lewis in the Cosmopolitan, New York, Tanuary, 1912. ijc * * * * * * As the head of the Ways and Means J INTEGRITY, F VIC COURAGE tion even thus early. It is the fact that'Mr. Underwood is a man of Southern birth, a Representative from a Southern State. There is a feeling, rather than a definite opinion, which finds expression more often in his own section than in the North, and perhaps more often in his own party than in the opposite party, that this fact would be a source of weakness if Mr. Underwood were named by the Democracy. Of course, this is a matter not easily to be decided with confidence in advance. There has been no occasion for a distinct expression of public sentiment J v i_ 1 .if ^ regarding it. it is a nan century since a Southern candidate for the presidency came before the Nation, and a good deal longer than that since one was elected. Great events have intervened and left their impress on the minds and hearts of men, the depth and direction of "which no one can surely estimate. Our own judgment is that a candidate from the South?other things being equal?would not be weaker and might even be the stronger for that fact. In a broad way, it may safely be said that there is in our people now a sense of tried and proved and established nationality which might, and probably would, welcome an opportunity for IftK-Tr'v/ tad Union. It has been steadily strengthened by "The conditions of our Sational Jackscrew or Axe That with the Democratic party already in power in the House, and having a visible chance of coming into complete power in the National Government, it is of interest to learn from what viewpoint the actual pilot-in-charge of the Democracy's legislative ship looks at his task and by what stars he shapes his course. Are they fixed and steadfast lights of the political firmament or are they merely those will-o'-the wisps that flame up as "paramount issues" for this year, only to be forgotten next year? We get a comforting light on this question from another remark by Mr. Underwood : "I think the big question is the tariff. It is the question of the development of the industries and commerce of the nation." From a Democrat that is a remark well-nigh startling. It exhibits such an unusual viewpoint. It is almost like hearing Andrew Carnegie confess that there might be such a thing as a righteous war. Heretofore, our Democratic statesmen have so uniformly declared that there was nothing to the tariff question but stopping "robbers" from robbing. They never seemed to think of a tariff as having anything to do with the development of industries and commerce. Mr. Underwood does. He says we should reduce our tariff because with the settlement of the West we have left behind the days when our home market absorbed the products of our factories and left us no surplus for which we needed to look for a market abroad. He holds that our industrial development has outstripped the increase in domestic demand, and that we are producing, or at least have the existing capacity to produce, a great surplus of manufactures for which we must find markets in other countries. Therefore, and since "we cannot trade with other people unless we permit them to trade with us," reduce the tariff to a competitive basis?to the "lowest rates that will raise the revenues that the exigencies of the Government require." One may agree or disagree with that theory of tariff-making. One may disbelieve that its effects will be "development of the industries and commerce of the nation." But at least it is a theory consistent with itself and professing constructive aims and not merely clamoring for destruction. And its proponent is no doctrinaire fresh from academic halls with his noddle crammed with "solutions" of everything. Neither is he the freak product of passing popular delight with the latest novelty among politcal entertainers."? Chicago Inter-Ocean, September 26, 1911. ESTIMATE OF OPPONENTS Men like Payne and Mann declare him to be the most resourceful antagonist they have found on the Demo- , cratic side. A skillful parliamentarian, a good speaker, holding himself always ; in perfect control, he is a model leader, , and his following is daily increasing.? Washington Correspondence in The Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia, Pa., June, 1911. 1R HONESTY FRIENDSHIPS1 Committee, Mr. Underwood has shown himself to be the right man in the right place. What advances are made by the party in 1912 will be due largely to him. He knows tariff in all its schedule windings, as a man knows the hallways of his own house. He has wisdom. He has temper and spirit, but is neither unreasonable nor vindictive. I have faith in the tariff thoroughness of Mr. Underwood. If I owned the revenues of the Government, I shouldn't hesitate to employ him as night-watchman.? Alfred Henry Lewis, in the Cosmopolitan, January, 1912. * * " * * * * * Mr. Underwood is faithful in his friendships. To those whom he casuallv meets, he is affable, albeit non-committal, keeping his own counsel. He is never rude nor hard; never violent, even with blood foes. For the stranger within his gates his air is gentle and frank. He is easy to see, and, speaking generally, has been ever careful to keep himself within the reach of all. Newspaper folk, sent to Mr. Underwood by some stress of duty, never fail to like him. He has his dignity, but there is no reserve. He maintains no distances between himself and them. He answers a question with a round readiness, or says plainly that he can't answer it and tells why. He expedites the business in hand, and will even anticipate the purpose of one's coming, and put questions to himself.?Alfred Henry Lewis, in the Cosmopolitan, New York, January, 1912. 'URLTY AND ABILITY life and especially by the intimate, extensive, and increasing intercommunication within our borders. Our people have for forty years literally lived together, and always more and more closely. They have gradually ceased to think in terms of sections, and the South is to-day no more distinct and apart from the East or the Middle YVest or the West in the minds of those who dwell elsewhere. In the next place, no one under sixty has any personal experience of the civil conflict, and that means not merely that the majority but that the great body of voters are without this experience. It is more than a quarter of a century since the "Southern _ Question" entered even nominally into a National contest. If it were raised now by any party, and those who would be influenced by it had to stand up and be counted, we believe they would be ludicrously few. On the other han-d, we are confident that, were the issue made, a great many voters?chiefly among those who were most earnest in their loyalty in the civil war?would by a common impulse of generosity and of self-respect incline toward the Southern candidate. If forced really to thini?'of tied ferever.?The New York Times, November 26, 1911. ^ A Voice From Florida "Oscar Underwood, however, has more friends than any man mentioned for the Democratic presidential nomination. He is more popular throughout the country with all the Democrats than the others. He is almost the unanimous second choice. If you ask the Harmon men who they would be for in case Harmon could not be nominated they will say Underwood; when you ask the Wilson men the same question as to Wilson, they reply that if Wilson can not be the nominee, Underwood is their choice; and the same thing is true of the Champ Clark men."?T. A. Jennings, National Committeeman from Florida, in the Pcnsacola Evening News, Friday evening.. January 12, 1912. 1YIK. Ul^iULKWUUU Meanwhile Mr. Underwood has a work to do in Washington for which he has revealed a remarkable aptitude. It is not too much to say that the existing harmony among the Democratic members of the House, and the ability they showed at the last session to work together, are largely due to his skillful leadership. He proposes to resume the task of tariff revision at the point where it was interrupted by the President's vetoes.?The Providence (R. I.) Journal, December 2, 1911. ?_____ UNDERWOOD AND THE PAPERS The careful reader of the newspapers is surprised at one notable feature of the papers from practically every section of the country. This feature is the general notice and attention paid to Congressman Oscar Underwood as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, and the uniform praise which invariably accompanies the mention of him and his candidacy. This is all the more surprising because Mr. Underwood maintains no press bureau. On the other hand, prominent candidates for the Democratic nomination like Governor Harmon of Ohio, Governor Wilson of New Jersey and Speaker Ciark of Missouri, maintain large and active bureaus, which are continually sending out campaign literature to the papers of the country. i- _ ii-- ^ iNuiwuusiuiiuiiig ims, at me present time Mr. Underwood is receiving more attention than any other, we might say any other two, presidential candidates combined. The attitude of the voters towards Mr. Underwood may be doubted until that attitude is made clear in an election, but it cannot be doubted that his record and his strong personality are admired by the newspapers of the country. For now he is receiving more free and favorable advertising than any other public man of the country.? Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, January 5, 1912. INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM A DOCTRINES CONTRAI MENTAL PRINCIPI (In address before Young Mens Democr "Some Democrats want to put the in National platform of the Democratic p The initiative and referendum as a loc when you attempt to apply it to the Uni of the Constitution. We are not a tru government."?From Knoxville Journal t A FIGURE OF N The emphasis here is placed upon Mr. Underwood's wisdom, but along with this is mentioned his honesty. These two qualities greatly impress every one who comes into association with Mr. Underwood, or who closely follows his course in Congress and in public life. He is wise: he does not disturb himself about little things; his own personality is not obtruded; his political ambitions play no part in governing his words and actions. He has _! i _ _ ^1. r_ . - r an eye single rc> tne periormance 01 duty and believes that duty well performed is the most urgent consideration. If doing his duty should mar his fortunes?as he certainly believed it would when he voted against the pension bill?he will take what comes without complaining. Not every man can be president, he thinks, but every man can try to do the best that is in him for his country and for the times he lives in. ? And this is honesty. He plays no politics; he stands out against raiding the treasury?no matter what be the excuse offered?and he opposes his own friends and associates quite as firmly as he opposes his opponents when, in his judgment, the thing proposed to be | done is not for the common good. Southern Leaders and the Tariff No sensible man, certainly no one I friendly to the South, wishes to see the tariff made a sectional question. The course of Mr. Clark and Mr. Underwood tends to prevent this. They stand not only with their own party throughout the country, but with the strong public sentiment in support of tariff reduction that has divided the Republican party, and thrown the House into the hands of the Democrats. When we say that in this thev are serving their own section, we have in mind the important fact that they are bringing* to bear on national affairs the intelligence and strength of their section, and giving it the opportunity to take a leading part in the affairs of the Nation. They are undermining the unfortunate sectionalism that has, perhaps unavoidably, pervaded Southern politics for a long time. They are ranging the South on < the side of progress and in the line of the most significant movement of nationai^jpLnioii that has manifested itself in Ibigg.-^Nathing is more certain i^pr^s^JF'Wni^Tyst^n^^if^ to be reform^fcv and its reform is bound to be the one task of statesmanship in the next few years. It can be determined, and under certain conditions it can be led by the men of the South.?New York Times, January 31, 1911. Underwood Among 1912 Possibilities The threatened breakdown of Majority Leader Underwood, as a result of long hours of hard work on the tariff in the Ways and Means Committee, put many a Democrat in a nervous state of mind. There developed suddenly a full appreciation of the worth of the Alabama Congressman as a leader. For Mr. Underwood to become disabled or to be removed from the scene of his usefulness at this critical time would be like pulling a corner post out from under a platform on which was heaped most of the political treasures of the party, Democrats quite generally are willing to admit. Credit for the achievements of the Democratic House bearing the stamp of constructive statesmanship is given readily to the majority leader. Due to his success as a legislative manager?his ability in most tests to keep the House Democracy united?and the fact that Civil War wounds have been allowed to heal because of the scarcity of public men of the type of Senator Heyburn, of Idaho, a Southerner is being seriously considered North and South as presidential material. The Underwoodfor-President movement has been attracting volunteer workers steadily since last spring, when the newly-installed Democratic House assumed its responsibilities. An Underwood boom for the Democratic nomination for President put on long trousers at the beginning of this, the national campaign year.?Austin Cunningham, in the San Antonio Express, January 5, 1912. A PRACTICAL DEMOCRAT St. Louis honors Oscar W. Under> wood for his character, for his achievements and for his Democracy. | The Chairman of the Ways and Means j Committee is a practical Democrat His i leadership in the House of Representatives shows that. He possesses the ability to enlist men of varying ideas, plans and moods in support of desirable and feasible objects. Men who agree jon basic principles mav be involved in bitter hostility by antagonisms which in their essence amount to little. ******* Mr. Underwood's example as a leader of Democrats in Congress is worthy of emulation elsewhere. It makes for tolerance. Tolerance makes for unity. 1 Unity makes for progress. There is no : other way to render Democracy ef- : fective. The young Democrats of St. Louis : who persuaded Mr. Underwood to become their guest will find in his policy : as well as his principles the best hope i of party achievement and party life.? The St. Louis Republic, October 17, 1911. 1 H ND RECALL ^ I RY TO THE FUNDA- I LES OF OUR GOVERNMENT I H atic League of St Louis, Oct 16, 1911.) I itiative and referendum plank into the I arty. I think that would be unwise. I al issue is sometimes successful. But I ted States you destroy the entire fabric e democracy. This is a representative I md Tribune, Oct 24, 1911. I ATIONAL SIZE I In a politician this would be accounted I recklessness, because party and spoils are I translated in many minds to mean the | same tmng; Dut it is tne Highest wisdom in a statesman. Even should it have but partial success in controlling a party following, it must be productive of immense good in showing that the South has in Mr. Underwood a man who can be trusted by the Nation?a man whose patriotism is not limited by small things, nor suffering from the burden of any prejudice. For our part, we believe that such wisdom is of more practical value than would be the keenest political scheming; and that this very absence of selfseeking, this contempt for the arts of the politician, is working for him, while he himself has his mind centered upon things he regards as of more moment The country could do no better than to put its entire trust in such a man; and there is good reason to think that it will do so. As Mr. Lewis says, it should not "hesitate to employ him as night watchman." This coming, not from the South, but from a writer whose attitude is critical and whose atmosphere is of the North, is certainly a tribute not to be despised; its significance is very great?The Mobile (Alabama) Register, January 21, 1912. Underwood a Real Man TL. T"\ _ r it TT ? x iic i^emocrais 01 tne nouse nave reason to be proud of their floor leader, Chairman Underwood, of the Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Underwood has given ample evidence of the possession of the qualities of mind essential to the position. He has also demonstrated most conclusively that he is a man who cannot be cajoled or bullied from the course he considers right In the debate over the Canadian rec- ;J iprocity bill former Speaker Cannon made the bluff that the steel trust fa- : vors the enactment of the measure. Mr. Underwood called the bluff very effectively by producing a telegram from his home district saying that the United States Steel Corporation has 1 stopped work on important mills there, . 11 giving as their reason that Underwood J stood in Congress advocating the tariff reductions on steel included in this bill. 1 Mr. Underwood added that two years 1 I ago the steel trifet opposed his election I | because of the tariff views and threat"I voted for them just the same,* he stated, "anti thqy failed in their efforts to turn me out of Congress." Underwood is every inch a man, and the people have more respect for one such as he than for a whole battalion of corporation-controlled standpatters.? The Ocala Daily Banner, Florida, April * 29, 1911. This New Leader Prom Alabama But this new leader from Alabama, with nothing meteoric or iridesrMit about him; who has forged steadily I ahead during sixteen years of congres- I sional service, and who has proved him- I self equal to every emergency in the acid I test of debate on the floor of the House; I cool, imperturbable, resourceful, sure of I himself at all times; profoundly learned I on the great tariff issue he stands for; whose impressive personality is reveal- 9 ing itself in stronger lines every day II as the searchlight of the press plays jfl upon it?he is the Man of Destiny for ' jl the Democratic party in this year 1912. I And as the campaign for the nomination I progresses, Mr. Underwood's superior I availability will come out with increas- I ing clearness, and the Democratic masses I of the South will catch the inspiration 9 of the great fact that a Southern man I from the heart of Dixie is at last in line I for the presidency after all these weary fl years of waiting. When that psycho- 9 logical moment arrives?in the national 9 convention or before it?a very nearly M solid South, fused to white heat under I the enthusiasm of a genuine Southern I presidential candidacy, will take Oscar I Underwood on its shoulders, sweep away . I all the well laid plans of machine politics and rush him right to the goal, a winner 1-3 by sheer force of an overwhelming sense . } * of simple justice to the South. At least, that's the way we want it.?The j , Suwanee (Fla.) Democrat, December, [j 1911. ;131 in ; > CHAIRMAN UNDERWOOD Chairman Underwood has once more x 1 given proof of that levelness of head : ] j _i f ... - anu clearness oi purpose which have characterized his leadership from the beginning. He has flatly refused to countenance any coquetting with the La Follette idea on the wool bill. Whether viewed as a mere announcement of program or as a bill that it is desired and expected actually to get enacted into law, the La Follette proposition does not meet the needs of the situation? The New York Post, August 2, 1911. i >o THE MANNER OF MAN HE IS After the Southern manner, Mr. Underwood is unaffectedly democratic. He meets men as one who, respecting himself, also respects them. He does not wear the manner of one who expects to -~ find his inferior. Still less would he remind you of one who fears he may meet his superior. Never does he pose, nor seek to transact his dignity at the humbling expense of another.?Alfred Henry Lewis, in the Cosmopolitan, New York, January, 1912. J