The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-15

| the back districts.
 --.s-------------- OSCAR ". UNDERWOOD
 From the Mobile Register
 Of all the men in public life no one IS attracting more attention or receiving more praise and less blame than Oscar w. Underwood of Alabama. There are men of more brilliant parts, and some that are conceded to be the popular leaders but Underwood commands what may be called the ground swell of the peoples ap- proval. In him is seen a man of will of brains and of honesty. Tf2 S accepted public service and recogn 1t as public trust He has the brains to un- derstand what the people want, and ne purposes to get it for them, although, II he were selfishly inclined or lacking cour- age. he might well put aside the task. He has the honesty to speak plainly, and make his position clear. He is from a district where protection is regarded as a necessary thing. and yet he declares that he Is for a revenue producing tariff and not for protection. He goes farther and shows that protection is not the good thing that Is claimed of it. The removal of the duty on cotton ties would, in his opinion benefit the Birmingham indus tries His strong enunciation of his polit- ical, belief, at a time when large num- Der of senators and representatives are hedging" on the tariff issues, and are about to be smoked out by resolution that will be proposed by Senator Will Hams, is causing the people to say: Here ia a rising statesrnani Here is man to trustl Here is man of clear vision ana good couragei
 It is astonishing how general has be- come this opinion since MT. Underwood made his recent declaration, when he said:
 ''For 50 years the republican party has maintained the policy of excluding from the home market, as far as it has been able to do so. competitive products from other countries In the beginning this policy was inaugurated with the express declaration that 1t was intended to de- velop new industries until they were strong enough to stand alone and faces, in the open. the markets of the world and the rivalry of our protective com petitors, but the greed for gain has driven the advocates of this theory far beyond the position they maintained at the in- cepti5n Today there is hardly a great American industry that is not exporting it's surplus products to the open markets of the world and selling them In free competition with the manufactures and crops of our foreign competitors. We would be unrivaled masters of production and industry in every land where free competition can be obtained If we would but strike off the shackles that bind us to the dead and unnecessary economic system maintained by the republican party that creates false standards and wasteful conditions at home"
 Underwood, however. is no destroyer he is a builder. He wants trade placed upon permanent lines-permanent because based in justice and universal right. This is what he says:
 "The democratic party does not intend to abondon the custom house, but favors policy of levying customs duties for revenue purposes only. at rates that will not destroy fair and honest competition
 
 bill marks an era in the economic life of the nation. Why? Not that the immedi- ate results will be far-reaching, but be- cause it takes one step in the right direc- tion; step away from the exclusive pro- tection policy, a step toward an honest competitive policy"
 That is the winning policy; 1t Is the policy of Tilden and of Cleveland and also of Mckinley; and it has been adopt ed unanimously as the policy of the dem- ocratic party caucus in Washington. It is the policy on which the next national election will be fought out.
 Nothing less is due MT. Underwood than acknowledgement of the good service he has performade in upholding democratic and commercial honesty of purpose; and | that acknowledgement might well come from Alabama, MT. Underwood's state. | MT. Underwood is 8 growing man; his reputation is becoming greater every day; he Is the representative of the growing and progressive south; he has inspired the
 confidence of the people of the whole country; and if, in the cycle of events, fl should happen that the south be looked to
 for candidate for the highest office in
 the land, there can hardly be question that the choice of the south would fall upon Birminghams distinguished citizen l