The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-11

| ionable. No wonder is expressed that MT. l Underwood's forehead and face are free | from wrinkles. All the turbulence and nerve suicide connected with handling a
 flat are removed from him.
 MT. Underwood professes to have no | presidential aspirations.
 The Alabama statesman claims to have never heard the little busy bee buzzing in his vicinity. He denies that l his head has ever been inclined and his neck stretched to perfect that fatal sting. The idea of Alabama furnish ing a chief magistrate would be absurd in his estimation. And yet there be those who asseverate the aforesaid bee is hanging aloft like an overdue bill on the first of the month
 l A count of democratic noses in the l House showed tha. more representa- 1 tiVes favored the nomination of MT. l Underwood the democratic candi- date than Judson Harmon or Champ 1 Clark He came second in popularity only 10 Woodrow Wilson Thirty seven of his associates declared a preference for MT Underwood, which is a fairly good straw vote in T dry summer.
 His Personal Interest in Steel
 But anti-1y- ointment has not been discovered. The thornless rosebush is in the future. The uprising pavement that lifts the banana peel to the feet of the pedestrian continues it's ineX- plicable performances. All. the popu- larity, honors and placiditv of Mir. un- derwood are not withouE alloy.
 It was asserted during the pendency of the Payne -Aldrich tariff bill that Mr. Underwood owned stock in a big steel plant at Birmingham and for that reason he did not fagor lowering the duties of the metal schedule. It was admitted by MT. Underwood that he and his wife did owE stock in a steel plant as alleged. His wife was Miss Woodward the daughter of the man who headed the firm in which the l stock was held. It was explained that l the offending stock had been inherited. MT. Underwood said no personal in- terest influenced his views regarding tar if revision and he was willing to reduce
 the rates on steel to a producing
 basis along with every other duty con
 sidered too high.
 With the mulling of tariff revision at l this session the charges against MT. Underwood were renewed. He answered l as before that private concern could never
 affect his public action. He had great
 respect for his constituents and the in- | terests of Birmingham were identical with his own, but nothing could deter
 him from the discharge of his public duty. He said there were many cotton 1 gins throughout the south. but gins had been placed on the free list bill at his
 own suggestion. He had also urged downward revision of the cotton sched- l ule against the wishes of the southern l democrats.
 ] And then William J. Bryan renewed l the charges in his organ. It was in re- 1 futing these assertions that MT. Under wood opened the swinging doors for MT 1 Bryan's entrance to the Ananias club He was the first prominent democratic statesman to come forward openly and announce to MT. Bryan that his domina. ] tion of the party was al an end. A large | proportion of it's leading representatives 1 long ago reached that conclusion, but | for varying reasons condemned him ir 1 private and held their peace In public For that reason the utterances of MT 1 Underwod were received with an ac claim seldom witnessed even in so noisy body as the House. He was cheerec until the reverberations sounded like 6 l barn dance in a lunatic asylum.