The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-29

1 getting a reputation without going after | it. Politics is- a noisy game; you have | to have a trumpet and bugle in order | to make anybody hear your name. It is rule to which there is no exception i that I know of except Underwood. l He sat back there quietly in Congress | for Is years doing splendid work and
 Eever getting his name into the papers. | Finally the crash came, the democrats carried the House, and from sheer merit | and nothing else the quiet man from Ala | bama was made floor leader and put in | charge of the party's tariff bill. And he | so acquitted himself that within month
 he became a national figure, and now he
 is quite likely to be nominated for Presi- | dent.
 | If this should happen, make no mistake
 about Underwood. Don't imagine that
 he will be dark horse of the Hayes type | or even of the Garfield type. He has
 served long apprenticeship. He is not | half so much a politician as he Is a
 statesman. For Is years he has been in | the forefront of every economic fight in
 Congress, although his utter lack of sensa-
 tionalism has prevented him from figuring
 in big headlines.
 | So strongly had he forged to the front
 when Slim Jim Richardson became demo- | cratic leader of the House that Slim Jim | made him assistant leader. Inasmuch
 as Slim Jim was a very poor apology for
 a leader at best this meant that the prac-
 tical work of leading the democrats fell to | Underwood's share.
 When John Sharp Williams succeeded
 Richardson he saw a possible rival in the l quiet, unostentatious, and level headed
 man from Birmingham. So he degraded | Underwood to the floor and made David
 A. De Armond the assistant leader in 1 spite of the fact that he and De Armond were personal enemies. But it was per | fectly evident that De Armond could | never be a rival of Williams. because of | his personal disqualihcations. Underwood bore his snuffing out with l resignation. Time passed and Champ | Clark became speaker Clark was in spred with a single hearted determlna- ton to get the best results for the demo- cratic party without regard to its effects 1 on his personal fortunes, and when he
 raised Underwood from the ranks to the chairmanship of the ways and means com-
 mittee he did so without thinking of or
 caring what would be the effect on him self.
 Tt was magnificent, but it was not 7oli- tics. Underwood made such a reputation with his tariff work that in very short time nobody was talking about the speak er-only about the chairman of the ways l and means committee. Clark wants to be
 
 l himself his most dangerous antagonist | Williams could never have committed such an error
 l Underwood accepted his promotion as | he would have accepted a degradation | without any open manifestations of feel l ing. If Clark had kept him in the posi- tion to which Williams relegated him Cn- | oerwood would have accepted the situa- l tion without a protest. Not that he is a | man devoid of passion, but that he is | really too big to care much for accidents 1 of fortune.
 | Personally he is one of the most attract | i've men you ever met He has a gentle | manner, soft voice, and quiet smile. | He is ingratiating One of the most fam 1 boyantly democratic writers who ever | lived wrote of him:
 l "Oscar Underwood is a real aristocrat, | Of the sort whose aristocracy doesn't hurt l them. and who treat all men most oour- | teously and in democratic fashion," | Underwood is the grandson of Ken- l lucky congressman and the son of a | Kentucky lawyer. He was graduated in | 1884 from the University of Virginia and
 went to Birmingham to aid in the creation