The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-05
WHEN UNDERWOOD LIVED IN ST. PAUL Pioneer Press Contains In- teresting Story HAS MANY FRIENDS Minnesota Democrats Would Be Glad to Claim Him and Put Him in
 Nomination Before Ma
 tional Convention
HAS MANY FRIENDS

The St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press contains the following interesting article on Congressman Underwood and his early life in that city:
 | If Representative oscar W. Underwood of Alabama, for political reasons, prefers
 to become a candidate for the democratic nomination for President from the north | he will have no trouble in finding many l residents of St. Paul who would be glad | to claim him again as a son of Mln- nesota.
 So if he Is presented for nomination | in the forthcoming national democratic convention, say the friends of his early days here, the Alabama delegation mighs gracefully waive its right to the an- nouncement and permit a representative | of the North Star state to place MT Underwood in nomination as a native son If there is further objection to MT. Un- derwood being from the southland" said Judge Willett recently in published in- | terview, 'T will have Alabama yield to Minnesota, and MT. Underwood will be nominated as the candidate of the north west" which makes it fairly evident that | if Minnesota wants the honor of nominat- ing a presidential candidate 1t will have the opportunity to do so if it cares to take up MT. Underwood's candidacy. The old Underwood home was the house now standing at Sixth street and Sum- init avenue, and the family is we'll re- | membered by the older residents of St. Paul. They were we'll to do, and were prominent in state and social circles here. Oscar W. Underwood is remembered less distinctly than his brother Eugene. Iris is because he went away while quite young. Eugene remained in St. Paul and was a prominent civil engineer and zeal estate agent until he left the city for New York city some years ago.
 Crawford Livingston, cosmopolitan, some time president and principal owner of the St. Paul Gas Light company, but always loyal citizen of St. Paul. knew Mr. Underwood very well when the man, Judge Willett. as his political manager, I is boosting for the honor of leading de- | niocracy's forlorn hope, was a resident of | St. Paul. It was fairly difficult matter
 to pin Mir. Livingston down to the inci- dent of MT. Underwood, as . boy in St. Paul. sitting on the end of a scow in the the placid waters," but MT. Livingston did know MT. Underwood intimately and speaks very highly of him now.
 Judge Underwood of Bowling Green, Ky, the father of the Hon. Oscar W. | Underwood, came to St. Paul to live in l the early '60s.f says MT. Livingston, "liv- | ing here, as near as can remember, un- | til about 1874, when he returned to Bowl ing Green, so that his son Oscar, who has for the 15 years past been a member of Congress from Alabama, got his early ed- uca ton and ideas in the schools of St. Paul. Few men are as well equipped for the presidency as Oscar Underwood. He is in accord with al lthe good ideas of his party, and besides proved an ideal leader in the House of Representatives. The metropolitan press of last winter, without regard to party, teemed with complimentary editorials regarding him. He is in the prime of life. 4s years old, fine presence, a good speaker, affable and pleasant He would be an ideal can dldate and the democracy of Minnesota would do itself honor to send an instruct ed delegation for him to the national con- vention.
 of his chance for election? It mat ters little how large or small the repub- lican majority is in most of the western states as they are safely republican. The battlefield in the next presidential , election will be largely in the eastern | states. On the Bryan, Roosevelt and La;7 ollette idea. no better exponent could l be found than the Hon. w. J. Bryan. We all know how lamentably he failed, and should know that those ideas have been
 worked overtime.
 If the next democratic candidate Is even moderately conservative he will
 carry all the southern states and all the eastern states. That the majority oi
 the eastern voters are disgusted with tho antics of the last two administrations is
 best evidenced by the vote last fall ir | the New England states and New York Dozens of lifelong republicans said tc me personally in speaking of the fal election in New York that they were go ing to vote for Dix, not because they
 were democrats. but because they wanted
 to get lick at Roosevelt. and they go 1t as the results show
 Ut is mistake to suppose that eithe
 party has majority of the votes O this country. It is the great independen
 vote that decided all the later presiden tial elections. That vote at this time |
 larger than ever before. It is also a mis
 take to suppose business generally speak
 ing. is good in this country at the presen
 time. It is not and no one knows 1t bet
 ter than the prominent men of the coun
 try who in half hearted way state 1
 is They and I are well convinced tha
 it will be worse before 1t is better. Wit . the constant agitation of the newspapers
 magazines and politicians, how can 1t i'm
 prove? It has been carried to that ex
 treme that we are the laughing stock an
 wonder of all commercial Europe.
 very prominent German business ma
 said to me a short time ago, speakin
 of the investigation of the Steel corpor
 ation by Congress, Don't the America
 people want great business enterprise
 to exist in their country? In my coun
 try such corporation as the Steel con
 pany would be matter of nations
 pride.'"
 '"The Secretary of the Treasury has sai'
 The country is simply pausing to talk
 breath after the headlong flights of 19
 and 19O9' but the Commercial and Finer