The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-20

 From the Pennington, Conn, Valley Her
 aid.
 It would not surprise the writer if Oscar w. Underwood of Alabama loomed quite large upon the political horizon be- fore the time comes for holding the democratic national convention in Balti- more.
 Congressman Underwood was born in Kentucky, of ancestry that was whig in the old days when that party antedated the republican, and his grandfather be- came much dlsliked among the ruling classes of his day when he gave free dom to his slaves His father was union man during the days of the war and the subject of this article spent the days of his boyhood in St. Paul, Minne- sota. He received his collegiate education in southern universities and the years of his adult life have been spent in Br- mingham, Alabama which is the center of the greatest iron and steel business of the country outside that carried on in Pittsburg.
 As congressman for IS years, he was steadily learning the work of legislation, by serving on some of the most important committees and when the day came that the democrats were in power in the lower branch of Congress there does not seem to have been but one mind among them as to who was to go to the head of the great committee on ways and means, that immediately became more powerful than ever before by having given 10 it the power to name all other committees.
 That the party in power in the lower branch made no mistake in naming Os- car W. Underwood for that position has been proven over and over again in the special session of Congress and again in the regular session that opened in December. Twice has that defeated dem ocratic candidate for President attempted to tell the lower branch of Congress what to do and in each case Leader Under wood has been sustained by overwhelm- ing majorities in the caucus and later on the floor of the House. It will take man who has lived longer than fifty years to remember the time when the democratic party in Congress has had a leader who could lead. Others have tried 1t, but they have fallen down lamentaby.,
 It can be said in all fairness that not in % years, yes, not since the days of James G, Blaine, has either party had leader on the lower floor of Congress who could handle majority as well as the present chairman of the ways and means committee.
 When you stop to consider the matter carefully, a leader is needed as much in the White House as on the floor of Con- gross. The President may be a strong man Intellectually, be honest and of a judicial temperament, in fact, be all that a President apparently should be, as the present executive is, and yet fall down lamentably as leader. Not being a leader. or lacking that indefnable quali,y that some men have, the President can get nothing done that he advocates. That to certain degree is what has overtaken President Taft all through his administration.
 1 If the thinking men of this country, the middle class, who make up the great majority, will stop to think, they will come to the conclusion that Oscar W. Underwood more nearly represents | their beliefs than any man who is before the people at this time as a presidential candidate
 1 While he is in favor of tariff revision, l he realizes fully that our government must be supported and that for the pres ent d part of the money must come from | the duty on imports.
 That is exactly the stand that three | fourths of all the people irrespective of party take today.
 | He is not standpatter who would let i the present tariff remain to fatten the 1 few, neither is he a man who would go to the extremes of the progressives of
 the most radical type. While it is not probable that he will receive the nomina- tion of his party, yet as a candidate he is a man who could be voted for by a great majority of the thinking men of the country and they would have no regrets