The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

I
 an honor. such an exalted and high po- | sition, had never entered his head.
 Lewis w. Turpin was democratic con- i gressman from the Ninth district then
 and when Turpin came back home in
 the summer of 1893 he found himself op- | posed for re-nomination by Oscar w | Underwood; for the persuasion of Under
 woods friends had prevailed and he agreed to enter the race. It was then
 that the republican party and it's allied partyettes in Alabama began their death
 struggles. Truman H. Aldrich, present
 postmaster of Birmingham. was nomi-
 mated by these allied forces as under- | woods opponent.
 The campaign was pretty lively with a few little tilts now and then, but Under
 wood didn't deliver any pyrotechnical or
 atory or do any mud singing; he just | calmly passed about among the vo- l ters,, talking to them personally as often 1 as possible, making speeches which
 teemed with good common horse sense, and when the votes were counted the
 Ninth district had a congressman by the name of Underwood. Then the old Ninth district democratic
 committee elected a new chairman. and. in the fall of 1894 Oscar Underwood bid
 good-by to smoky Birmingham, the city of blast furnaces, and went to Washing ton, D. C.. to see that the folks back home were not forgotten when the ap- propriations were handed around and i. when little southern oratory was need i ed on the floor of the House to put spice | into things.
 Underwood was disappointed. He ex- pected to make his record on the floor of the House; he believed that his con- gressional work would all take place on
 the floor while debates were going on and votes were being boiled. He took his seat and listened and watched for a couple of days and then realized for, the first time that Congress was a body of committees and that nine-tenths of all legislation was committee legislation.
 originating in committees, developing In
 committees and made into law of the nation largely by committee work Un7 derwood saw that nothing was done on the floor of the House except the voting and a little oratorical exercise to get the statesman's names into, -tfe newspapers and show the folks back home that he
 was not attending the ball games all the time. fs
 From that time on Oscar Underwood spent all his energies toward gathering great stores of statistics and general in formation and schooling himself on conl7 mittee work: and wien his opportunity. came last year and he was named chair man of the most important committee in 'hc iiouSt VI tiic sNiiolc country knows the result.
 Unseated During First Term
 Toward the end of J,nderwoods first
 term the aspiring young statesnian had
 his first brush with his everlasting en-
 emy, the republican party Aldrich,
 whom the republicans had nominated
 to run against him in the Ninth dis
 trict in Alabama, had filed papers in the
 House ill which he had contested Under woods election. The matter had passed over until near the end of Underwood's si term, when the republican house took the matter up and unseated Underwood.
 It is authoritatvely stated to this day that Underwood was elected by large majority. but the republicans were just
 then commencing to lose their hold on
 what since has become the solid south
 and the matter was causing them con siderable worry. They needed all the
 southern republican recruits that they could get in order to break up that
 solid south proposition. so they voted to unseat Underwood and give Aidrlch the election. Many republicans voted; for Underwood's retention,s but the repuhll- can majority in the House was over whelming then and the vote to. unseat the democratic nominee carried easily Even then Underwood did not get ruffled. lose his temper or make any vitriolic attacks on the ways of politics and politicians. One of the familiar sights in Washington while the unseating
 matter was before the House was tn-
 derwood and Aldrich walking down the