The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-08
GRAVES WAS MAN
Who TURNED TIDE
Lee Long Talks of His Work
for Wilson
EVEN IN ALABAMA
Due Entirely to Him That Underwood
Delegation to Baltimore Was
Tinctured With Such Strong
Wilson Sentiment

Inasmuch as 1t may never be known
what the result would have been had
The entire Underwood delegation at the
Baltimore convention been as faithful
in everv respect as Harry Jones, Oscar
Turner and other members of the ia
nous "marching club" and inasmuch
as that "slate" and its work in Mont
eomerv will long live in Alabama pol
tics. the interview which Is to fol-
low with J. Lee Long, chairman OF
tba state tax commission, is of excep-
tional interest.
Mr.. Long, who has long been in touch
with state politics, and who managed
the campaign against the proposed
prohibition amendment to the eonsti-
tuition and the campaign in which Gov
ernor o'Neal achieved the laurels over
Col. II. S. ID. Mallory, attributes to Gen.
Bibb Graves of Montgomery the honor
of having made the Underwood delega-
tion a delegation strongly imbued with
love for Woodrow Wilson.
Mr. Long says:
"It Is exceedingly amusing to one
not Interested to watch the movements
of some good democrats who desire
appointments under President-elect
Woodrow Wilson. | preface my re-
marks by saying that / hope they viii
all of them land something good as
we all know that our brand of dem
ocracy here In Alabama is superior to
any other. having stood the test of
many storms.
but in my opinion we should give
honor and credit where it is due and
should remember when the state com
mittee passed that now famous resolu-
tion providing for the appointment of
delegates to the state convention, the
scheme was exposed and practically de-
feated largely through the efforts of
one man and the work done by him
when he took up the fight in this state
for Woodrow Wilson in the endeavor
to get delegates for him, should oscar
Underwood be eliminated
~ happened to meet this man many
times on the train and at various
places and know of some of the mag
nificent work done by him in the eoun-
ties of Mobile Montgomery, Morgan,
Covington and various others. Why,
even here In the imperial county OF
Jefferson, the home of Underwood. he
succeeded in getting "a pro- Wilson men
on the delegation to the state con-
vention and we should remember the
exceedingly strange spectacle we wit
messed in Montgomery at that conven-
ton Many men who had been po-
Iitical enemies worked in harmony to-
gether The O'Neal men and Mallory
men lined up side by side, the local
optionists and the prohibitionists har-
monized and caucused together. The
final outcome of which was an Tn
derwood delegation, 2S OF whom were
strong pro- Wilson men and could not
be delivered to any other candidate.
How different might have been the
outcome of the convention at Balu-
more had Alabama's S "a votes been de-
livered to Champ Clark at the crucial
moment when Georgia and Mississippi
were beseeching her to do so. In the
language of the baseball fan l think
we should hand ii to Gen. Bibb Graves
as the man who pulled Off one of
The greatest plays ever made in a
political contest in Alabama
"As ] said in the beginning. we
should give honor and credit where
ii is due.'