The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-01
Extracts fror

CoLIDARITY in the democratic
party2 Union and strength in the
~ political army that contains such
diverse personalities and forces as VIII
liam j.. Bryan and Alton b.. Parker,
Woodrow Wilson and Roger sullivan,
Yes, solidarity is the new element in the
democratic party, and Oscar w. Under
wood of Alabama is its author. The old
reprcach that democrats cannot hang to-
gether has been buried in the success of
making the Underwood competitive tariff.
This great legislative task offered gilt
tering opportunities for factional strife.
Witness the clash that came when the
last complete democratic tariff revision in
1891 brought Grover Cleveland and Sem
ator Arthus Pue German to grips. In
stead of the House and Senate confer
rees meeting as now with comparatively
little tariff differences to compose, Cleve-
land was hurting his ponderous charge
of party pcrfidy and party dishonor" at
the democratic Senate
That the democracy now presents an
unbrolSen front to the future is due more
10 the gentleman from Alabama who
leads the majority of the House of Repre-
sentativss, tkan to any other man. Much
las been written of President Wilson'S
dominance IN the party councils. His
leadership has been masterful and his po-
litical decision accurate; but in the psy-
chology of this first great democratic
legislation Representative Underwood was
the balance of power for harmony or
strife,s and he unhesitatingly tipped the
scales in favor of a unity of party pur-
pose that involved sacrifice of his own
consistency.
As chairman of the ways and means
committee and leader of the democratic
House throughout the Sixty-second Con-
gress, Representative Underwood shaped
the tariff policy on which the democracy
successfully appealed to the> country in
1912 He demonstrated the sincerity of
his party's downward revision profess
sions by supporting President Tafts Ca
madam reciprocity policy. He was on the
firing line in Congress educating the coun-
try ITO faith in the sobriety and indus
try of democrats when Woodrow Wilson
was nursing a slender string of dele
gates.
The democratic House rose almost as
man in support of Representative I'm
derwood when he rebelled against the ef-
fort of William j. Bryan, then a private
citizen. to dictate the free listing of raw
wool in the Underwood wool bill of 1911.
Although an unsuccessful rival of the
New Jersey governor In the Baltimore
convention, Mr.. Underwood stumped the
country for him. Mr.. Wilson held the
Alabamian in high esteem, but some of
his injudicious supporters boasted that
no Underwood or Harmon man could
have an important place in the Wilson
organization.
Mr.. Wilson was elected and the ways
and means committee of the House was
called upon by Representative Underwood
to begin framing the tariff reduction bill
that meant so much to the country. This
committee met in December. 1912. three
months before Mr. Wilson came to Wash
ington. By the time the new President
took the oath of office the tariff bill
had assumed shape under the direction of
Mr. Underwood and was practically COM
pleted. The ways and means committee
represented every section of the country.
The south was in the saddle, but 1t was
the new south--young members who had
seen the desoiation of the late sixties and
seventies merge into the inertia
of the eighties; this to be dssipated by
the marvellous industrial development
that came to the south as we'll as the
north under the Mckinley and Dingley.
protective tariffs.
The new tariff is heavily freighted with
the hopes of the democratic party. IL
national prosperity continues, democratic
tenure has the same chance of continu-
ance that the republicans enjoyed after
1897. II hard times come they will, ac-
cording to past experience at least. be at
tributed to the democratic tariff
Thus far the signs are propitious, vindi-
eating Mr.. Underwood's prophecy uttered
through the tariff: II anticipate no shock
to business. The country Is braced for
the change" That was his remark last
April, when democratic doubts were more
persistent than now.
1.-THE gentleman from Alabama shows
in some ways the scars of his leadership.
Twice he rose from a sick bed to lead
the tariff debate at critical moments. The
SIX Of exercising the power Of Cannon