The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-23
Claim Citizens of Washing ton Shall Not Vote Be cause Negroes Will
 Be Included
SNAKE IN GRASS" WORDS APPLIED TO
 ALABAMIAN'S BILL
Prominent Prohibition Leaders of State Create Something of Sensation By Latest
 Move
By LEON c. BRADLEY

Move
 By LEON c. BRADLEY
 Something of a sensation was created in political circles yesterday by the issuance of a signed statement by prom inent Alabama prohibitionists attacking Senator Underwood for introducing a measure in Congress to allow the people of the District of Columbia to vote upon whether the district should become dry territory.
 The statement, signed by IS we'll known prohibition leaders, contains some rather striking statements, and among other things, injects the negro question into the issue.
 It is charged that the Alabama sena- tor values the consent of the negro males of Washington above the ex- pressed wishes of the people of Ala bama The introduction by Senator Un- derwood of the bill to allow the resi- dents of the District of Columbia to de- eide whether prohibition should be- come operative is described in the state ment as the Hast desperate effort to postpone the death of the liquor traf- fc in the District of Columbia"
 GIVE NEGROES A CHOICE
 The prohibitionists allege that there are 30,000 negro males in the district, who if the Underwood measure should be passed, would have voice in decid- ing the prohibition question. Some sur prise is expressed by the prohibition singers that "a southern senator should champion the proposition that the ne- gro should decide the issue between whisky and prohibition"
 Several thousand copies of the state ment attacking Senator Underwood have been printed and are being mailed out over Alabama and to all the south ern states. The statement suggests that letters and telegrams be sent to repre- sentatives and senators urging them to oppose the Underwood measure, which is characterized as mere whisky serpent in the grass"
 FRIENDS NOT WORRIED
 Friends of Senator Underwood, when shown copy of the statement, ex- pressed no surprise, and did not seem tO OS SSPSCldlly QlSLuFD3Q DY the SGVer1- ty of the attack. They called attention to the fact that all the signers of the statement were now, as they had been in the past, political enemies of the Alabama senator. Attention was directed to the fact that in the recent campaign between Underwood and Hob sion, in which many charges of the gray est nature were made against Senator Underwood, the signers of this card lent their 1nnrnUa1 fO ohor the voters of Alabama, by a majority of nearly 40,000 expressed their con hdence in the ability and intergrity of Senator Underwood, is now, as it was then, sufficient answer to those charges in the opinion of the friends of Sena- tor Underwood
 Prominent Underwood men here yester- day declared that this attack on Un- derwood was merely a part of a well organized campaign which is to be launched in this state in favor of nation- wide prohibition. That Senator Under wood is to be severely attacked for his opposition to the Hobson idea of prohibit ton was the statement of several Under- wood men. The coming of Hobson next week to make about 20 speeches in Ala bama for national prohibition, is but an- other part of the same campaign it is charged
 WEAKNESS OF ARGUMENT
 Some surprise was expressed that the Alabama Hobson and prohibition leaders should have injected the negro question into the issue. They point out that there is no legal method by which vote in the District of Columbia could be taken without allowing the negroes to vote. The same thing is true of New York; Indiana, Ohio and all other states which have not disfranchised the negro. It would be absurd, say local Underwood men, to contend that the people of a state should never be allowed the right to vote on any question merely because negroes vote. Prior to the elimination stated no man ever contended that the people of this state should be deprived of the fright to vote on public questions merely because there were negroes here
 It is known that during his campaign for the Senate Underwood expressed him. self as being in favor of the people vot- ing on the matter of prohibition. He still clings to this pledge made during the campaign. according to his friends in Bir- mingham. Whether Senator Underwood will deign to reply to the attack made on him in the statement was not fore cast by his friends yesterday -
 The statement in full foiloWs
 Birmingham, February lS' islo.
 "A matter in which you are deeply lHteTeSltu. -
 eve. the undersigned citizens Of Alabama, ask your special attention to one of the most unexpected ana amazing things that has ever nap pened in American politics We never expected to see, nor did you, a south ern senator championing the propo- sition that the negro should decioe the issue between whisky and prohi- bition. Yet we are face to face with that very thing in the leadership or the whisky forces now assumed py Senator Underwood of Alabama Tn the form of his bill to put the question of prohibition in the District of Columbia to vote of the adult males, resident In the district.
 senate bill 10S2, introduced by Sen ator Sheppard of Texas, proposes to stop the manufacture and sale of liquor in the District of Columbia. It has seemed certain to pass and thus to give us prohibition in the one spot In all the land which is the property of all the people, whose public affairs are administered by the whole people through their national Congress, and to whose maintenance and beautifica- tion all the taxpayers of the nation contribute.