The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-27
A MARK OF CRAFTSMANSHIP

One of the marks of greatness is the ability to discuss public questions in such a manner that the average man can understand them. Inability to express ideas in a clear and sim ple way indicates that the person is not. clear in his own mind on the sub ject concerned. Difficult thoughts do not appear so difficult when able men discuss them, just as difficult physical tasks seem easy when performed by men of great strength. The simplicity with which men express important thoughts marks thir ability. Judged by this standard Senator Underwood has well earned his title of statesman and as one of the> nations ablest thinkers. The clarity with which he sets forth perplexing national affairs shows how we'll he understands them and how clearly he himself has thought out the problems connected with them.
 1t is so in his recent discussion of the crisis among the wheat farmers who find themselves facing market prices far below the cost of produc- tion. If the average person has re- garded the wheat situation as a re- mote one unaffecting the South, Sem ator Underwood sets him right by re- calling how formerly a similar depres- sion in cotton caused a decline in national prosperity. It is so with wheat. Unless something can be done to move the crop at a better price the whole nation will suffer to some degree. Prosperity may be ikened to vessel of water. If a cupful is dipped out of one edge only, yet the whole surface of the liquid is lowered. No considerable part of the nation may suffer without causing a commensurate loss elsewhere.
 The cause of the slump in wheat is the same cause that may at any time cause a similar slump in cotton, in steel or in any other commodity of which we produce surplus. Indeed, to the extent that crop slumps af- feet the farmers buying capacity, to that extent does it affect the welfare of the industries turning out the products of which the farmer is nor mally a purchaser Senator Under wood clearly indicates the cause of the slump in wheat, namely, the lack of market abroad for that one-third of the crop which we annually produce in excess of our domestic require ments. The reason for this lack of market the senator attributes to the foolish tariff and foreign policy of the Republican administration which d;scourages rather than encourages sell all our surplus abroad, and more, is not due to the fact that foreign peo- pie have sufficient already of the commodities we have to offer, but because our tariff prevents exchange of commodities on an equitable basis, and because we lack a foreign policy of constructive and stimulating na- ture. Through craven reluctance to assume our legitimate foreign re- responsibilities and our subjection to the dominating influence of a political demagoguery that would make us laughing-stock were it not so serious, we have not only ourselves sustained tremendous material loss and sac rifice of national prestige abroad, but we have condemned the nations that should be our customers to a still longer period of depression, and thus deferred our own enjoyment of for eign commerce justly proportioned to our capacity to produce. Senator Underwood condemns that political condition, giving cogeht reasons for so doing, and thereby he inclines to him the opinion of thinking people throughout the nation.