Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-08-13

WASHINGTON, D. c., Aug. 49,
Every spring necessarily must have
Its first robin, and every presidential
campaign must have it's first candi-
date, and it is to be recorded that
the first aspirant to make his formal
bid for 1924 honors did So at the
beginning of dog days, or the hay
fever period. in the summer of 1928.
And as the harbinger of spring al
ways appears in the sunny southland,
SO the first candidate for the Presi-
dency halls from that section-the
Hon. Oscar w. Underwood, OF
Alabama.
1t is to be noted also, that the
Alabama Senator was not forward
nor obtrusive in announcing his can
didacy. With all due modesty he
waited to be asked. The Legisla-
ture of his State adopted a formal
resolution requesting him TO become
a candidate, he acquiesced with equal
jformality, and then to complete the
record the Legislature adopted an
other resolution asking the Demo-
cratic National Convention to NOM
mate him. A campaign committee
was organized in similarly orthodox
fashion and the Underwood candi-
dacy may be said to have been
launched with all the formality that
could attend so auspicious an event.
Senator Underwood has been more
than suspected of harboring presi-
dental ambitions since away back
In 1912 when Woodrow Wilson first
appeared to make the country safe
for Democrats. He was one of the
big figures in the Baltimore conven-
ton of that year, and among the
! numerous explanations that have
been offered as to how Wilson hap
pened to be nominated it has been
said that it was the Underwood vote
that did it after William Jennings
Bryan put the skids under his friend
from Missouri, the late Champ Clark
The Alabaman was again a candi-
date in 1920 at San Francisco, but
at no time was he figured to be really
in the running. Next year, however,
when he makes his third drive for
the big objective, his friends say they
will make a fight in his behalf such
as has never been put UP before, and
as might be expected, they predict
his nomination with a whoop and
two or three hurrahs.
If the early bird gets the worm,
they say, the early candidate should
have the best chance at the presi-
dental prize, and they have seen to
it that their favorite is out in the
open while other ambitious Demo-
Gratis are still thinking about what
tAcv will do.
Three Platform Planks
In his speech accepting all that
the Alabama Legislature could offer
~ fnn 8
! Underwood may be said to have an
nounced a platform of three planks
; foreign affairs, prohibition and the
tariff. In substance he said that he
faVors the League of Nations, or
some such participation by the Uni
ted States in the world affairs; that
he is for the enforcement of the
Eighteenth Amendment and the Vol
stead Law, and that the new Repub-
lican tariff law won't do at all but
must be supplanted by a new law
framed along traditional Democratic
lines.
His position with respect to pro-
? hibition is especially interesting in
view of the fact that as Senator he
opposed the Eighteenth Amendment
and voted against the Volstead Act.
> However, Mr.. Underwood explains
that since the people of the country
have made it evident that they want
prohibition they may have 1t so far
as he is concerned.
Heretofore the vets have looked
favorably on Underwood as a posi-
BILE candidate, while the drys have
viewed him askance, and there has
been little doubt as to where his
sympathies lay. However, he has
seemingly come to the conclusion
that while there may be great
: many people in the United States
who talk wet, they are overwhelm-
ingly outnumbered by those who
vote dry, and that It is good politics
not to say good craftsmanship to
cast his lot with the element that
has the more votes.
! Another important feature of SEN
ator Underwood's speech was his
evident determination that he is to
be regarded as the one and only
> simon-pure southern candidate. Will
liam G. McAdoo, while hailing now
I from California, is a Georgian by
nativity and 1t is known that he ex-
lpected to make a bid for southern
support as a Southerner. But the