The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-09
THREE slNERED PggiCAL RACE .s1IRS INTEREST Alabama Voters To Name
 Presidential Candi-
 date On Tuesday REMARKABLE CAMPAIGN
 NOW NEARING ITS END Senator Underwood, Distin- guished Statesman, Opposed By Musgrove And Dinsmore
tsrArE cAprrAL auREAu,

MONTGOMERY, March S.-(Spe- cial. )--One of the most remarkable political campaigns ever waged in Ala bama will come to close Tuesday, when Democrats of the state will vote in. the presidential primary. Oscar W. Underwood, l.. B. Musgrove and M. A. Dinsmore are the candidates. the win ner to name the Alabama delegation to the democratic national convention, New York, at which a. candidate for president of the United States will be nominated.
 The campaign has been remarkable in more ways than one, in fact, few years ago some of it's happenings would have been regarded as. impossible. The president of the Anti-Saloon league has endorsed Oscar Underwood prohibition ist and anti-prohibitionist of the days gone by have spoken from the same stump and the gap made in the dem- ocratic party in Alabama by the pro- hibition would have been entirely heal ed, but for the extremists on both sides --the 1923 session of the Alabama legis- lature enacted a frankly discriminatory primary law, and the vindictive drys who apparently would favor law pro- hibiting man who ever voted against prohibition from holding public office.
 His Enthusiastic Supporters
 Women of Alabama have been among the most enthusiastic supporters of the senator who voted against giving them the right to vote.
 Members of the political element which was wont in the good old days to declare that preacher has no place in politics. have thrown their arms, fig uratively speaking, around the necks of certain western ministers and prohi- bitionists who have openly espoused the cause of Senator Underwood. The World war soldier who grumbled at prohibition being imposed while he was in the ranks. will in many cases, refuse to vote for one who represented their views then, because of the bonus Ques- Ition today. The Ku Klux Klan is rep- |uted to be against . candidate for Pfes@I ident Of the United States, the capital of whose state is the Cradle ef the Con federacy. as <
 Tie campaign is the first to be waged since the enactment of the presidential primary law. by the 1923 legislature, which provided that the citizen of Ala bama receiving the highest number of votes cast at the primary held should name the party delegation to it's na- tional convntion.
 l Senator Underwood Enters
 Senator Oscar W. Underwood enter ed the campaign after he had received an invitation from the legislature of Alabama last summer, urging him to get into the race for President of the United States. His entrance into the field as presidential candidate was greeted with such enthusiasm, and with endorsement from so many sources, that it seemed for time that he would have no opposition in his home state. It developed, however, that theret was still an element in Ala. bama irreconcilably opposed to Under wood, and unwilling to see man who had voted against prohibition 'get away with it."
 Accordingly, meeting was held last year at Birmingham, attended by men hostile to Underwood, and this caucus selected L. B. Musgrove to op- pose the senator. Mir. Musgrove at first said that he would not be a can didate, but after strong urging from his friends, entered the field, an nouncing himself as the representa- tive of the dry and progressive ele- ment in the democratic party.
 Pr0hibiti0nists And Underwood
 A feature of the campaign has been the manner in which leading prohi- bitionists have rallied to the cause of Senator Underwood. They have voiced confidence in. his declaration in favor of strict law enforcement and regard him as the only real candidate for the presidency from Alabama and a statesman well qualified to take up his abode at the White House.
 Senator Underwood has unquestion- ably lost the votes of a number of World war veterans who ordinarily would vote the conservative ticket, but who will not vote for the senator be- cause he voted in the Senate to sustain President Harding's veto to the tad- justed compensation bill. 4
 Then, there is the question of the Ku Klux Klan. No one has ever spoken officially for the Klan on the present fight between Underwood and Musgrove, yet the word has gone round that the members of the Klan are largely against the senator because of his speeches condemning their order in various parts of the United States. How numerous the Klansmen are in Alabama, and how strong will be their