SECTION OF
THE RALEIGH DAILY TIMES
RALEIGH, N. C., SATTRDAY, MARCH 16, 1912.
MATCH LESS LEADER OF A U NITED DEMOCRACY-WO RTHY OF A UN ITE D SU PPORT
THE PROGRESS OF
A SANE YOUNG MAN
By Samuel G. Blythe.
(Saturday Evening Post, December 30, 1911.)
It was hot in Washington on Wednesday, the second, of August last so hot
you could fry an egg on the pavement at Ninth and F if so be your taste ran
to fried egg a la asphalt; and it was even hotter than on that torrid corner
in the' glass-ceilinged chamber of the House of Representatives. v.
Only a few wilted statesmen were present at noon, and the chaplain languidly
liesought that they should be purified from all guile and let it go at that. It
may have been there was a feeling that some of those statesmen reposing coat
less and within the zones of influence of the electric fans in the various com
nittee rooms should have their guile removed too ; for no sooner had the
chaplain concluded his thirty seconds of prayer than the absence of a quorum
was suggested. 1 lie heated statesmen came pouring in from all sorts of places,
shoving themselves sulkily into their coats, and answered to their names as
.the roll was called. Two hundred and thirty-three of them responded, each
asking his neighbor: "What's up?"
It wasn't long before they all found out. After Mr. Burke, of South Dakota,
Shad corrected the Record to show he voted in the negative on a certain propo
sition instead of answering "Present," Oscar W. Underwood, the Democratic
t oor-leader, and by the same token the majority floor-leader, was up. Also,
'Oscar W. Underwood was cool. Two hundred and thirty-two statesmen were
anoist to the point of saturation and heated to the point of liquescence; but
Underwood was cool. Not a bead of perspiration gemmed his brow; not a sag
was in his collar and his shirt-bosom preserved its pristine gloss.
Underwood Center of a Dramatic Scene.
He had a newspaper in his hand; and as he rose the gasping patriots on
loth sides took notice and shoved up their temperatures a degree or so by
clapping vigorously.
"The gentleman from Alabama is recognized," said the Speaker, leaning for
ward eagerly as if he knew what was coming.
"Mr. Speaker," began Underwood calmly, evenly, dispassionately and coolly
which is most important "Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of personal privi
lege." The Democrats applauded some more. The Republicans grinned. It
was no affair of theirs, save as a show.
He asked that the clerk read from the newspaper he held in his hand, and
sent a page-boy scurrying up to the desk with it. The clerk read in that sing
song manner in which all reading clerks read. It was a telegraphic dispatch
from Lincoln, Nebraska, and it began: "The recent activity of Representative
Underwood in defeating the attempt by Champ Clark and others to reduce the
steel and iron schedule has met with the disapproval of W. J. Bryan."
The reading clerk paused here, as if to let the enormity of this sink into the
parboiled perceptions of the perspiring patriots, and began again: "Today
Bryan authorizes the following statement: 'The action of Chairman Under
wood in opposing an immediate effort to reduce the iron and steel schedule
reveals the real Underwood. Speaker Clark and other tariff reformers tried
to secure the passage of a resolution instructing the Ways and Means Com
mittee to take up other schedules, including the iron and steel schedule; but
Underwood and Fitzgerald, of New York, succeeded in defeating the resolu
tion.'. -
There was more of the statement, but that is enough to show its general
tenor. It charged Underwood with being tainted with protection and having
am individual interest in the iron and steel business, and was a very pointed
.;md personal assault on one big Democrat by another. After the clerk had
finished reading the statement there was a moment of silence. Underwood
stood looking directly at the Speaker, who still half leaned across the big desk
r.p under the flag. Then Underwood began speaking slowly, dispassionately,
venly and gravely.
Underwood's High Political Courage.
"The statements contained in that article are absolutely false I" he said. In
stantly the entire Democratic side broke into a roar of applause.
"If the reflections that paper contains rested only on myself I should not
take the time of this House to answer them; but the statements contained in
that article are a reflection on the only body of Democracy that is in control
f this Government, and as the representative leader on the floor of this House,
pf this majority, I should be untrue to my party if I did not rise here and
stamp those utterances with the brand of falsehood!"
Underwood continued. He asserted he had asked the committee to take up
the iron and steel schedule first because he comes from an iron and steel dis
trict, and appealed to his Democratic colleagues on the committee to support
this statement, which they did. He said the committee had deemed it wiser
to take up the woolen and the cotton schedules first because the iron and steel
schedules had been cut in the Wilson, the Dinglcy and the Payne Bills and
-ivinl and cotton had not been revised for many vcars. Mr. Kitchin, of North
Carolina, corroborated what Underwood claimed ; and Underwood further
proved his case, explaining his connection with the iron and steel business
lie is a stockholder in a company that makes pig iron and having a telegram
read from Mr. Brvan, dated April twenty-third, to Ollie James, in which Mr.
Bryan asked James to convey his congratulations to Underwood.
"Mr. Speaker," said Underwood, "Mr. Bryan did. not say I was protection
izing the Democratic party when I brought -n the free-list bill. Not until I
liffered with him on the woolen schedule did he have one word of criticism so
far as my conduct was concerned. VI had to write a woolen schedule
that would protect the revenues of this Government, and because I did so and
lid not ol'cv the command of the gentleman from Nebraska, Mr. Bryan, he
is endeavoring to make the country believe I am not an honest Democrat in
favor of an honest revenue tariff." ,
There was some more of the speech, but not much. It was delivered ear
nestly, but without heat and. without an attempt at oratorical flourish. There
was no frenzy of denial, no protesting of innocence, no beating about the bush.
A sane young man made a sane denial and proved his case. That was all
there was to it except one thing.
Underwood a Presidential Possibility.
That one thing is this: When Underwood finished that statement and sat
iown, amid the applause of the House, the State of Alabama had a candidate
-for the Democratic nomination for President. Underwood didn t know it ; nor
was it the fact that he had assailed Mr. Bryan that made him a candidate.
Assaults on Mr. Bryan are as common as Mr. Bryan's assaults on other people
and about' as effective. What gave the State of Alabama a presidential can
didate was this: Here was a man with the highest type of political courage
independence. Here was a man who did not attempt to palter with a situa ;on,
and a delicate one politically, but met it calmly and proved his contention.
Here was a man who, as floor-leader of the House majority, was endeavoring
to do what seemed best for the Democratic party and the country and not for
the benefit of any individual or the theories of any individual; and the country
IpplS and began to ask: "How about this chap Underwood? He seems
t00oT" the "Knophobes seized upon the circumstance : to laud Under--vond
and eaually of course the Bryaniacs would have seized on the circum
nce ?o r.uT h m had he praised Bryan. That isn't the point. The personal
Iwriol of I was negligible The mere fact that Underwood rose to a question
Xersona privilege and denounced Bryan meant nothing, in the sober thought
yliip and saneness that had caused a wemng u. " ,""'- ,nd
Teoplr-pnshed that good opinion which had beer . 'a.e X01' '
laturally put Underwood in the light of being available for the Democratic
1! HennSfrSdiions change very materially before the DemocraJ
National convention is held Alabama, first on je
ti some other State farther down the list when it s time to place "v
favored sons in nomination, will send an orator to tht ' ?
T;M and present for the consideration of e Meg the n r
Underwood of Birmingham, chairman of n'Snfl
the Sixty-second Congress and floor-leader of the Democratic majority in tne
. I loose.
Underwood's Long Legislative Experience of Great Value.
A great many men wise in public affairs have .held that the Fathers who
made the Constitution would have builded even better than they did 1 it they
included in that document a provision that no man is eligible to J toe pre.i
ilrVv in this country unless he has served a certain length of time in the
1 Jative branch of the Government It was urged for Mr. Taft that he was
extraordinarily well qualified for the presidency because of his long experience
in Governmental matters. Granting that Mr. Taft had long experience in the
executive end of the Government, he was wofully deficient in knowlt ige of
the legislative . end ; and this has been apparent all through his term. So with
Mr. Roosevelt. The tragedy of the death of Major McKinley will hold his
name high among the names of our Presidents; but, considering him critically,
no historian at all familiar with the facts can deny he was an expert President,
a capable President, a President who could secure results, a President who
knew how to deal with the Congress which makes the laws he must execute,
because of his long experience and service in the House.
. ill iWlrx I 'mi
r inn r. i'mit: . i"1
If ' ' Ir ' ;''
life- IfesW - I
... : - : : - XA
HON. O. W. UNDERWOOD,
Underwood's Varied Public Service.
Now, when you talk of a man as a receptive or an aggressive candidate for
a presidential nomination you tot up his qualifications ; and, no matter whether
Underwood's name ever gets before the convention or not, no matter if it re
ceives no votes save those of Alabama, the fact is he is highly q inlified so far
as the mechanics of the Government is concerned. He has served in the House
of Representatives for seventeen years. When he took his scat, in December,
1895, he was thirty-three years old. He was placed on the Committees on Public
Lands and Expenditures on Public Buildings. In the Fifty-fifth Congress he
was promoted to the important Committee on Judiciary, and in the Fifty-sixth
went to Ways and Means. He was . on Rules and the Irrigation of Arid
Lands in the Fifty-seventh Congress, on Appropriations and Irrigation of
Arid Lands in the Fifty-eighth, and in the Fifty-ninth went lack to Ways
and Means, where he has since remained, arriving at the chairmanship in the
present' or Sixty-second Congress, when the Democrats gained control of the
House. .
In all these years he has been a quiet, systematic, steady worker not demon
strative, not flashy, but studious and industrious; and the mere reading of the
names of the committees on which he has served will sho how wide his
experience has been. He has touched all phases of the legislative side of the
Government and mastered them. So far as the mechanics of this Government
is concerned the knowledge of how to do the things that must be done there
is no man in Congress who is the superior of Underwood. And, without laying
myself open to the charge of booming Underwood, the more knowledge of the
mechanics of the Government that is brought to the White House by its four
year resident the better things will be for the country at large
Underwood's Methods Like McKinley's.
Somebody asked me once if I didn't think Underwood is a good deal like
McKinley in many ways. Laving aside whatever criticisms there may be of
McKinley, the fact is as I have said he was a most expert and effective
President because hi knew how to do things. I think the comparison fairly apt.
rTr 1 . - Ti v , : .1 ..Htw,;nl,i.t in A T Tntirwnnn fft ft Demo-
nicnimcy was a icpuuiicaii unu a iiunvin;iiii -crat
ami a believer in tariff for revenue ; but the two men had many traits in
common. McKinley was, and Underwood is, a student of tariff economics.
McKinley got his results by compromise, by conciliation, by smoothing dim.
rulties away, by a polite consideration of the claims of others, ly being willing
lo give and take, by suaveness and civility that masked a real determination
f'd so does Underwood. McKinley recognized the vast complexities of the
legislative machine and knew how to harmonize difficulties that were pressing;
I new how to straighten out tangles and avoid pitfalls and so docs Underwood.
'VKinlcy knew when to recede and when to advance, ami when to stand
tnck-still in a position and so does Underwood. When McKinley talked of
e tariff, for example, he knew what he was talking aboiit-and so. does
I'nderwood; but McKinley was, and Underwood is, tolerant of the opinions
f others, and is ultimately concerned in getting what seems best for his party,
i make no comparison here of the men other than a comparison of their
methods. McKinley was effective and so is Underwood. 1 nese are we
reasons why.
Underwood's Leadership Beset With Tremendous Difficulties.
Underwood's position when the Sixty-second Congress was called into special
session by President Taft last April, for the purpose of passing reciprocity
legislation, was a position of tremendous difficulties. He was made chairman
of the Ways and Means Committee. He had been second to Champ Uerk .on
the Democratic minority of the committee in the Sixty-first Cor,prreM. in which
he House had a Republican majority and passed the Payne-AIdrich tariff law.
ind third in the Fifty-ninth Congress, when the House was also Republican
nd when he was ranked on the minority side of this committee by Champ
"lark and Bourke Cockran. Cockran was out of Congress when the Democrats
ame into control of the House and Clark was made Speaker. Without protest,
Unoerwooa sucrreurn jn wit iimiiiiimisiiiiij u mv. .
Underwood was in the House, though not on the Ways and Meana Com-
m ttee, when tne uingiey tartn was mane, n nc -
' -i .t. n..... iu.M. , 4vtnttrnrtri. Inouirh the
Means uomminee wnrn mc j jrnc-nium ..-...- .
Congress had been called into session for the specific purpose of passing
PLAIN WORDS ON BIO
QUESTIONS
(Extracts from interview of Os
car W. Underwood, reported in
Staff Correspondence of the
New York Wvrid, Editorial
Section, December 3, If 11.)
"There has been no attempt on
the part of the manufacturers t
give labor its share of the benefits
derived from the tariff I They
have kept all the profits."
"To protect profits is to protect
inefficiency and to strangulate
rather than to develop industry."
"I prefer to lower the tariff wal
by taking bricks off the top of the
wall rather than by dynamiting
the structure at the bottom."
"The people have lost faith in
the Republican party because it
has not kept faith with them."
,
"If it (the Sherman Act) is en
forced as a criminal statute it is
an efficient instrument fr pre
venting and punishing monopoly
and restraint of trade."
reciprocity legislation, to which the
Democrats were favorable, the House
was Democratic mainly because of the
dissatisfaction of the people with the
Payne-AIdrich tariff law, the election
that made the House Democratic being
the first opportunity the people had to
express that dissatisfaction tangibly.
The Democrats had a majority of
nearly seventy. They had not had pos
session of the House for sixteen years.
They were politically hungry and polit
ically thirsty. They needed sustenance.
They thought they had a chance to elect
a president in 1912 and get full swing
at all the perquisites and prerogatives
of the Government; and each man of
the two hundred and twenty-eight Dem
ocrats was full of schemes for making
this chance a certainty. They were all
anxious to revise the tariff in order to
keep faith with the people, but they had
many plans for revision and many
shades of opinion as to how it should
be revised. They felt their power and
importance. They were eager, avid, en
thusiastic and none too prudent.
Underwood and the
Democratic Party.
Underwood was made leader of these
men His task was to hold them in line,
to keep them together, to get them at
work intelligently and cohesively to get
results. He knew that the Democratic
party, if it was to have any resoonse
from the people in its demand for the election of a Democratic president in
1912, must show the people it is trustworthy and fit for confidence. He knew
of the varying opinions as to what should be done with the tariff; knew of
the enthusiasm and lack of judgment, the partisanship, and even the fanaticism
of some of his followers ; knew they had been so long outside that the
attainment of the inside position might lead to excesses in legislation. He chose
his lieutenants well and went at the job.
His task is not yet completed. The President vetoed the tariff bills that were
formulated in the House under Underwood's direction and intrinsically his,
though changed in many particulars in the Senate and in conference. There
will be more tariff legislation in the. House in this session. The President has
demanded it and the Democrats are willing to go at it again in their own
way. What Underwood must do again is to hold his party in line to meet
as complex a situation as he had to meet in the extra session that ended last
summer and never forget for a minute that there is a presidential election
next year that undoubtedly will he largely decided upon the tariff question. .
Judging the future by the past, he will do it. It is a situation charged with
dynamite. Many of his Democratic colleagues are anxious for radical action
in many ways. The Congress will not adjourn until just before the first national
convention is held. The record of the present House will figure largely, not
only as to the individual fortunes of Underwood but also as to the fortunes
of whomsoever shall be nominated by the Democrats for president and that
candidate's success at the polls.
Underwood Opposes Initiative, Referendum and Recall.
He is an advanced conservative in his views of other legislation. For example,
he does not favor the wide extension of the initiative, referendum and recall.
His contention is that these measures have worked out satisfactorily in local
matters where the people clearly understood the issues; lnit that in larger
matters of national importance the Congress is better able to protect the
interests of the people.
"The neonlc suffer far more from the failure to enforce existing
laws than they do from the lack of proper legislation," be says. "The
people should drive from the places of power and responsibility the
unfaithful servants and elect those who will be faithful to the trust
imposed upon them. The masses of people are far bitter judges of
men than they are of measures, and are far more likely to select an
honest man than an honest measure."
- Underwood's Characteristics.
Underwood was born in Kentucky in 1862, was educated at the Rugby
bchool in 1-ouisville, and the University ot irginia, ana was aamittfn i
to the bar in 1884. He went at once to Birmingham, Alabama, where he has
since practiced law. He was first elected to Congress iri 1S94 and has been
returned regularly since. He early took a hand in politics and served on State
and district committees before he went to Washington. As I have shown,
his experience in the House has been varied and his advance has been steady.
He is not a showy man, but a studious. He is not an eloquent orator, but
a convincing speaker. His greatest speech was in opposition' to the Payne
Mdrich hill when that measure was reported to the House of Representatives
ly the Republican Ways and Means Committee in 1909. He made several
important speeches in advocacy of his own measures during the extra session
of the House last summer, but none was so important or so exhaustive as
that speech against the Payne bill. He spoke for several hours, took up the
' ill section by section and analyzed it from his information and convictions.
Ttiis was one of the great speeches of a season of remarkable presentments of
t-iriff doctrine on both sides of the House.
Underwood does not write his speeches. He says he cannot memorize easily,
nnd never attempts to make a set speech or a speech where he follows copy
exactly. His method is to collect all the available information bearing on his
subject and arrange it in skeleton form. He sets it out by divisions, subdivisions
and topics. He goes over 'these, rearranges, classifies, divides and subdivides.
Then he may write portions of the speech, or he may not. At any rate,
when he comes to talk he has nothing before him hut a sheet of paper with his
topics on it, and he talks without reference to notes or to authorities.
HIS WIFE A REAL HELPHEET
Mr. Underwood has been helped and
assisted by his wife. She is proud of
him and has faith in his future. She
takes the utmost interest in his work
and his ambitions. She assumes full
control of the domestic establishment
and leaves him free from care and con
cern. It is rumored that she even
lays out his clothes for him and ties
his cravat. She seeks to aid him in his
studies and work of research. She is
bright, well educated, vivacious and full
of life. Not beautiful, but attractive,
wholesome and companionable. No
wonder is expressed that Mr. Under
wood's forehead and face are free from
wrinkles. All the turbulence and nerve
suicide connected with handling a flat
are removed irom him. New York
World, August 6, 1911.
T.'iE UNDERWOOD BOOH
Uncle Joe Cannon is quoted as saying
h.i! Congressman Underwood of Ala
jama lias grown more in public senti
:nent Tecently than any other man in the
United States." :
Other leaders in both big parties are
now taking notice of this able South
erner, who distinguished himself dur
ing the extra session of Congress as
Democratic leader in the House.
Commenting upon the Underwood
boom, the Piirmingham Azc-Hcrald says :
"The rise of Oscar Underwood is the
marvel of American politics, and we may
look for its culmination in the week of
June 25 in the good city of Baltimore."
That this distinguished Alabamian is
growing in favor in all sections of the
country is plainly evident on all sides.
Watch Underwood. Columbus, Georgia,
Ledger, reprinted in the Birmingham,
Ala., Age-Herald, January, 1912. .
OUTY HIGHER
THAN AHBITION
Underwood Not f elf-eeklnjj
.'"My Friends Must Do The Work,"
soys I'nderwood.
Congressman Oscar W. Underwood,
when asked if he would be a candidate
lot- the Presidency, said:
"I think my friends are going to pay
mc the compliment of indorsing me and
hat they will present my name to the
,-onvfntion. I will be very proud to
'l.tve their indorsement. No man could
'eel otherwise about it..
"Put I have told them that what they
lo they must do by themselves. I have
a man's work nit out for me down
yonder," waving hi- hand in the en
'ra! ('irection of Washington, "and I
am going to try mv he.t to do it. I
am not going to neglect it to be a oan
l' taie for the Presidency or for any
'hincr else. : .
"For wlirit my friends d," I shall be
grateful. But what is done mv friends
will have to do." AVw York American,
Oct. 15, 1911.
UNDERWOOD'S
BOLD PROGRAM
Oood Politics and Policy
The Underwood program contemplates
sane reductions, not revolutionary, but
framed so as to lighten the burden
of the tariff without giving too violent
a shock to important national interests.
This is a sensible program.
It is good political strategy and sound
economics. Moreover, it is practical.
If such a program should be passed
and vetoed by the President, Mr. Taft
and the Republican party will have to
face an angry nation with a third be
trayal charged against them.
; If Taft should approve it, his pre
vious attitude and previous vetoes wilt
leave all the credit for tariff reforms
to the Democratic party, and will enable
him to recover none of the advantage
he has lost.
The failure of the tariff commission
has deprived the President of even a
legitimate excuse for further vetoes, and
gives the Democrats ample reason for
going ahead without waiting years for
more reports of the same kind. New
Orleans Item, reprinted in the Montgom
ery (Alabama) Advertiser, Jan. S. 1912.