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Oscar Underwood, Statesman and Leader-
Among the public men who have illustrated and served the
country in these two decades of politics, not one of them has won
or deserved a larger fame and a more general and cordial ad
miration than Oscar Underwood, of Alabama.
Since John T. Morgan died in Alabama and Alexander
Stephens passed away in Georgia, the South has had no states
men who in genius and constructive achievement has even
equaled the present leader of the Democratic majority upon the
floor of the House of Representatives.
The history of the Democratic party in Congress within the
last ten years has been also largely the history of the Repre
sentative from the Ninth Congressional District of Alabama.
Every tariff that has been proposed or adopted or defeated
within that period has been largely builded or largely amended
or designed by his powerful advocacy or criticism. As an expert
upon the tariff, he has no equal upon the Democratic side. Every
currency bill or every economic measure born within that period
has felt the formative or reformative power of this master
economist and practical statesman.
The least spectacular, the most patient, the most thorough,
the most determined and the most popular man in Congress is
Mr. Underwood. He entered public life to understand and to
serve an industrial age, and his public life has been as studious
and as diligent as it has been successful.
The South has at this time no statesman that she could less
afford to lose or to even temporarily release from public life than
Mr. Underwood.
_Mr. Underwood and Champ Clark, working successively
and in perfeet harmony, have led the Democratic party in Con
gress out of defeat and disorganization and discouragement into
what was a year ago the most compact, united, effective and
triumphant majority party that our post-bellum politics has
known. If there is to-day a dividing wedge driven into its solid
column, it is the work of the dictator and kis blind and servile
followers that has wrought the schism. What Underwood and
Clark and Doremus and O’Gorman have stood for everywhere
so valiantly, has been the American spirit as expressed against
the surrender to foreign and English dictation. By reason of his
record he is the leading American statesman of to-day. He has
been the indispensable aid to the Wilson Administration in fram
ing and supporting and pushing to conclusion the tariff bill
which bears his name. He was equally vital to the construction
and passage of the currency bill, which does not bear his name,
but is a part of his genius and leadership. He was wiser than
all his fellows in the insertion into the tariff bill at the last stage
of the 5 per cent preferential tariff on goods imported in Ameri
¢ | The Commonsense Party and Its Platform | #
By ELBERT HUBBARD.
ERE is the outline of a new
H party. The truths It ex
presses are the oldest
known to man,
1t is at once political, social,
economic, ethical, commercial
and religious.
Women and children are eligi
ble and vote the same as men.
No one is too old and none too
young to join. Your past record
will not count against you, un
less you are too boastful of it.
There are no rites of initiation
=-no Angoras to ridv«—um} you
can never be put out of the party
unless vou hand in your resigna
tion to vour cosmic self.
Flere is the basis of the Com
monsense Party: Cheerfulness,
Courtesy, Kindness, Industry,
Health, Patienze, Economy,
There are two ways to live—
just two—one way right and one
wrong. If vour life benefits hu
manity you are on the right
track; but if you are a bother, a
worry, 4 menace and a burden to
the world you are on the wrong
route and will soon be *up
against it.”
Tvervbody and everything will
hiave it in for you, because you
will have it in for yourself, Then,
! when you begin to repine, your
! bodily health will wane, and in
' ertia and weakness will seize you
. hand and foot,
Weakness is the only slavery.
¥reedom is the supreme good-—
freedom from self-imposed limi
tations.
Nature on Your Side.
It is the law of nature that the
world helps every person who is
trying to help himself. If you
want to be well and strong and
to keep so, barring collision with
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. Powievex,
a benzine buggy, Nature is on
vour side if you prove that you
are on hers, We should all be in
partnership with Nature,
If you are sincerely trying to
do your share of the necessary
work of the world, Nature will
reward you in honors, money and
power
Keep good-natured. Do not
look for slights or insults. If
vou can't get the job you want
then take the one that you can
get. The only way to get a big
place is to show that you are not
ashamed to fill a little one.
The world needs more common
sense men and women-—just plain
everyday folks who belong to the
Commonsense Party.
The motto of the new party is
can ships, which would have been the foundation of the Ameri
can merchanrt marine, President Wilson and Secretary McAdoo
went out of their way to use Attorney General Mcßeynolds to
kill the amendment by law after Underwood had blocked and
defeated the Administration’s effort to repeal it in Congress. -
But the quality in which Oscar Underwood, of Alabama, is
pre-eminent among all contemporaneous statesmen is his uxn
flinching public courage of conviction, which is never daunted or
stayed by influence or by personal interest—the rarest, the finest
and the most desirable quality in an American statesman serv
ing in this era of truckling and time-serving men.
In the construction of the tariff which Oscar Underwood and
his fellow Democrats presented to President Taft in 1912, his
convictions rode successfully square into the breach against his
own interests and his supporting environment of steel and iron
men in Alabama.
When William J. Bryan capped the climax of his successive
visits of dictation to the 62d Congress to tell and to coerce
the Democratic House into obedience to his mandate, it was
Leader Underwood who overrode his arrogant assumption of au
thority, and when Bryan, in the very zenith of his power, with
his will accepted as lord by his cringing party, denounced Un
derwood in The Commoner, the Alabama statesman, cool and
collected,” without fear or hesitation, denounced Bryan upon
the floor of Congress within & few weeks of the assembling of
the national convention, in which the Nebraska autocrat might
exercise despotic power over the Underwood candidacy for the
Presidency. It was a bold, brave thing that scarcely any other
man in American politics had the courage and conviction to do.
And to-day, if Oscar Underwood were a timid, time-serving
statesman or a mere selfish office seeker, he would stand aside
and let President Wilson's car of Juggernaut run rough-shod
over his fearless convictions of the true American policy and so
receive the full Presidential influence in the very crisis of ‘his
campaign for the United States Senate from Alabama.
But Mr. Underwood is a statesman worthy of the better days
of the republic. He represents Alabama. He represents Ameri
can honor, American independence and the best American policy
of the future. His country’s interests are held high above his
personal preferment.
He has illustrated on three great occasions, not in words, but
in splendid deeds, that HE WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT THAN
BE SENATOR FROM ALABAMA OR PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES.
Surely the great State of Alabama wi]l not—can not—fail.
to send back with added power to Washiigton in this hour of
need the ablest, truest and bravest constructive statesman, save
one, that this famous Commonwealth has contributed to the re
public.
this: Do unto others as if you
were the others. .
Commonsense folks, when In
doubt, mind their own business,
and if they do not know what to
say, do not say it. When they
speak of their neighbors they
mention only the best concern
ing them, for Commonsense folks
know that none of us are so very
good—certainly not good enough
to be put in a glass case.
The Commonsense Man knows
that he must get eight hours'
sleep; that he must not overeat;
that he must give out good will
if he is to get it back; that he
must exercise in the open air
every day if he is to keep well;
and he realizes that if he does not
keep well he will be more or less
of a nuisance to everybody in his
vicinity, and that he will fail ut«
terly in getting his share of
health, wealth and happiness,
Always Winners.
Commonsense folks do not bor
row trouble or small sums of
money, anticipating pay day.
They live within their means, pay
their debts, accept what comes,
-
and are thankful thag things are
not worse, -
They are cheerful losers, and
cheerful losers are always win
ners.
¥olks who belong to the Com
monsense Party are healthy,
hearty, happy and always haveall
the money they need—even i‘t not
all they want, They attract con«
fidence, love, success and they
succeed because they just can’t
help it,
Commonsense folks know that
Week Ending
Mar.. 31, 1914,
every duty well done makes the
next duty easier to do. They also
know that those who never do
any more than they get paid for
never get paid for any more than
they do. :
Come, get in line and join the
Commonsense Party! Be one with
the people Kipling tells of, who
do their work and hold their peace
—a part of the time, at least,
Are you with us? If so, open a
savings bank account and deposit
the dues of ‘the Commonsense
Party—a dollar a week or more
—Llo your own credit and watch
the account grow. It is yours.
Remember, you are the center of
your own local center, also its
president, secretary and treasur
er. You are thy(,'aptaln of your
Soul. However, you are always
to give.the high-sign and co-op
erate with all other Common
sense Party centers, knowing full
well that you can only help your
self as you help others.
For P. M. Duty.
SENATOR OLLIE JAMES told of
a young man in Louisville who
not long since hung up his shingle
as attorney-at-law,
One afternoon a friend, upon en
tering the office, observed upon
the desk of the new legal light a
dollar alarm clock.
“That's a good idea,” said the
friend. “One is very apt to over
sleep these fine spring mornings.”
The youthful attorney smiled
sadly.
“This alarm-clock was not
bought for the reason you-mention,”
said he. “I merely keep it here to
wake me when it I 8 time to go
home,” . g