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Editorial Page 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 WEEKEY:E % L e 7 _;_;:_T_ 4 g(.i‘___:__?_____.__——_—— =" fi C %A&,l.lQl]'.;;’{; : E O-R 2SeS AU e GIAN SERTOR i 1 _,-:-:-:-.(.\’-14::1- R A 3 gt L\ B SN \ L Bhn e BRI Bk o EAR ! \ Ses 1 o o \\\‘v, W R A " W R L b ; ¢ y AL EYA S R o 2 % A<‘:" AN~ fl‘\ _—r e W \‘\ ecseitie AN TR s L\ ‘\i\‘\ W e R A \\\ 3 4 % SR oAN A\ A et e AT O -\\\\ AA3 N s \:\"\":* 3 J S 8 %{5;: e ‘,\\ M } \‘,~V~§§*~@‘ s R R SR GO R R N O W o TSR S o PTbt R R il Fe e L - \eé‘ G Lo I SRR Na P o nha Pl s 0 o S SR Sl R AR 3 P A g T T RNN AR e e e s«fi\ RSR S R R et BRGNS i- AR RS SR 5 S ehl Mmr7 &) 2% . 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