Self-Removal

"I will not be a candidate for re-election to the United States Senate. When my present term expires, I shall retire from politics.

"I want my friends and constituents to know how thankful I am for the opportunity they have given me to serve my state for 30 years and that my heart is full of gratitude for all the honors they have conferred upon me."

With these words written to the publisher of The Birmingham News, Oscar W. Underwood announced the end of his service in the Congress of the U. S.

On Mar. 4, 1927, will end a cycle of 32 years. It began in 1895, when young Congressman Underwood went to Washington. In 1910, when the Democrats, following the fight over the Payne-Aldrich tariff, emerged triumphant in the congressional elections, Mr. Underwood, a seasoned legislator of 15 years' experience, emerged as the majority leader. There followed the Underwood tariff. There followed a bitter fight between Underwood and Bryan in which Underwood came out the victor. There followed a Democratic convention in 1912, when Woodrow Wilson was nominated for President and Oscar W. Underwood, had he not refused it, might have had the Vice Presidential offering.

A war broke out in Europe, and Underwood, having rounded out a score of years in the House, went over to the Senate. And shortly he found himself again majority leader for the Democrats. Then came the Democratic debacle of 1920, but it was not an Underwood debacle. He followed it by becoming one of the four* U. S. members of the Limitations of Armaments Conference. In 1922, he abandoned his place as Democratic leader. He also refused a place on the Supreme Court bench as successor to Justice Day.

In 1927, the cycle will be at the end --20 years in the House and 12 in the Senate--the longest service in Congress of any present Democratic member. Then Oscar W. Underwood, a man of 65, expects to retire to his recently purchased estate in Virginia.

Hardly had Mr. Underwood's announcement issued from the press when names/-of half a dozen of those wishing to succeed to his seat in the Senate were mentioned, but as yet there seems no candidate to succeed Oscar W. Underwood--Underwood the conservative, Underwood who opposed Prohibition, Underwood who had little liking for the Democratic advances to the insurgent Republicans in the last Congress. Perhaps Alabama may elect a Senator as eloquently verbose as Heflin, or a fireeater like Harrison, or a damnation-downright man like Robinson, but it is not likely that they will discover another well-poised, equably disposed, able man such as Mr. Underwood. Indeed, had he chosen to run again, he would undoubtedly have had a hard fight and probably been beaten. But Mr. Underwood chooses to retire, and so doing will deprive public life of the only Democrat, not excepting Bryan, who has stood in the front rank of politics for the last ten years.

* The others were Charles E. Hughes, Elihu Root, the late Henry Cabot Lodge.

/- Among those who, it was reported, will seek the seat Mr. Underwood will leave were Representative William B. Bankhead and John H. Bankhead. They are sons of the late Senator John H. Bankhend, father and uncle respectively of Actress Talluluh Bankhead.