The New Student's Reference Work/Underwood, Oscar W.

Underwood, Oscar, W. Chairman of the Committee which drafted the 1913 tariff (q. v.), was born in Louisville, Ky., May 6, 1862, graduated from Virginia University, was admitted to the Bar in 1884 and practiced at Birmingham until his election to Congress in 1895. Although coming to opposite conclusions with regard to the tariff, Mr. Underwood, like Mr. McKinley, has made it a life study. In the preparation of the 1913 tariff he had the great advantage of practical business experience. This enabled him not only to analyze clearly a measure so vitally related to our business life, but to present it in clear terms to his colleagues and to the country at large. While not an orator in the popular sense, Mr. Underwood may be well said to be an orator in the true and practical sense which has been well defined to be the power to bring people to your way of thinking. United with this ability he has the same gift for conciliation and compromise which distinguished Mr. McKinley, and to this faculty combined with tireless industry, good health and singleness of purpose is due his successful guidance of the legislative work which determined the character and final enactment of the measure with which his name will always be identified. Although largely interested in the steel business himself, as part owner of an independent plant at Birmingham, he stood unflinchingly for downward revision.