[Oscar Wilder]. American politician, born at Louisville, KY, on the 6th of May 1862. He studied at the university of Virginia (1881–84), was admitted to the bar in 1884, and practised law thereafter in Birmingham, AL. From 1895 to 1915 he was a member from Alabama of the National House of Representatives, and during his last two years chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. After the Democrats came into power in 1913 he had a large share in framing the tariff bill passed the same year; but his attempt to establish a House Budget Committee was defeated. In 1914 he opposed the Panama Canal Tolls Repeal bill, but supported the resolution authorizing the President to use armed force in Mexico. He was opposed to the woman-suffrage amendment to the Federal Constitution, holding that the question was a state issue. He also opposed the national prohibition amendment. In 1914 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and in 1920 re-elected. In 1919 he favoured the anti-strike clause of the Cummins railway bill. He was a strong supporter of the Peace Treaty of Versailles without changes; but when its ratification had been blocked by the Republicans, he attempted to bring about a compromise. In December 1919 he offered a resolution in the Senate providing that the president of the Senate should appoint a committee of ten senators to work out some acceptable plan for adopting the Peace Treaty; but this was blocked by Senator Lodge. In April 1920 he was chosen Democratic leader in the Senate. He was one of the four U.S. delegates at the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armament which assembled in November 1921.
