The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-03-06

Senator Lodge. with his powerful influence among conservatives, per sunalIy helped 10 set going the move ment for a league If nations. but now
 that the league of nations has been born at the peace conference. he Njr-
 tuatIy disovus t and shows every sign of hoping for its speedy extinc- tiOn. The criticism which the sena- tor offered in his Senate speech yes terday was th1roughly hostile in spirit, even f ic was mt absolutely urconpromisiEE No one would say that the constitution of the league of natiCrs could not be improved hy revision. but the senator's insist-nt
 warning that it violates the constitu- ton of the United States. abolishes the Monroe doctrine, scraps George
 Nashiugton's foreign policy of isOla- ton and threatens to undermine American natioualism indicates that if he were 10 amend the leagues con stitutiou at all he would amend it to death.
 The puzzle of MT. Lodges present attitude could be explained away only by himself. but the time has come to call attention to his share Of per souaI responsibility for the very sit nation which seems now 10 disquiet him Twenty years ago no one in public life was more vigorous and persuasive than MT. Lodge in urg- ing the country to break away from our traditional policies by acquiring the Philippine islands and becoming an oriental power. His senior col league in the Senate of that day. MT Hoa- of MassaC aChuse1ts. argGed strongly, but in vain, that the exteu- sion of our sovereignty to the coast of Asia and the adoption of colonial policy in violation, as he believed of the federal constitution was grave departure from the teachings of Washington and placed the Mon roe doctrine in jeopardy. But Sena- tor Lodge did not share the fears of Mir. Hoar He was stoutly. robustly for the United States in the roie of world power" The Constitution did not bother him in the least. although the "Iusular cases" growing out of the Philippines acquisition were de cided by a. sharply divided supreme court
 The general movgtaent in the past 20 years toward making America play a world part as entrusted with the traditional role of safeguarding mere ly 1he American continents, had Mir Lodge for a. leader. In 1900. he would not consent to an unqualified reservation upon 1he Algerciras treaty, declaring that our government was without purpose to depart from the traditional American foreign poll cy, which forbade participation by the United States in the settlement of political questions which were es- seniaIy European in their scope The word ''essentiaIly' had to be changed to entirely to meet his ideas of Americas enlarged activity abroad. He also approved Secretary Hays diplomatic intervention in be- half of the peFsecuted Jews of Rou- mania, although the United States was not a, signatory of the treaty of Berlin which had guaranteed pro lection to the Roumanian Jews. Down to the outbreak of the world war in 1914, Senator Lodge was always con- spicuous for the ease with which he threw off the constraints oT our tradi- ttc1al isolatio in foreign affairs
 When the world war came, the league of nations found in Mir Lodge an early advocate. In his Union College address, June 9, 1915, the senator declared:
 '"The great nations must be so united as to be able to say to any single country, you must not go to war. and they can only say that ef- fectively. when the country desiring war knows that the force which the united nations pface behind peace is irresistible It may seem utopian at this moment to suggest a, union of civilized nations in order to put a controlling force behind the main tenance of peace and international or dsr, but 1t is along this path that We must travel if we are to at tain in any measure to the end we all desire of naaca I1nOU
 MT. Roosevelt, in October 1914 had already written that 'the great civilized nations of the world which 70 possess force, actual or immedi- ltely potential, should combine by