The Washington herald., 1921-03-27

lose ! do not know now many ap-
propriation bills.
A Caustic Exchange.
Thereupon, Mr.. Pomerene, of
Ohio, arose and threw the following
barbed shaft at Senator Warren: 'If
the distinguished chairman of the
Committee on Appropriations will
not object to some of the appro-
priations which Senators want we
shall economic good deal of
time
To this retort Senator Warren re-
piled satirically by placing the
blame where he thought 1t lay, say
ing, The galleries require a great
deal of attention, as the Senator
from Ohio knows. and there is a
certain amount of entertainment to
which they are entitled and which
Senators accord to them"
Then the Democratic leader. Sem
ator Underwood. of Alabama, made
the equally satiricafsuggestio that
Eve might go into executive session
and thereby avoid the consumption
of some time"
solons Admit Faults.
BY going into executive session
Senator Underwood, of course,
meant that the galleries would be
cleared and that the temptation of
speaking for the public ear would
be removed from the Senators.
The whole passage was closed by
frank admission from Senator
Fletcher. of Florida. who said: Il
quite agree with the Senator from
wyoming that there has been a
time here. / quite agree that we
have had too much talk, incessant
talk. boring everybody, firing ev-
erybody, getting nowhere. / quite
agree with the Senator as to that.
and wish we might find some way
to stop IL"
This was testimony out of the
Senator'S own mouths. They all
knew that they were not doing we'll.
Senator Lodge, who as official Re-
publican leader, had the RESPONSE
bility. used to excuse himself and
his party privately by saying that
it was not possible to do a very ef-
fective job leading when the Repub-
licans had only a majority of two in
the Senate, and that he would do
very much better in the coming 'ses-
sion, when the Republicans will
have a majority of twenty-five.
Planning to speed Up.
Having their majority of twenty
two the Republican leaders are now
getting ready to achieve compact
ness and speed. They have reor-
ganized their steering committee
This is not an official committee of
the Senate, but is really a commit
tee of the Republican party. 1t
will be responsible for the pro-
gram. 1t will fix the order in which
legislation shall come up, and 1t will
be responsible for the speed with
which legislation is pushed through.
The chairman of thetcommittee is
to be Lodge. of Massachusetts,.
Since Lodge is also chairman of the
Republican caucus and in addition
chairman of the extremely impor-
tant Foreign Relations Committee,
it is obvious that the senior Senator
from Massachusetts, is going to have
an extremely arduous job Of work
on his hands the coming summer.
Lodge Not to BE Envied.
No one need envy Senator Lodge
his honors when you consider the
fAA hN pay III "OIh
He is II years old and while he Is
one OF the wisest men of his age
that ever sat in the Senate, no
friend of his can help being con-
scious that the job of leadership
in a hot summer session dealing
with the tariff has frequently laid
younger and stronger men on their
backs.
Whether Lodge. even with the
comfortable majority of twenty
two behind him. will develop the
personal qualities of leadership
necessary remains to be seen.
Lodge was never cut out to be
boss in the sense that Aldrich was
or Cannon was. His personality does
not include the kind of ruthless
driving power that makes a dicta-
tor. Lodge will be the trading, con-
ciliating type of leader. He will go
with the waves rather than try to
master them.
Follows the Majority.
To put 1t one way, Lodge is the
sort of leader that follows the ma
jority. Lodges leadership of the
league of nations fight will excite
admiration or distaste, according to
the point of view. Regardless of
how you like the outcome of that
fight, Ii was one of the. greatest
and most remarkable constitutional
conflicts ever carried on in any par
liamentary body. Again and again II
came within an hour of being lost
by compromise. In fact, at one
point, If Mr.. Wilson had not been
utterly stubborn in dema nding 100
per cent acceptance of his own
views. the compromise would have
been made.
Lodge as leader had party
deeply divided into a faction of ir-
reconcilables. and an opposing fac
tfon that was eager to accept the
league of nations with varying de-
grees of reservations. Whenever
Lodge seemed about to compromise,
the irreconcilables would come TO
his committee room and read the
riot act to him in a way that fire.
left him pretty pale.
Handled DimcuIt Task Well.
The way Lodge achieved success
in that fight was by being diligently
careful to have no convictions what
ever OF his own. The objective was
not the achievement of any deep
personal conviction on the question
at issue. The objectives he had were
two-to beat Mr.. Wilson and to keep
his party from flying into two hope
lessly diverse elements. That he
managed 1t Is a tribute to his sue
cess as one kind of a leader.
OF course. 1t is not the kind of
success that will call out admira-