The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-07-16

ADOuL Lne 6SHALcs
 There Is A saying that in American families there is only three or four generations from riches to shirt sleeves. Mir. Hanna is the first gen. eration, MT. Aldrich is the second generation. In MT. Penrose and MT Lodge you reach what Is a common phase of American family history And In Senator Jim Watson and Zen ator Charles Curtis. who are just coming on the scene as leaders" :" you reach once more political shirt sleeveS.
 So the Hanna Aldrich stock pro- duced Henry Cabot Lodge, . sort of political James Hasen Hyde, who stayed at home and satisfied hii longinss for abroad by serving on the Senate foreign relations commit tee. But perhaps 1t would be falrer to Mir. Lodge to say of him what a witty friend of mine did, Lodge if what Henry James would have been If Henry James had remained in America and gone into politics" Or he is what Henry Adams might have bave been if Henry Adams had been less honest In his contempt for de- mocracy.
 The last leaf of that New England tree whose fruit was an expatriate literature and expatriate lives, th' limit of Mir. Lodges repatriation was an interest in foreign affairs when redder biooded Americans were hap oily ignorant of them. If business had been choosing Spokesmen al Washington 1t would no more have picked out MT. Lodge than 1t would have picked out James Hazen Hyde or Henry James. MT. Lodges lead ership was a sign of decay.
 But some will say business at thai time had Senator Penrose as It's spokesman. I doubt 1t. Senator Pen rose was that other son of the fam fly in whose blood runs all the an cestral energies without the ances tral restraint.
 There Is a story that when Penrose became boss of Pennsylvania the re- publican politicians of the state were anxious about the effect his per sonal reputation would have upon the voters. Finally they went to him, as the elders sometimes go to the youne parson, and said. The organization thinks the people would like 1t better if you were married" All right boys. if you think so,' Penrose re- piled; let the organization pick the gal" The organization recoiled from this cynicism. But business is hard CT. Business if it had really identi- fled itself with Penrose. would have picked the gal"
 No better evidence of the tenuity of his connection with business Is re. quired than his outbreak In 1920, won't have the international bankers write the platform and nominate ths candidate at Chicago.
 scandalOus MT. Penrose
 Mir. Penrose enjoyed "succes de scandale.'' He was what the hypo' critics in Washington secretly desired to be but lacked the courage to be He lived up to the aristocratc tradl' ton, at it's worst; which everyone ad- mires, especially at it's worst. He dic on a grand scale what anyone else would have been damned for doint on a lesser scale and was loved for SC splendidly shocking.
 He was the village sport, with tne best blood of the village in his vein' and was the village delight, the mar about whom all the best stories were whispered He had the clear minf which comes from scorn of pretense But all this is not greatness, nor Is I leadership. The republicans in th' Senate before being led by MT. Fen rose would have insisted on pick ing the gal" They like to see framed marriage certificates in the party household.
 A Political Hoarder As freouently happens when yot reach shirt sleeves by the downwaf' route. you find the accumulative in stinct reasserting Itself on a petty scale. Look at the rather shabby clothes that Senator Curtis wears, IT suite of his considerable wealth. ahe you are sure that you have to do witf a hoarder. And that is what he isi hoarder of political minutiae Current report is that he Is the pes poker player in either house or con gress. You can imagine him sittnt across the table watching the faces o1 his antagonists with coio eye with no tremor of a muscle, no fain' coming or going of color no pe.ray' ling weakness escapes.
 That is his forte in politics, know 1 ing all the little things about mer which reveal their purpose or operate l in unexpected ways as hidden motives He has a perfect card catalogue O. nearly all the voters of Kansas. It Il kept up to date. It reports not merely
 names and addresses but persona | details. the voters point of view what interests him, what influences may be brought to bear on him. Curtii lis a hoarder. with an amazing ca pacity for heaping up that sort O | information.
 Curtis' Card Index His mind is a card catalogue of thu Senate. vastly more detailed than tn, | watches the Senate as he watches thu 1 faces of his antagonists in a poke game. He knows the little unconsid cred trifles which makes men vot' l this way and that. And he Is s' l objective about 1t all that he rarel, deceives himself. If into this concerl with the small mot which nov men there crept a certain contemp of humanity he might mislead him
 self; but his objective saves him; h.
 Is as objective as card catalogues an, no more hateful.
 If Curtis kejt journal he woul, | hand down to posterity most per l feet picture of men and motives il Washington.
 If he had the malice of Saint Sim | the journal would be diverting, bu he is without malice. He has no cyni | cal conception of mems weakness an, smallness as something to play upon
 He accepts senators as they are. sym pathetically. What makes them vot
 this way and that Is the major con
 sideration of politics His records o 1 the Kansas electorate are more i'm 1 portant to him than principles, pol | itics. or morals. The efficient election
 district captain of the Senate, that i | Curtis.
 A Public Embracer | A more likely successor of Lodge l
 "Jim" Watson of Indiana. I attend
 ed theatrical performance in Wash 1 ington recently. Nearby sat :h Indiana senator His neighbor, whon | did not recognize. doubtless som politician from Indiana, sat with hi