Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-11-10
His Clash with
Wilson COlOrful
Period of Career

When time shall write its final esti-
mate Of Henry Cabot Lodge, it must
turn for its most colorful passage to
the story of that strange twist Of cir
cumstances which set his name over
against the name OF Woodrow Wilson
in one of the stirring periods of Am
erican history
Both outstanding men of letters.
called by some the two greatest Am
erican examples of the scholar in poll
tics, the venerable senate leader and
the wartime president found them
selves in disagreement. determined
and irreconcilable, at the very time of
their most virile public service. Each
In his proud and resolute way sought
at first to ignore the impa ssihle bar
r1er that was rearing itself between
them: but in the end each came 10
acknowledge 1t openly, though each
sought TO blame the other.
The most fundamental difference be-
tween them developed over the Leagu
of Nations. For his opposition to un-
reserved acceptance of the Versailles
covenant. Senator Lodge was assailed
by his enemies with bitterness
eQualled only by the fury with which
the enemies of the league attacked
Mr.. Wilson; while by hts own friends
and followers the Massachusetts sena-
tor was eulogiEed and revered as the
savior OF American liberties. who had
fought courageously against subtle
invasion of the independence of his
country and had preserved for poster
1ty the cherished traditions of the
fathers.
1t may be that history will never
know the full story of that epochal
struggle, which lifted both Lodge and
Wilson to new heights OF leadership.
AS each had been a dominating fig
ure in the making Of history. so each
had hoped to become at last the his
torian Of his times; but. worn by the
rigor OF the battle, both have fallen
into their last sleep without complet-
ing the work that circumstance and
natural inclination seemed to have
patterned for them. When Mr.. Will
son died. he left only scraps and
patches of the great human chronicle
he had hoped to set down for future
generations. A few weeks ago Mr..
Lodge conflded to his friends that he
was gathering material for a story of
the league fight in the senate and
for other histories of the great days
of his intimate association with men
and affairs. The task never was fin
ished.
There was a touch of romance In
the first chance contact of these two
brilliant menetal forces that were
one day to meet in such furious COM
bat They brushed elbows in spir-
ritual sense, nearly a half century
ego, and although Mr.. Lodge had for
gotten 1t until years afterward. Mr.
Wilson always remembered. II. II
n thA
Inauguration Of 1913. when the new
chief executive and the senator from
Massachusetts met at dedicatory
service in Washington, where form
ally presented to one another and
shook hands.
You may not recall. Mr.. Presi-
dent" said Senator Lodge, but
met you for moment some years
ago, at a college commencement
when you were president of Prince
ton"
"Oh, ! remember YOU long before
that" replied Mr.. Wilson. "A man
never forgets the editor who pub
fishes his first article"
The senator was puzzled until It
was explained that as editor OF the
International Review in the late
seventies, he had accepted for pub
written by Woodrow Wilson, a stu
dent at Princeton. Mr.. Lodge went
home and made a search of his Coz
respondence files and found there a
letter about the article, written him
by the future president. II is char
acteristic of the bent of the historian
that until his death that letter re-
manned in the senator's collection of
cherished documents.
During the earlier years OF the
first Wilson administration, the rela-
lions between Mr.. Wilson and MIR.
Lodge were without feature. They
met on occasion, but not often. and
talked of public affairs as any presi-
dent and any senator of an opposing
party might. They never were
friends. 1t was not in the nature
of either to impose cordially where
he thought 1t might not he
welcomed. or to override by sheer
will that indefinable feeling OF re-
straint which now and again springs
up unbidden between two strong in
dividuals.
The actual breach in their rela-
tionship was reached late in 1916.
On the night of October &c. 1915. in
campaign speech at Brockton.
Mass, Senator Lodge declared with
out qualification that President Will
son had added postscript" TO the
second Lusitania note to Germany.
assuring the imperial government
that some OF the previous vigorous
American announcements on the
subject were mot to he taken seri-
ously." He repeated the charge on
October 90. Then on the following
day Mr.. Wilson issued formal
statement saying the assertion of
Senator Lodge was untrue"
Beneath the terse phrases of the
presidents denial there was apparent
to those who knew him a portentious
depth of feeling. Senator Lodge re-
piled quite as direct, saying he would
not question the word OF the, presi-
dent of the United States and must
accept the denial: but he recalled
that the authority on which he made
his original statement had appeared
to him unimpeachable.
To his dying day the senator be-
lieved he had been foiled by a clever
use Of language and that some sort
Of supplement to the Lusitania note.
If not precisely q postscript" had
existed.
This incident left no pretense OF
personal cordially between them.
The trying months Of the war saw
no change in their personal rela-
tons and II Is a part Of history how,
later on, each set his face resolutely
along a different pathway In the
league OF nations fight.
They exchanged words for the last
time on March. 1921. when Wilson
went to the Capitol for the Harding
Inauguration ceremonies. Lodge, in
his role as leader Of the majority,
entered the presidents room to an
'nounce that the old congress was
ready to adjourn unless the chief