The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-18
PRESS ON THE LODGE COURT

MT. Lodge has proposed new WorIo court Ha doesn't want The Hague court, nor does ha want one that is tainted by the approval oR the majority of the nations of earth Fer haps world court in which only the United | states ia a member would most closely ap- uroxinnate the Lodge ideas of isolation. But, [ heinr a practical man, he realizes that such 1 an ideal is unattainable, so he sets forth | court made in America for delivery abroad. bsihat would be far more in keeping with our rational dignity than to enter court made somewhere else, and which had first been pro- , fA51ed by others. However, MT. Lodges idea IackS the element of novelty. Mir. Borah beat hi1n to it, by year at least. But MT. Borah doeAnsf seem to recognize the child when led bx the hand of Lodge. At any rate, he doeanst arise to claim it, nor to rebuke 1t for being found in such company.
 Not even the element of sincerity is cred fled to the plan by the Philadelphia Bulle- tin 'Dodging the question, whether in the senate or in the national platform, will not .be crAditable to Republican leadership" How ever. it is stretching the facts some to at tribute Republican leadership to Lodge. His flock has declined greatly in recent weeks 1; 1t has almost been dispersed. In touching on the Republican theory that the party success in 1920, was notice of public repudiatlon or the League of Nations, the New York Times drxiy remarks that "it is a wise political T,srtv that knows it's own mandate" The new plan the Times dubs Lodges Dodge" and says; We are asked with a grave face to adopt all this elaborate machinery to ob- tain a possible substitute, when we have al- ready at hand a going concern, court with an American judge in it, which we could enter tomorrow by turning over our hand. To avoid doing that simple thing is plainly the main object of Mir. Lodges complex pro- roeal. Politics, says Lord Morley, is not an art but dodge He must have been think ing of the senator from Massachusetts"
 Willing to save whatever wheat may be found in the chaff, the Louisville Courier Journal enthusiastically observes: "Mr. Lodge by his action does provide suggestive oppor- tnnfty for the president to make an aggres' elve movement for the adoption of the Hard inR.Hughes plan, to which he committed him self in his message to congress last Decem- k4r, and again in his Associated Press speech last month. It is not enough that he indi- eatelhe has not sanctioned the Lodge scheme. He would strengthen himself in the estima- ton of his countrymen and do something toward clarifying foreign policy If he would boldly take the leadership in this movement which his position entities him to take" MT. AtO0itQHe mas SnOWH lIlllc ldlcht lOl boAAAs advantage of strategic openings, either to win
 political point or to bring about some na- tional public purpose.
 A feature that is especially repugnant to ths Chicago News it outlines as follows: 'To make his proposal even more offensive than if would be otherwise, Senator Lodge sug- eests changes in the constitution of the pres ant court the effect of which would be to deprfve Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa of votes in the electoral cOmmis- sion which chooses the judges of the tribunal. Tn other words, Mir. Lodge tells the most libetaI and democratic self-governing com unonwealths in the British empire that they cannot be regarded as states and cannot be trusted to act independently of Great Britain. The abundant evidence that they have acted independently he ignores as un- worthy of consideration. The Lodge resolution should be rejected. Adhesion to the present world court should be approved by congress in accordance with overwhelming public sentiment and the unanswered and unanswerable arguments for that common gense court of action"
 The Republican Detroit Free Press finds apology for the plan in this wise: "Presurn- ably the Lodge resolution is intended first of all as a campaign document, and very likely as a preparation for a plank in the Flepublican national platform. It is reso- luton submitted to the people of the coun- try for their consideration and verdict rather khan a resolution submitted merely to the senate of the United States; and the reac- ton to it throughout the nation will be more important than the reaction among the mem hers of the upper house of congress" This nay be good partisan reasoning if one as- snnas that the people are hopelessly stupid Huk intelligent voters are hardly going to
 sericus -cdnsideration to proposal that