The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-11-10
LODGE PICTURED.
AS MANDARIN
INP0LITICS
Was Friend of Mentally Keen
LeaderscIassic But
Practical
Continues from First Page.D

CONTINUED from First Page)
about his career. The reader viii
grasp him better by sighting just
one inward fact which the details
viii not reveal.
Like Classic Mandarin.
Henry Caboot Lodge vas an
American public character after
the manner of the public life and
private life. the intellectual private
life, Of a classic Chinese mandarin.
Like the mandarin, Mr.. hodge
was immensely learned in things
gone by. In his biography in the
Congressional Directory he always
began with the books which he had
written. This writer's first ac-
quaintance with Mr.. Lodge came
out of book which Mr.. Lodge had
written in the course OF which he
had discussed the property rights
OF married women under the laws
OF Anglo-Saxon England before the
Norman Conquest OF the eleventh
century.
The shortest road to Mr.. Lodges
friendship was controversy with
him about things gone by.
Victim of T. RS Joke
Theodore Roosevelt once got the
newspaper and magazine writer,
Judson Welliver, now the literary
secretary Of the White House, into
going to Mr.. Lodge and accusing
him of having left out an import
ant fact from his history of Alex.
ander Hamilton.
Mr.. Lodge took Mr.. Welliver
out to the steps Of the Capitol
and gave him whole afternoon
OF history and of the reasons why
historical writing Is as 1t is.
The Senate now is cramned with
people who II they know the cleo
ton returns Of their State for the
last five years have come pretty
nearly 20 the limit of their in.
formation regarding human de-
velopment on this planet.
An hour with Mr.. Lodge. when
he was freely conversing. was an
hour of getting a perspective on
the present from the standpoint
Of all the new ideas and new strug.
giles which were essentially old
when Anglo-Saxons were determin-
ing what rights a woman should
have after she was married.
The Senate. now that he is gone,
will much Of 1t think itself more
modern. In fact 1t will be only
less informed about all the modern
isms which existed and which are
instructive and enlightening out of
the deep long past.
Thus classically learned like a
mandarin, Mr.. Lodge proceeded in
~ = 0a FrNw. -S.AaS
mandarin is, or Is supposed to be.
Nobody existed in the Senate who
knew more than Mr. Lodge in the
library and nobody existed in the
Senate who was more practical
than Mr.. Lodge at the polls.
This was the amazing contradic.
ton, or combination, in his char
acter. Years ago his son-in-law,
"Gussie" Gardner, Congressman
from Massachusetts, and soldier and
martyr to his determination to be
part of the late war, said to this
writer:
ST do not know how father-in-
law does it. He reads a book in
the library. Then he closes the
doors and telephones to everywhere
in the State. Then he opens the
doors and starts reading again and
gets reelected"
Finger On the Point.
Mr.. Gardner put his finger on
the point. Mr.. Lodge never told
anybody just how he persuaded all
sorts of local elements and in
fluences to support him, but he
kept in touch with them, and
out of his library and out Of his
lno fvan I,A oil sv.k
mately swept every corner Of
for re-electing Henry Cabot Lodge,
the learned and the realistic, to the
House Of Representatives or to the
Senate.
That sort of hidden and inscrut-
able method he followed !, in the
greatest moment Of his career. 1t
was the moment when by every
sort of dark indirection he defeated
the League of Nations in the United
States Senate.
Debated League Policy.
The "irreconcilables" against the
league often thought that he was
for-the league. He himself perhaps
was moving along more by instinct
and drift than by purpose and in
tent.
In the end, however, it was by
his maneuvers, and not by any of
the outright arguments of the cir
reconcilables," that the league was
defeated.
VIII he in ages to come be wor.
shipped for it? Will he IN ages
to come be execrated and damned
for it? Who shall say? That is
question OF the unknown future.
The immediate contemporary tech
nical political point is that for sheer
political strategy and skill the
maneuvers OF Henry Cabot Lodge in
the matter of the League Vt Nations
were the most consumlnate exhi.
bition OF political successful artistry
in our times.
He had no superior in our public
life as q scholar. He had no super.
Tor in our public life as a poll.
tician. Let whoever will more COM
bine those two things speak sheer
ingly of Henry Cabot Lodge. For
this writer, a professional observer
of professional scholars and profess
stonal politicians, Henry Cabot
Lodge will abide in recollection as
the greatest professional combined
of them all.
Copyright 1924, by Current News
Features, Inc.)