Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1924-06-28


ster implications by Sec. Hughes,
Mr.. Lodge clutched at the chance to
upset the administration policy of
dealing with Japanese immigration
by diplomatic means. He led the
pack in the attack on the gentle
mems agreement" of which his ador-
ed Theodore Roosevelt was the
father.
Twice within a week has the Repub-
lican President from Massachusetts,
been stabbed by the Republican sena-
tor from Massachusetts. Mr.. Lodge
could have prevented the passing of
the bonus bill over the Presidents
veto; instead of adjoining his record
by such simple and conventional act
of loyalty to his party's chosen lead
er he lobbied for votes among his
fellow Republican senators to make
sure of singing blow to the Presi-
dents prestige by voiding the act of
executive disapproval. Mr.. Lodges
betrayal of the President on the jap
anese issue was a much more wantOn
pc rformance because he had been
committed to the gentlemen's agree
ment with Japan from the day it was
consummated by President Roose-
welt. Supporting the state depart
ment and the President in this mat
ter involved no break with hitherto
consistent record.
If President Coolidge today is
wedged into position where his
vetoes cannot be sustained and he is
Obliged to sign bills with highly OBJ
noxious features because his vetoes
would be overridden by Republican
Congress the senior senator from this
state cannot escape personal respon-
sibility for such an unreasonable and
vexatious predicament.
Instead Of being the Senate lead
er in support of the Republican ad-
ministration in those matters Mr..
Lodge has become, in everything but
the name, the leader of the Senate
opposition. How grim a jest is there
in the square reversal of the parties
as represented in the Senate commit
tee on foreign relations on the World
court issue! The Democrats stoutly
sustain the plan Of the Republican
President and secretary of state while
the Republicans, led or inspired by
Mr.. Lodge, have made three major
proposals during this session to break
down the administrations position.
The disintegration of the Lodge
leadership in the Senate began in an
earlier Congress, but it's obvious
Transformation into a sort of parlia-
mentary banditry, with Republican
President as it's prey, has only now
brought that leadership's failure into
high relief. For Mr.. Lodges leader
ship of the Senate has been monu
mental failure. In the last Congress,
with Republican majority of 20 in
the upper chamber, he was fiouted by
the farm bloc, organized in his own
party; in this Congress the spectacle
of Republican control has been a
pitiful sight from the opening day,
with Mr. Lodge as helpless as band
master trying to get music from
wind instruments played in a vacuum.
Mr.. Lodges failure in his later per-
icd is not without tragic aspect. 1t !
was clearly seen two years ago when
this newspaper, in deprecating his !
denomination by the Republican par
ty, declared that his usefulness had |
ended. His time was up when he re-
appeared before the Republican vot-
ers in the 1922 primaries. Even if |
one grants that his negative achieve
ment in preventing Americas en-
trance into the League Of Nations
was benefcient work, it had ex-
hausted his capacity for usefulness.
He has since become so habituated TO
the passions aroused by his fight on
executive influence in the govern
ment that he cannot throw them off
and Massachusetts, Republican
President to him looks like any other
President. He is spending his last
years in the Senate nursing his OBJ
sessions and resenting the Sights
which the fortune of politics may have
upon him in the steady whirl
OF fortuitous events, but, worst of all,
is he obstructing with a consistent
of purpose the forward
movement of the American people in
to a new world reorganized interna-
tionally for peace.
The breaking point may finally
have come with such leader of the
party press as the Herald and Tri-
bune of New York, saying openly
that the senior senator of Massachu-
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