Evening star., 1960-07-28
Cabot Lodge Has Old Score
To Settle With Kennedy
By HAYNES JOHNSON
Star STAR Writer

Gbol oboAh "AANNA
Henry Cabot Lodge, jr., the
tlrbane gentleman politician
from Boston, has suffered only
one defeat in his long career
in public life.
That came eight years ago
at the hands of a young Rep
resentative named John F.
Kennedy.
Between now and November,
Mr.. Lodge, who will be the
Republican vice presidential
nominee, will be using all of
his skill to even that old score
with John Kennedy, now the
Democratic presidential can
Edidate.
And Cabot Lodge has con-
siderable skill. There was a
touch of political irony in his
defeat by Senator Kennedy.
The career of both men has
had many similarities. Both
were born to wealth, both have
the air of the cultivated Har-
ward graduate, both rose to
prominence in politics at an
early age:
Bucked New Deal Tide
There was a time when Cabot
Lodge stood at the pinnacle Of
Massachusetts politics. when
,he seemed destined perhaps
;even for the presidency.
In 1886, at the apogee OF
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal,
most Republicans in the Bay
State despaired of making a
dent in the Democratic surge.
The Republican eclipse in
Massachusetts, was taking on
sthe look of permanence. But
young Cabot Lodge. then "a,
nevertheless took the plunge
Iand ran for the Senate against
Che legendary James Michael
!Curley, velvet-voiced idol OF
ahe Boston Irish.
With the supreme confidence
which has marked his career,
MIR. Lodge ignored the odds and
the derisive soubriquet Of
i''Little Boy Blue" which Mr..
Eurley used throughout the
campaign.
Despite the Roosevelt land
slide, Mr.. Lodge won handily.
His victory rekindled the Re-
ipublican Party in his State.
sCabot Lodge appeared to be on
his way.
Handsome and PersOnable
For the next few years the
handsome, personable politician
continued to draw notice. Po-
litical observers followed his ca
'reer closely. One critic assessed
his appeal this way:
Essentially, Lodge is strong
because he is a politician so
practical as to verge, on oc-
,casion. on the demagogue.
Watching him in action, one
gets the impression that he has
reduced political appeal to an
exact science"
In his first few weeks in the
Senate, Mr.. Lodge made no
speeches. When asked why, he
replied in typical fashion:
81 don't like to deal in plati-
tudes. When I have something
to say, I'll say it"
The Lodge career still held
great promise before World
War II, when Lodge-for-Presi-
dent Clubs were formed. Men
who served with him in the
Army recall that he was COM
monty referred to as the next
Republican President.
Although he was discussed
seriously for the vice presidency
in both 1948 and 1852. the
Lodge presidential movement
faded.
IlIustriOus Family
His talents in the last eight
years have been devoted to di-
plomacy, where he is regarded
as our most vigorous Ambassa-
dor to the United Nations.
Henry Cabot Lodge comes by
political skills naturally. He
was born July 5, 1902, in the
family home at Nahant, Mass.
near the rocky coast of Cape
Ann.
1t was not an ordinary home
into which the boy was born.
The Lodges and Cabots were
among the most illustrious
names in that closely-defined
society of the Boston Brahmins.
AS John Collins Bossidy put
it in his classic toast years ago:
And this is good old Boston,
The home OF the bean and the
cod,
Where the LoWeLlS talk only
to CubotS,
And the CabotS talk only to
God.
Many in Public Life
From the Cabots and Lodges
had come six United States
Senators, a Secretary of State,
a Secretary of the Navy, Gov
ernor of Massachusetts and an
earlier candidate for Vice Pres
ident.
The most famous of all was
Cabot Lodges grandfather, for
whom he is named. He uses the
Junior" after his name because
his grandfather said it was the
proper thing to do. The first
Henry Cabot Lodge was a
towering figure in Massachu-
sets politics, remembered not
so much for his opposition to
the League of Nations as for
his artful twisting of the Brit
ish lions tail.
Mr.. Lodges father, George