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Show SENATOR LODGE "I think I may say that I have done a goodi deal of difficult and responsible responsi-ble public work." said Henry Cabot Lodge in his last campaign, and it is true. Eorn a man of leisure, he had jane a tremendous amount of work in several fields. But how much he accomplished by it, and whether any of it will long survive him, are questions. ques-tions. Clearly the most expressive work he did was the prevention of the United. States Government entering enter-ing the League of Nations. That this was Senator Lodge's wrork more than that of any other man, President Wilson recognized. And whether Senator Lodge's motives in that work were mixed, has been another question. Certainly there was far too much personal feeling in the matter from whatever angle it may he viewed. Still, taking the long view of the thing itself, history may record that act of Senator Lodge's highest statesmanship. Certainly at the time, it was in concord with the state of public mindt. Otherwise Senator Sen-ator Lodge's work might not have found a so successful issue. In any event, it is easily the biggest political politi-cal feat the Massachusetts Senator ever achieved. The latter yeairs of his life saw" Mm' classed with the political reactionaries. reac-tionaries. Yet he was not reactionary; reaction-ary; he only maintained the status quo. Once his stand might have passed pas-sed for "progressive," hut political progress passed him. He stood still: progress moved on and left him behind1. be-hind1. Not that his principles were wrong; he was thoroughly American but there were other principles of which he did not seem to be aware. There remains behind him no memory mem-ory of vicious legislation which he fostered, no aspersion on his personal person-al character, no falsity to his trust as ho saw it. He belonged to a type of life which has passed from the stage; his points of view were necessarily neces-sarily from that type. |