Postwar Realist

One Senator also took a positive step toward the future last week, and the Senate watched him with respect. Massachusetts' handsome young Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. made a postwar speech remarkable in two important respects: 1) it took for granted that the debate about U.S. participation in the postwar world had proceeded from the whether to the how stage; 2) it stressed national self-interest in the clearest terms yet used.

Senator Lodge based his speech on a simple fact which many Americans are unaware of: at the rate natural resources are being used up in World War II, the U.S. may be a have-not nation after the war. in such once-plentiful basic materials as oil. To Republican Lodge, this fact alone had forever ended any thought that the U.S. could remain isolated from the rest of the world. It also provided a simple, realistic foundation for postwar agreements. Said Senator Lodge:

"It has become plain as day, and it is common sense to recognize, that our British and Russian allies are not only dedicated to the broad purpose of crushing Naziism and Fascism, but that they have a number of very definite and very practical national aims which have been frankly revealed to the world. . . . One of them--Britain--frankly intends to maintain the Empire, and the other--Russia--has clear intentions regarding Eastern Europe.

"We in the United States, on the other hand, are committed to speedy victory and to effective measures to preserve peace thereafter. But in the field of definite and practical aims there seems to be a vacuum. . ."

Debt and Debtors. "As a fervent believer in the pressing need of effective international collaboration after the war, I submit that the United States owes it to the world as well as to herself to define her needs. . . ."

"We must develop a policy based on national self-interest guided by justice, which will bring people together as Americans regardless of racial differences. Such a policy can be based on those things which we must have from outside our borders to maintain our democracy, our military establishment and our influence for peace in the family of nations. Some of the things which should be the objects of international agreement are:

>"Vital natural resources which we either lack completely or of which our supply is growing scarce. . . .

>"Equality with other nations in international radio, telegraph and telephone.

>"An opportunity for free competition in international aviation.

>"A real chance for our new, big merchant marine.

>"Equitable arrangements in the field of international exchange.

> "Naval, military and air bases to safeguard the approaches to the United States.

"Agreement on these practical matters will make agreement easier on the great political problems. It is a fruitful approach which will unite the people. . . ."

Natural Death. Senator Lodge is the grandson of the late Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, the great World War I archfoe of Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations. In the days of the prewar, interventionist-isolationist debate, he was often on the side of the isolationists.

Last week his bell-ringing speech, with its realistic mixture of self-interest and global thinking, won applause in the hardened Senate, and praise from men who had stood on both sides of the old debate. Speechmaker and applause were one more proof that the old cartoon figure labeled "Isolationist," which some pundits are still busy beating to death, had long since died of natural causes.

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