An Ex-Soldier Speaks

In 1944 Massachusetts' handsome young Senator Henry Cabot Lodge resigned his Senate post and went off to war. He served in Africa, Italy, France and Germany, won the Legion of Merit and the French Legion of Honor, was upped to a lieutenant colonelcy. This week, back as a civilian, Cabot Lodge made his first postwar speech before the Minneapolis Foreign Policy Association--and revealed how his ideas had grown during the fighting.

Said he: "The ideal of a provincial nation of simple, humble people, far from the beaten track . . . has given way to realization that we have become the world's greatest power. . . . Even if we elected to do nothing whatever, we would be inextricably involved in everything that takes place in the world. . . .

"The United Nations Organization is our best hope. ... [It deserves] the best that is in us of intelligence, forbearance, farsightedness and faith. . . . We must give it things to do, so that its muscles will grow strong by exercise.

"Our relations with Russia at present overshadow all international relations. . . .

"We have each done much to insult, antagonize and thwart the other. In the past few months the loose talk has grown to proportions which to me seem dangerous. [But] we must have an efficient working arrangement with Russia. . . . This involves not only our diplomats; it imposes an obligation on all of us to think clearly and fairly, and to speak with firmness and restraint. . . .

"We not only want a strong America--we want a kind and generous America. Common humanity demands that we help. . . .

"The question of economic loans . . . should be decided on a broad and far-sighted basis. . . . Let the terms correspond with the facts and the probabilities. Such loans, even though they may appear to some to be unusually liberal, can in the end be helpful not only to the country which receives them, but to the United States as well."

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