s he has no scruples about consistency.

Mr. Lodge's principles are so stern that he refused to consent to
Colombia being paid for the territory seized by President
Roosevelt. Mr. Lodge made a report (this was when Mr. Wilson was
President, and I mention it merely as an historical fact) in which
he denounced Colombia's claim as blackmail, resented it as an
insult to the memory of Mr. Roosevelt, and declared in approved
copybook fashion (being fond of platitudes), that friendship
between nations cannot be bought. Later (this was when Mr. Harding
was President, and I mention it merely as an historical fact) as
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, he brought in a
report urging the ratification of the treaty, and discovered that
Mr. Roosevelt had really been in favor of the treaty, expunged the
unpleasant word blackmail from his lexicon, and sapiently observed,
so impossible is it for him not to indulge in platitudes, that
sometimes a nation has to pay more for a thing than it is really
worth; a reflection that would have done credit to the oracular
wisdom of Captain Jack Bunsby.

Mr. Lodge attacked the treaty of peace with Germany while it was
still in process of negotiation and severely criticised Mr. Wilson
for not having consulted the Senate. That the Senate has no right
to ask about the details of a treaty before the President sends it
in for ratification is a constitutional axiom which Mr. Lodge, with
his customary mental infidelity, caressed at one time and spurned
at another.

When the treaty with Spain was before the Senate (that was when Mr.
McKinley was President, and I mention it merely as an historical
fact) it was attacked by some of the Democrats. To silence these
criticisms Mr. Lodge said, "We have no possible right to break
suddenly into the middle of a negotiation and demand from the
President what instructions he has given to his representatives.
That part of treaty making is no concern of ours."

The Democrats attempted to defeat the ratification of the treaty,
and if that was done, said Mr. Lodge, "we repudiate the President
and his action before the whole world, and the repudiation of the
President in such a matter as this is, to my mind, the humiliation
of the United States in the eyes of the civilized world." The
President could not be sent back to say to Spain "with bated
breath" (even in his most solemn moments Mr. Lodge cannot resist
the commonplace) "we believe we have been too v