Casey at the Bat

Personable, blue-blooded, Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. of Massachusetts has said yes in too many different ways for Franklin Roosevelt's liking-yes to isolation, yes to support of the war effort. Last week the President blessed and backed the Senatorial candidacy of a man who says yes only to the President: young (42), squarejawed, curly-haired, Representative Joseph E. Casey.

Fighting-Irish, a Roman Catholic, Casey stands well with labor. He was a private in World War I; he first ran for Congress in 1926. He first won in 1934, has served ever since with little opposition.

In his six senatorial years, handsome Henry Lodge voted to limit the use of U.S. forces to the Western Hemisphere, to restrict transfer of naval craft, to make a two-billion loan instead of Lend-Lease. Then he voted for Lend-Lease, then to retain the neutrality act, then to declare war, thus taking all sides. Now a major in a Fort Benning armored division (he was detached to make a visit to Egypt), Lodge will have to resign from the Army or resign from the Senate-under a Presidential directive that serves to keep Lodge or anyone else from campaigning in absentia or in uniform.

Casey's confident backers say their boy will get plenty of votes from labor, New Dealers, and Willkie Republicans who prefer him to Lodge, and from Catholics to whom a Massachusetts birth-control referendum will be an added reason for voting.

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