to the extent of keeping the others from obtaining what certainly
was not theirs. It sounded grown-up; as a Nation we belonged not to
the sob-sisterhood, neither were we tied to the apronstring of the
Mothers of the Constitution.

Our national self-respect was restored. Truly, it required a mind
to discover "interests" in the cloud of words that Mr. Wilson and
the Senate had raised. Of course, it is all clear now, when
everybody scorns idealism and talks glibly of interests. "Hobbs
hints blue, straight he turtle eats; Nobbs prints blue, claret
crowns his cup." But it was Hughes who "fished the murex up," who
pulled "interests" out of the deep blue sea of verbal fuddlement.

And thinking of our dollars, thanks to Mr. Hughes, we are made sane
and whole, clearsighted and unafraid, standing erect among the
nations of the earth asking lustily for Yap.

Our foreign relations had been the subject of passion. Mr. Hughes
made them the subject of reason. Mr. Wilson could think of nothing
but his hatred of Lodge, which rendered an agreement with the
Senate impossible, and his hatred of Lloyd George and Marshal Foch,
which rendered cooperation with the Allies and through it
achievements in the foreign field that would have reconciled the
public to his policies, equally impossible.

Mr. Hughes looked at his task objectively. He saw the power of the
United States. He saw how easy it was to exert that power
diplomatically. He saw the simple and immediate concerns of the
United States. Foch says that he won the war, "by smoking his
pipe," meaning by keeping cool and regarding his means and ends