teries of foreign relations than having had a father born in
Wales and having spent his vacations in England, probably in the
lake region studying the topography of Wordsworth's poetry,--a
certain oft detected resemblance to Wilson must make Wordsworth his
favorite poet, as he was Wilson's,--in ten days was he not a great
Secretary of State; and in three months the greatest Secretary of
State? To be sure, back of him was the strongest nation on the
earth, left so by the war, the one nation with resources, the
creditor of all the others, to which a successful foreign policy
would be naturally easy if it could only decide what that policy
should be.

It was left to Mr. Hughes to say what it should be. His discovery
of the word "interests," amazed Washington; it was so obvious, so
simple that no one else had thought of it. Mr. Hughes' mind works
like that;--hard, cold, unemotional, not to be turned aside, it
simplifies everything, whether it be a treaty fight that has
confused everyone else in the land, or a rambling Cabinet
discussion; whether it be the mess in which the war left Europe, or
the chaos in which watchful waiting left Mexico. His is a mind that
delights in formulae. He has one for Europe. He has one for Mexico.
It is an analytical, not a synthetical mind, a lawyer's mind, not a
creator's, like Wilson's, with, perhaps it may turn out, a fatal
habit of over-simplification. Life is not a simple thing after
all.

But effective simplification is instantly overwhelming; and he made
his brief announcement, a few days after taking office, that the
United States had won certain things as a belligerent, that it had
not got them, that he was going after them, that other countries
could expect nothing from us until they had recognized our rights
and our interests; he had completely routed the Senate, which had
been opposing Wilson's ideals with certain ideals of its own,
pitting Washington's farewell address against "breaking the heart
of the world," in a mussy statement of sentimentality.

Mr. Hughes talked of islands and oil and dollars; and the country
came to its senses. Mr. Wilson had pictured us going into world
affairs as an international benefactor; it was sobby and suggested
a strain on our pocketbooks. The Senate had pictured us staying out
of them because our fathers had warned us to stay out and because
the international confidence men would cheat us; it was
Sunday-school-booky and unflattering. Mr. Hugh