es said we should go
in to the extent of obtaining what was ours, and that we should stay
out 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
with the same detachment with which he would study an old campaign
of Napoleon. I do not know on what sedative Mr. Hughes wins his
diplomatic victories, as he does not smoke a pipe;--perhaps by
reading the Sunday School Times. But like the French Marshal, he
knows the secret of keeping his head. It is a great quality of mind
not to lose it when you most need it. Mr. Hughes has it. Perhaps
this is why Washington remarks his mind; he always has it with him.

"I am not thinking of myself in my work here," he said once. "I
don't care about immediate acclaim. I am counsel for the people of
this country. If a generation from now they think their interests
have been well represented, that will be enough."

He is coldly objective.

Mr. Hughes comes by