a little territory, a few
islands, or a region out of which we subsequently carve half a
dozen States, is found adhering to us. Mr. Wilson offered us a war
in which, of course, we sought nothing and found, at the end of it,
not the customary few trifles of territory, but the whole
embarrassing, beggarly world adhering to us. The thumbscrew and the
rack could not wring from Mr. Hughes the admission that we are
after anything more lofty than our interests.

One of the present Secretary's "Don'ts" of similar derivation is
"Don't have a fight with the Senate unless you make sure first that
you have the public with you."

Mr. Hughes does not run away from fights; he likes them. But
believing God to be on the side with the most battalions, and
intending scrupulously to observe this last "Don't," in order to
secure the necessary popular support, he is as Secretary of State,
"handing the government back to the people," just as he did when
governor,--a little less self-consciously, perhaps, a little less
noisily, but still none the less truly.

He is the most democratic Secretary of State this Country has ever
had, and this includes Bryan to whose school, as has just been
remarked, he originally belonged. If we are ever to have democratic
control of foreign relations, it will be by the methods of Mr.
Hughes, because of the training and beliefs of Mr. Hughes, and as a
consequence of the most undemocratic control of foreign relations
which our Constitution attempted to fasten upon us.

A successful foreign policy requires public understanding and
support. The makers of the Constitution established in our
government a nice balance of powers between the various
departments, beautifully adjusted until someone thought of putting
a stone into one side of the balance. That stone is the people. The
Fathers of the Constitution had not noticed it. The executive put
it into its end of the balance some years ago, and the legislative
has been kicking the beam ever since. One nice bit of balancing was
that between the Senate and the Executive on treaty making. In
foreign relations, the President can do everything, and he can do
nothing without the approval of two thirds of the Senate. It is a
nice balance, which broke the heart of John Hay, frittered away the
sentimentalities of Mr. Bryan, and destroyed Mr. Wilson.

No one ever thought of putting the stone into it until the Senate
did so two years ago, by discussing the Versailles treat