had failed to ratify it.

The treaty thus became the leading issue in the presidential campaign,
but unfortunately it was not the only issue. The election proved to be
a referendum on the Wilson administration as a whole rather than on the
treaty. The Republican candidate, Senator Harding, attacked the Wilson
administration for its arbitrary and unconstitutional methods and
advocated a return to "normalcy." He denounced the Wilson League as an
attempt to set up a super-government, but said he favored an
association of nations and an international court. Governor Cox, the
Democratic candidate, came out strongly for the treaty, particularly
during the latter part of his campaign. The result was an overwhelming
victory for Harding. President Wilson had been too ill to take any
part in the campaign. His administration had been the chief issue, and
the people had, certainly for the time being, repudiated it. He
accepted the result philosophically and refrained from comments,
content, apparently, to leave the part he had played in world affairs
to the verdict of history. In December, 1920, the Nobel Peace Prize
was awarded to him as a foreign recognition of the services he had
rendered to humanity.

XII

THE WASHINGTON CONFERENCE

After the rejection of the Treaty of Versailles by the Senate,
President Wilson withdrew as far as possible from participation in
European affairs, and after the election of Harding he let it be known
that he would do nothing to embarrass the incoming administration. The
public had been led to believe that when Harding became President there
would be a complete reversal of our foreign policy all along the line,
but such was not to be the case. The new administration continued
unchanged the Wilson policy toward Mexico and toward Russia, and before
many months had passed was seeking from Congress the authority,
withheld from Wilson, to appoint a member on the Reparations
Commission. On the question of our rights in mandated areas, Secretary
Hughes adopted in whole the arguments which had been advanced by
Secretary Colby in his note to Great Britain of November 20, 1920, in
regard to the oil resources of Mesopotamia. By the San Remo agreement
of April 25, 1920, Great Britain and France had agreed upon a division
of the oil output of Mesopotamia by which France was to be allowed 25
per cent. and Great Britain 75 per cent. The British Government had
intimated that the United Stat