Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-01-02
HUGHES HAS GREAT
MIND, BUT WITH
SERIOUS DEFECT
With All His High Mental Pow
ers He is Said to Lack
Imagination
ALMOST CAUSED
A FATAL FAILURE
Responsible for Approach to
Bad Break in Arms Con-
ference.
IS HAMPERED BY HARDING
n
S HAMPERED BY HARDING
By Charles Brewer Farmer.

Washington, Jan IA distinguished
American. who had tho Opportunity
% watching Charles T.. Hughes at
extremely close range for many days
talking with him on various subjects
which tax the mental faculties, re-
marked afterward
Hughes has ono Of tho greatest
minds in public life: but that mind
has ono Of the greatest defocts--lacl;
Of -7naglnatlon. Some day that viii
cause him trouble"
The UNNAMED speaker diagnosed 7
the case with an exactitude that can
not be denied.
II was Mr.. Hughes lack OF the
greatest gift which tho fairies give
at birth that almost caused the arms
conference TO fade into total and alb !
solutc failure last week. Those per-
sons who were IN Washington then.
occupying ring-sidc seats at this Dip
lomatic hippodromc. know how near
We were TO disaster.
J It cannot bo denied that the off-side
plays made by the good-hearted Hard
ing caused embarrassment more than
once. But Il was not those extraor-
difiary statements that the President
issued at one time and another that
rocked the conference. 1t was AIr.
Hughes lack Of imagination in deal
ing with tho Trench delegates.
I I Go not dctract from SIr. Hughes
liability, or position as a diplomat He
is human. not divine. know Of only
one perfect man in this topsy-turvy
world, and that is Henry Cabot Lodge
ot Back Bay-to judge by the flgura-
tive way in which his worshippers
bump their heads on the sidewalk
when that Republican ma jor-domo
J takes the air on Pennsylvania avenue.
And Of course Lodge can do TO wrong.
Hughes, being human even as you
; and I, has his moments OF greatness
and then his diplomatic foot slips and
he fails with n tremendous crash. But
mono laugh. We only sigh. We regret
. thar he also cannot be divine.
Mr.. Hughes great error was IN not
treating the French as equals in the
preliminary discussions leading TO the
: reduction OF capital ships in the
worlds navies.
On that rather eyentful day, No.
J vember IL, 1921, Mr.. Hughes laid down
S a proposal to restrict the nayies OF the
I United States, Great Britain and ia
pan. He dismissed France and ItaI,
e from consideration for the time being
G 81 much rs saying that they were
negligible factors only on the Sever
: Seas.
d That logical mind OF our Secretar,
S Of State had canyassed the situation
e and, looking at it as an un-inaginativ,
. lawyer would, he saw that France
: navy was small compared with thos,
: OF the big Three. Why worr,
y about 81 at the outset? First, curl
: tho British Lion. tie the tail Of tn
y japanese TIGER, draw the claws from
e the American Eagle, and then, an,
rot until then, consider France, an
! her Mediterranean neighbor. Italy.
That was the logical, (and un-imag
e lnative) thing to do.
. So. france and Italy were disnlIsse
i as being only fourth-and-ffth rat
m naval powers. That is exactly wha
's they are. But the French tempera
:, ment is a first-rate one, no matte
to what the navy may be. When th
re Japanese-yellow, heather folk, cor
y sidered by the French TO be a vastl
? inferior raee--were kow-towed 70, an
u the French dismissed for the time bein
re With diplomatic hand waving, Frenc
he honor was deeply wounded,
J. II Hughes had had the imasinatio
~ to see that France would resent bein
considered as inferior in naval matter
or to Japan, our present trouble over sui
I'd marines might not have arisen. II h
could have looked into the future, an
: seeing things there. said to himseli
france is only a fourth-rate nav'
II power, but French pride IS cnormou
II must tlattcr the French n bit. Mab
H them think that we consider them
great naval power, take them int
H the preliminary discussion. ask Brian
and Sarraut and dc Bon and Niviai
Ger their opinions on everything al
then do as We please after we hay
heard their opinions II Mr. Hugh
All Continual on page 2.