ABSTRACT
None of the leading nations had an accurate sense of its international situation after World War I. The United States proposed to leave Europe to its own impoverished resources. America had ratified the decision to reject the League of Nations with the victory of Harding in 1920. A great lawyer of imperturbable dignity, a former presidential candidate, a past associate Supreme Court justice and future chief justice, Charles Evans Hughes had the necessary professional intelligence and capacity for compromise. Hughes had to soften the reparations demand in a way the Allies, especially the French, would accept, while leaving the war debts inviolate. Germany never had the money to pay reparations. She was not permitted to build up the great trade surpluses which would have provided it, since the old Allies were her major trading partners and refused to accept trade deficits for themselves.
