Recently it was merged with the
high command. As Secretary of State he was not creative, Mr.
Harding turning back to the solid ground of American international
policy, rested upon John Hay's open door and Knox's dollar
diplomacy. Root in foreign relations merely succeeded with the
Senate where Hay had failed. Always the advocate, he takes other
men's ideas, Hay's or Wilson's and justifies them or makes them
practical. His New York constitution failed, being unjustly
suspected. His world court has little better hope of acceptance,
for Mr. Hughes is not a voluntary sharer of glory.
In spite of it all, some greatness remains, the impression of a
powerful though limited intelligence. His career was to give us a
moral. It is: if you have an adroit and energetic mind you will
find public affairs uninteresting; except in their occasional
phases. If you have such a mind and must enter politics, hide it;
otherwise democracy will distrust you. Whatever you do, be dull.
HIRAM JOHNSON
Hiram Johnson would have enjoyed the French Revolution, if accident
had made him radical at that time. He would have been stirred by
the rising of the people; he would have given tongue to their
grievances in a voice keyed to lash them to greater fury. He would
have been excited by it as he never has been by the little risings
of the masses which he has made vocal.
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