Editing Charles Evans Hughes (section)

===Washington Naval Treaty===
Hughes's major initiative in office was preventing an [[arms race]] among the three great naval powers of Britain, [[Empire of Japan|Japan]], and the United States. After Senator [[William Borah]] led passage of a resolution calling on the Harding administration to negotiate an arms reduction treaty with Japan and Britain, Hughes convinced those countries as well as Italy and France to attend a naval conference in Washington. Hughes selected an American delegation consisting of himself, former Secretary of State [[Elihu Root]], Republican Senator [[Henry Cabot Lodge]], and Democratic Senator [[Oscar Underwood]]. Hughes hoped that the selection of Underwood would ensure bipartisan support for any treaty arising from the conference.

Prior to the conference, Hughes had carefully considered possible treaty terms since each side would seek terms that would provide its respective navy with subtle advantages. He decided to propose an arms reduction formula based on the immediate halting of all naval construction, with future construction limits based on the ship tonnage of each country. The formula would be based on the ship tonnage ratio of 1920, which stood at roughly 5:5:3 for the United States, Britain, and Japan, respectively. Knowing that US and foreign naval leaders would resist his proposal, he anxiously guarded it from the press, but he won the support of Root, Lodge, and Underwood.<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Simon|2012|pp=154–156}}</ref>

The [[Washington Naval Conference]] opened in November 1921, attended by five national delegations, and in the gallery by hundreds of reporters and dignitaries such as Chief Justice Taft and [[William Jennings Bryan]]. On the first day of the conference, Hughes unveiled his proposal to limit naval armaments. Hughes's ambitious proposal to scrap all US [[capital ship]]s under construction stunned the delegates, as did his proposals for the Japanese and British Navies.<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Simon|2012|pp=156–158}}</ref> The British delegation, led by [[Arthur Balfour]], supported the proposal, but the Japanese delegation, under the leadership of [[Katō Tomosaburō]], asked for several modifications. Katō asked for the ratio to be adjusted to 10:10:7 and refused to destroy the ''[[Japanese battleship Mutsu|Mutsu]]'', a [[dreadnought]] that many Japanese saw as a symbol of national pride. Katō eventually relented on the naval ratios, but Hughes acquiesced to the retention of the ''Mutsu'', leading to protests from British leaders. Hughes clinched an agreement after convincing Balfour to agree to limit the size of the [[Admiral-class battlecruiser]]s despite objections from the British Navy. Hughes also won agreement on the [[Four-Power Treaty]], which called for a peaceful resolution of territorial claims in the [[Pacific Ocean]], as well as the [[Nine-Power Treaty]], which guaranteed the territorial integrity of [[China]]. News of the success of the conference was warmly received around the world. [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] later wrote that the conference "brought to the world the first important voluntary agreement for limitation and reduction of armament."<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Simon|2012|pp=159–161}}</ref>[[File:Hughes party for Brazil LCCN2014715067.jpg|thumb|Hughes (fourth from right) leads a delegation to Brazil with [[Carl Theodore Vogelgesang]] in 1922]]