rris
went on, "which he got up and objected to the way the five big
nations--America, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan--was, so to
speak, hogging the convention."

"Well, I think the Reverend Hyman was right, at that," Abe said, "which
I just finished reading Mr. Wilson's speech at that meeting, Mawruss, in
which he said that no longer should the select classes govern the rest
of mankind, y'understand, and after the American, French, British,
Italian, and Japanese delegates gets through applauding what Mr. Wilson
says, they select themselves to run the rest of the nations in the
League of Nations. Naturally an ex-minister like the Reverend Hyman is
going to say, 'Why don't you practise what you preach?'"

"And if he wouldn't of been an ex-minister, Abe," Morris said, "the
chances is that Chairman Clemenceau would of whispered a few words into
the cauliflower ear of one of the sergeants-at-arms, and when the
session closed, y'understand, the hat-check boy would have had one hat
left over with the initials M. H. in it which Mr. Hyman didn't have time
to claim before he hit the car tracks, y'understand, and I wouldn't
blame Chairman Clemenceau, neither, because, if this here Peace
Conference is going to end this side of nineteen-fifty, it's got to be
speeded up some."

[Illustration: "I wouldn't blame Chairman Clemenceau neither, because if
this here Peace Conference is going to end this side of nineteen fifty,
it's got to be speeded up some."]

"Nobody says it 'ain't," Abe agreed, "but this here M. Hyman is a
Belgium and he's got a right to be heard."

"He _would_ have if everybody didn't admit that Belgium shall be
protected in every which way, Abe," Morris agreed, "but there is also a
lot of small nations which has got delegates at the Peace Convention,
like Cuba, y'understand, and some of them South American republics, and,
once you begin with them fellers, where are you going to leave off?
Take, for instance, the Committee on Reparation, which has got charge of
deciding how much money Germany ought to pay for losses suffered by the
countries which made war on her, y'understand, and there wasn't one of
them Spanish-American republics which didn't want to get appointed on
that committee, because, when the Reparation Committee gets to work,
practically all of them republics is going to come along with claims
for smoke damages, bills for labor in connection with ripping out the
fixtures of confiscated German