It is much easier to detect the failings and peculiarities of aliens than it is to recognize our own shortcomings; and if in these pages we have exulted somewhat over the successes of our delegates in checkmating the designs of our European associates, this is not to be taken as any boast that we ourselves were too disinterested and altruistic to overlook the main chance for ourselves. The truth is that, although all the belligerents were in the field primarily to win a victory of arms, not one of them entirely lost contact with the counting room. This was clearly shown in the American arrangements for the supply of French artillery. The numerical expansion of the A. E. F. in the spring and summer of 1918 resulted in a greatly increased demand by the A. E. F. for French artillery and ammunition. America supplied schedules of the raw materials which she could furnish, and the French made estimates of the numbers of guns they could deliver monthly to the A. E. F. But this was all understanding and mutual agreement--no formal contract was drawn. When Mr. Stettinius reached Paris in the summer of 1918, he immediately began to press to get this agreement down in black and white, so that America might know exactly what her obligations were. At that time, of course, there was no thought that the war would end within the year. About the 1st of November, however, it became evident that an armistice was drawing near, and immediately the Americans grew lukewarm on the subject of a formal contract. The reason was evident. Under the terms of a formal contract, America’s termination obligations would be questions of fact; with the affair left as an unwritten agreement, our obligations would be questions of equity, to be negotiated, and we were likely to emerge from such negotiations in better case financially than we should be if held by the set and rigid conditions of a formal contract.