<P> The U.S. public was largely unwelcoming of the new "arms race". The United States Congress disapproved of Wilson's 1919 naval expansion plan, and during the 1920 presidential election campaign, politics returned to the non-interventionalism of the prewar era, with little appetite for continued naval expansion . Britain could also ill afford any resumption of battleship construction, given the exorbitant price of naval construction . </P> <P> In late 1921, the US government became aware that Britain was planning a conference to discuss the strategic situation in the Pacific and Far East . To forestall the conference and satisfy domestic pressure for a global disarmament conference, the Harding administration called the Washington Naval Conference during November 1921 . </P> <P> At the first plenary session held November 21, 1921, US Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes presented his country's proposals . Hughes provided a dramatic beginning for the conference by stating with resolve: "The way to disarm is to disarm". The ambitious slogan received enthusiastic public endorsement and likely shortened the conference while helping ensure his proposals were largely adopted . He subsequently proposed the following: </P> <Ul> <Li> A ten - year pause or "holiday" in the construction of capital ships (battleships and battlecruisers), including the immediate suspension of all capital ship building . </Li> <Li> The scrapping of existing or planned capital ships to give a 5: 5: 3: 1.75: 1.75 ratio of tonnage with Britain, the United States, Japan, France and Italy respectively . </Li> <Li> Ongoing limits of both capital ship tonnage and the tonnage of secondary vessels with the 5: 5: 3 ratio . </Li> </Ul>

Secretary of state responsible for the successful negotiation of the washington naval treaty of 1922