Foreign hard lines become Tillman's Senate leverage

With committee access to briefings and diplomats, Tillman could urge Japan and other powers to hold firmer limits than American negotiators preferred. Their resistance would give him cover to demand a settlement that allowed more tonnage and continued construction rather than a clean halt. At home, he could offer the votes of his disciplined Senate faction in exchange for the treaty meeting his agreed levels. The scenario therefore makes naval diplomacy serve jobs, votes, and Democratic control of Congress instead of treating arms limitation as separate from domestic politics.