CO129-507-3 China- anti-piracy precautions 31-10-1927 - 25-10-1928 — Page 148

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The moral issue cannot be evaded. An unconscious boycott of American goods, based on growing enmity, is obviously beginning to operate in Latin America. And every day that our present hypo- critical Latin America policy goes on we are losing prestige in the field of international relations; every day we are gaining the increased enmity of all the American continent outside our own borders.

JJ

The time may come when we shall need friends in the western continent and elsewhere in the world. Before we discovered dollar diplomacy we had grown from a wilderness and a strip of seaboard to be the greatest and most respected nation in the world; we traded with all countries; our flag was welcomed wherever it went; and our trade followed the flag, because it was universally understood that behind our policy lay a high moral principle of ethics and govern- But to-day in Latin America we are rapidly dissipating the proud heritage of our traditions and history.

ment."

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I said that both the spirit and the letter of the Monroe doctrine were dead. No European Power is likely ever again to attempt to colonize the American continent. If such a move were made, it would immedi- ately call forth the armed opposition of the United States, regardless of the Monroe doctrine or any other policy. Thus, to keep the bare name of the Monroe doctrine alive, when its only excuse is as a cover for ulterior acts and motives, is a constant source of irritation on the American continent. The most statesmenlike policy which the United States could pursue in Latin America to-day would be officially to revive in all their force and integrity, in terms of present-day con- ditions, the ideals which the Monroe doctrine originally espoused.