Testing the Monroe Doctrine
THE COMMONWEAL A Weekly Review of Literature, The...
...World politics generally follows world trade, and it is far from unlikely that with the growing liiiportance of the Panama route from Europe to Asia, European capital wiLl seek and obtain a stronger foothold in Latin America...
...That would be unimportant were it not for another fact which makes it supremely important...
...This fact is so little known, and so important to any understanding of our peculiar position today, that the supporting historical facts should be dearly stated...
...Johannes Jorgensen 68 Subercaseaux and Umbria...
...Now the doctrine in this form and resting on these questionable assumptions is very far 'indeed from the doctrine originally planned by MONROE and his Secretary of State, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS...
...Margaret Hill Skinner 67 Saint Francis of Assisi...
...In the first place, the general idea that the American continents should have a political system apart from Europe and Asia was even more a South Amer...
...But if so, the Monroe Doctrine is cquaUy impracticable as a moral instrument...
...Their views were formulated after long and dose study of the conditions under which Latin America won independence...
...Henry J. Ford 78 Briefer Mention 79 Books So The Quiet Corner St TESTING THE MONROE DOCTRINE () N December 2, the Monroe Doctrine completes the first year of its second century—a respectable if somewhat hoary tradition to which we have dung with amazing zeal...
...Where is this likely to lead us...
...Thomas J. Shahan 69 Theophany Michael Williams 72 The Thunderers (verse) '1...
...The strangest fact of all is that the Doctrine no longer bean any clear resemblance to the original ideas of MONROE himself...
...It was dearly the motive of Mow~oE and ADAMS to improve the moral aspect of the Monroe Doctrine by creating a previous agreement similar ira effect to the Belgian neutrality treaty...
...The Latin republics arc now bringing their interests to the council table of the League at Geneva, where we arc officially absent...
...reasons, we delayed so long in sending our Commissioners that very little was accomplished...
...Communications 75 The Play R. Dana Skinner 77 The Source of Klan Sentiment...
...For various and complex...
...Undoubtedly Grcat Britain would han takcn thc same action, but with the great moral differcace that she would havc had no justification other than the pica of self intcrcst and ultimate self defense...
...Should foreign powers suddenly decide to take action agaicat aLatin state--to collect a debt or protcct a concessioa—our only hope w~u1d then lic in our military and in our naval strength...
...New York, Wednesday, November 26, 1924 Number 3 CONTENTS Testing the Monroe Doctrine Week by Week 57 Must the Musician Starve~ An Ancient Typography 59 Religious ToleranceT...
...and, third, that were it challenged, we are prepared to sustain it by force of arms...
...second, that the European and Asiatic powers acknowledge its justice...
...Europe and Asia arc taking the place in theIr affairs that, under thc real Monroe policy, we would still hold...
...The czistcncc of an Amcrican system is hcnccforth a reality only in so far as our army and navy can make it real...
...We rest smugly content in the knowledge that for the time being Europe and Asia respect our wishes...
...This is perhaps one of the most delicate and difficult foreign problems facing the new Coolidge administration...
...CooLIDGE in the next four years...
...Wc ourselves arc so completely aware of the integrity of our intentions regarding Latin American territory, and of our determination to act only when we know (or think we know) that the measures we adopt arc for the benefit of the whole Western hemisphere, that we frequently overlook the distressing impression created in Latin America itself by our single handed and autocratic policy...
...ItMics ours.] To make the Doctrine a Pan-American declaration in this manner would have influenced profoundly our position today...
...These two men were the first to give us a definite Latin American policy...
...It was, in tbc minds of MONROE and ADAMS, only the first step in ? program which had for its final object a PanAmerican doctrine embodying the same idea but supported by the joint declaration of all the American republics and the express agreement that each would sustain it by force of arms...
...But had the plans succeeded, our obligation to dcfcnd Latin America against European or Asiatic aggression would have been dear and unmistakable, requiring further justification neither before foreign powers nor before the Latin Americans themselves...
...Instead, any action we migbt threaten or take today would rest solely on our selfinterest...
...We may broadly paraphrase the present view by saying that the Monroe Doctrine sets off the Western hemisphere (with the exception of Canada, the British West Indies and the three Guianas) as a zone where the interests of the United States are so PZFlIIROunt that we should consider it an unfriendly act on the part of any European or Asiatic power to intervene for any cause whatsoever without the previous consent of the United States...
...Lawrason Riggs 6o The Superconscious Jules Bois6± Civilization and Civilizers...
...Its foundation has disappeared...
...MONROE, thereforc, had back of him the solid moral acquiescence of the Latin republics when he delivered his famous message in December, 1823...
...C. ~3 Mussolini and His Future...
...The element of an American alliance has disappeared...
...Henry Longan Stuart 6~ Time and Grief (verse) - . Theodosia Garrison 67 To Pierrot (verse) Gertrude Callaghan 67 Mistress of the Night...
...But ict us suppose for argument that there had been no Belgian neutrality treaty...
...bly ~ndaz~ger world peace and still further alienate the friendship i~ad cc~afidwa of our neighbors in the South...
...But many Latin Americans were working towards it as early as 1787...
...We now place Latin Americans in the humiliating position of accepting our over-lordship of this hemisphere, without waking them explicitly partners in an American independent system...
...In respect to their judgment and to the new conditions arising today we ought to examine their ideas afresh and determine whether they were not wiser and more far-sighted than our own...
...But this may not always bc true...
...In this case, Britain's action was applauded throughout most of thc world as evidence of her good faith...
...A cicar decision by our government as to just what we shall make of the Doctrine, just how we shall apply 14 and how far, if at all, we shall back it by force, would appcar to be an imperative tauk for Mr...
...It would have madc it our duty under treaty agreement to support Latin America against foreign aggression...
...L. J. S. Wood 74...
...In 1825-6, when ADAMs had become President, the Latin Republics invited us to join the first Pan-American congress on the Isthmus of Panama...
...From this may result daims and disputes of a highly inflammatory nature...
...THE COMMONWEAL A Weekly Review of Literature, The Arts, and Public Affairs...
...ity by Great Britain...
...JEFFERsoN, to be sure, Volume I THE COMMONWEAL November i6, [924 stated it unequivocally in 18x3...
...iean belief than our own...
...It may be so developed to the new Southern nations That they will all feel it as an essential appendage to their independence...
...It itmains quIte brutally no more than a military thrcat, utterly devoid of the moral and political force it might have had...
...Before any such event clouds thc sky, we ought to consider most carefully not only our military power to sustain the Monroe Doetrinc, but even more seriously the definite assurance of Latin American moral support It may be tat the virtual establishment of a League of American Nations—which, after all, is what MoNRoE wanted—is now impossible...
...We have literally handcd away the political leadership which MONROE sought to solidify...
...A new method of guiding international relations is rapidly gaining force and momentum at Geneva and will in a brief space compel us either to abandon the Doctrine entirely or bring it back to the original concept of MoJSXoB...
...Perhaps the best illusrarion 'we can draw from recent history of the moral effect of an agrccment prcceding military action is the dcfcnsc of Beighin neutral...
...They would not have imposed upon the Latin states the status of neutrals...
...To make this point dear, it is both essential and interesting to grasp the real divergence between the Monroe Doctrine as we now accept it and the vision which MONROE himself had of it...
...This was more than two years since announced by my pTedecenaT [in the Monroe Doctrine) as a principle resulting from the emmndpaion of both American continents...
...The effectiveness of this policy depends on three distinct assumptions: First, that the Latin republics give it their moral sanction...
...Here arc his words:— An agreement between all the parties represented at the meeting, that each will guard by its atm means, against the cizablishment of any future European colony within its borders may bc found advisable...
...But the point we forget is that this message was an emergency measure calculated to meet the growing insolence and interference of thc Holy AlJiancc in Europe...
...To leave so serious a matter in further obscurity wocid quite poni...
...She had a moral obligation to defend Belgium against the aggressor...
...But m his message to Congress on the Panama mission, Amuts made very dear the exact development he and MoNRoE envIsaged for the Monroe Doctrine...
Vol. 1 • November 1924 • No. 3
