THE UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY UNDER COOLIDGE AND KELLOGG
The United States Foreign Policy Under Coolidge and Kellogg PRESIDENT COOLIDGE, in one of a collection of speeches fittingly named "The Price of Freedom," says "CIVILIZATION AND PROFITS GO HAND IN...
...It is proven that Doheny's son delivered $100,000 in currancy in a satchel to Fall at his residence in Washington...
...Of these twin crimes against the peace of the world—the termination of the smuggling treaty with Mexico, the supplying of Diaz with munitions, Senator Norris, whose able and cautious statesmanship cannot be questioned, says: "The action of the President and Secretary of State, terminating the treaty with Mexico and the later announcement that the Government of the United States is selling arms and munitions of war to the pretender Diaz in Nicaragua, is shocking to every peace-loving citizen in civilization...
...But President Coolidge / said boats carrying munitions had been fitted out in Mexican ports and some of the munitions bore "evidence of having belonged to the Mexican government...
...Frederic William Wile, a well known Washington correspondent, in close touch with the administration, interprets President Coolidge's attitude toward China thus: "Mr...
...Even newspaper correspondents, who usually defend the administration policies, treated this flimsy excuse as bunk...
...Its object, in addition to putting a stop to smuggling of arms and ammunition into Mexico, was to prevent evasion of our immigration laws and also to prevent smuggling of liquor into the United States...
...Cool-idge's supporters, who do not approve of lifting the embargo, that it would be an act of idiocy which the President, however determined to have his own way, would not commit...
...Political observers take little stock jn the President's soothing words to the effect that he may not lift the embargo on munitions right away, even though the decks have been cleared for such action...
...the slogan that inspires his policies at home and abroad...
...Oil is the major interest of the United States in Mexico...
...there is no reason why they could not put a Czar on the throne in Russia and sell him, on time, upon his promissory note, the cannons and the guns now belonging to our Government...
...If the President ,and Secretary without consent of Congress can sell guns and munitions of war to be used by Diaz to keep him in power in Nicaragua, there is no reason why they could not sell some of our battleships to Mussolini...
...The House debate also disclosed a strong sentiment in favor of the United States keeping free from entangling relations with the other powers in China and especially of our acting independently of Great Britain, whose interests and policies we are not identified with and for which we should not become responsible...
...Absence of manufacturing plants in Mexico for the making of munitions strengthened the force of this denial...
...That is, having sold a large share of his interests to Standard Oil, Doheny guaranteed the titles and must make good...
...As in Mexico, as in Nicaragua, so in China the Coolidge program is based on the belief that "CIVILIZATION AND PROFITS GO HANI) IN HAND...
...Doheny did not hesitate to obtain title to oil lands in the United States, "by conspiracy, fraud and corruption...
...The hammer-and-tongs fashion in which the White House has gone to grips with the Chinese crisis reveals the President in a distinctly different mood," All this war-like spirit is being displayed under cover of protecting American lives and property in China...
...Oil is the largest single commercial interest of the United States in China...
...It looked to me as if once again the great unconquerable forces of progressive and scientific civilization were recognizing all that they had in common and all that they would have to face in common...
...On March 23rd, Secretary of State Kellogg admitted, to put it briefly, that the War Department of the United States had furnished on credit, at a very low price, rifles, machine guns and ammunition to Diaz, recognized by the Coolidge Administration as President of Nicaragua...
...Coolidge is showing the United States' teeth in China...
...It is this standard of civilization that has inspired a course in Mexico, Nicaragua and China that may any day start another world war with all its terrible consequences to mankind...
...It is plain that if our Government is to fortify itself against dangerous and complicated situations such as we now face, two fundamental principles must be established as the law of the land...
...The policy pursued in China has been in direct conflict with the spirit of the Porter resolution, endorsed by a two-thirds vote of the United States House of Representatives—the body most closely in touch with the sentiment of the people of the United States...
...The smuggling treaty required the United States Government to give the Mexican Government notice of all arms shipments across the border...
...It is contended by some of Mr...
...This is insignificant alongside of Doheny's 1,321,167 acres, producing 36.05 per cent of the Mexican oil...
...But it would not be any more foolish to lift the arms embargo than to take the stand that the differences between the United States and Mexico could not be arbitrated...
...The action in regard to Mexico is notice to those who want to overthrow the Government there that they will have a free hand in the shipping from our country to revolutionists of all the arms and munitions that may be needed...
...What we have done is everywhere interpreted to mean that we have become the ally of Great Britain in China...
...Disregarding the Senate resolution and the sentiment of the people back of it, holding his own opinion above that of the highest authorities on international law, President Coolidge stubbornly asserted that property rights of United States citizens in Mexico did not admit of arbitration...
...Mellon's- pre1917 properties — Mexican Gulf Oil Company—are estimated by the Government at 60,322 acres, producing 5.6 per cent of the en- . tire national output...
...The Porter resolution, like the Robinson Resolution, apparently made no impression upon President Coolidge and his Secretary of State...
...These titles are in escrow...
...More than once the Mexican government has denied having aided Sacasa with munitions...
...Senator Borah, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said last January-, speaking of conditions in China: "I am in favor of protecting our people, but I am in favor of protecting them at the present time, if necessary, by bringing them out of danger until all danger is past...
...This is the Doheny who conspired with Secretary of Interior Fall to rob the people of the United States of Elk Hills Naval Oil Reserves...
...United States citizens are now evacuating China from military necessity under the protection of shells and machine guns at needless cost of life and intense bitU'i uess of feeling—a catastrophe thai might, have, been averted if President Coolidge had heeded the Porter Resolution or if our Government had insisted on bringing United States citizens "out of danger until danger was over...
...His titles to a million or more of acres of oil lands in Mexico would not stand the scrutiny of the courts...
...Coolidge is playing the British game in China...
...Our course is not only injuring our national honor, but it is detrimental to our business and our commerce...
...Now we find that this meant that our own government was to engage in the business of furnishing Diaz with supplies necessary to cany on his war...
...In a recent decision the United States Supreme Court said of these Doheny-Fall leases'and contracts: "They constitute a single transaction — not authorized by law and consummated by conspiracy, fraud and corruption...
...Otherwise the constitutional power vested in Congress to determine when we shall engage in war is nullified and usurped by the Executive as is now being done by President Coolidge and Secretary of State Kellogg...
...It is by this standard of civilization that stealing the Naval Oil Reserves is condoned, the Mellon tax plan put over, bank monopoly fostered, farm relief vetoed...
...This agreement was of our own seeking...
...Nicaragua With the news of the termination of the smuggling treaty, came another startling disclosure...
...The State Department "explained" this momentous step, threatening the, peace of the world, on the ground of the absence of a commercial treaty with Mexico...
...Doheny therefore looms large as the chief obstacle to the settlement of our differences with Mexico by arbitration...
...We have not had a general commercial treaty with Mexico for over forty years...
...Mexico The Robinson Resolution, which passed the Senate unanimously January 25th last, declared it to be the sense of the Senate that the differences between this country and Mexico should be submitted to arbitration...
...Though we have intervened and taken possession of Nicaragua with an army so great that it is estimated to provide seven marines for the protection-of the life and property of each single United States citizen in civil life now in that country, President Coolidge was so impressed with the evidence of Mexican aid to Sacasa, he made it the pretext for notifying the Diaz government that licenses would be issued for the export of arms and munitions, purchased in this country...
...There is little to reassure us when we have the example of supreme bungling as evidenced by the Administration's Nicaraguan policy...
...Despite this plain sentiment expressed in Congress, Mr...
...Representative Henry Allen Cooper, of Wisconsin, whose long service on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, whose ability and integrity command universal consideration and respect for his opinion, said: "The Committe on Foreign Affairs held hearings on that resolution, at which appeared native-born Americans of long, some of almost lifelong, experience in China, men of high character and unblemished reputations, thoroughJy experienced in various branches of industry and business, and these witnesses all united in strongly urging the prompt adoption of the resolution, and in saying that if the State Department of this country will endeavor to negotiate with China in accordance with the spirit of the Porter resolution, there will not be the slightest difficulty in finding authority properly and effectively to represent the United Chinese people at the conference...
...China February 21st, last, the United States House of Representatives by a vote of 262 Yeas and 43 Nays approved the Porter resolution, as follows: "That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, respectfully requested to enter into negotiations with duly accredited agents of the Republic of China, authorized to speak for the people of China, with a view to the negotiation and the drafting of a treaty or of" treaties between the United States of America and the Republic of China which shall take the place of the treaties now in force between the two countries, which provide for the exercise in China-of American extraterritorial or jurisdictional rights . or limit her full autonomy with reference to the levying of customs dues or other taxes, or of such other treaty provisions as may be.found to be unequal or nonreciprocal in character, to the end that henceforth the treaty relations between the two countries shall be upon an equitable and reciprocal basis and will be such as will in no way offend the sovereign dignity of either of the parties or place obstacles in the way of realization by either of them of their several national aspirations or the maintenance by them of their several legitimate domestic policies.'' The objection interposed by the Secretary of State to the course suggested by the Porter resolution, that there was no party in authority in China with whom to negotiate, was answered satisfactorily again and again in the debate on the floor of the House...
...II" President Coolidge and Secretary of State Kellogg had been thinking only of rescuing American lives and property, they would have had all our nationals out of China long before the shelling of Nanking...
...Such notice is no longer required...
...In a special message to Congress January 10th last, on the Nicaraquan situation, President Coolidge dwelt at length on the evil conduct of Mexico in furnishing arms to Sacasa, recognized by the Calles administration as the legal President of Nicaragua...
...It may be that the truth— " the whole truth—as to the status of Doheny's Mexican holdings would be all the proof needed to breakdown the opposition in the United States to the enforcement of Mexico's land laws...
...The United States Foreign Policy Under Coolidge and Kellogg PRESIDENT COOLIDGE, in one of a collection of speeches fittingly named "The Price of Freedom," says "CIVILIZATION AND PROFITS GO HAND IN HAND...
...Here you have his philosophy in a nutshell...
...In an analysis of whose property rights are at stake in the Mexican controversy, Carletou Beals, able publicist, for many years a student of Mexican affairs, says in the New Republic: "This matter simmers down to this: Among the recalcitrant elements, but two are 100 per cent non-law abiding: the Mellon and Doheny groups...
...On March 22nd, it was formally announced that the "anti-smuggling treaty"-an agreement reached a year ago between Mexico and the United States—would be terminated...
...The President is plainly ready to pledge the full influence of this country in the direction of obtaining a square deal for white nations...
...First—American citizens, who invest vast sums in foreign countries must do so at their own risk...
...the key to an understanding of every move he makes in the great game of politics...
...Since the adjournment of Congress, President Coolidge and Secretary of State Kellogg have gone to great lengths in carrying out their policy of compelling the Mexican Government to make good the titles of Doheny and other United States oil kings, doing business in Mexico...
...Second—The right of Congress to an authoritative voice in shaping foreign policies must be recognized...
...A London dispatch, dated March 25th, quotes this extract from a speech by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer Churchill: "I am bound to say that I felt a .strong feeling of sentiment when I read of the Coldstream Guards and the United States Marines standing side by side...
Vol. 19 • April 1927 • No. 4
