PRES. COOLIDGE DEFENDS HIS FOREIGN POLICY
Pres. Coolidge Defends His Foreign Policy "By their works ye shall know them" PRESIDENT COOLIDGE opened his speech in New York, April 25th, by once more appealing to the press of the country to...
...The persistent rumors that Secretary of State Kellogg was going to retire and that Mr...
...He utterly ignores the facts with regard to Sacasa's rights to the Presidency, and goes so far as to assert that "We are not making war in Nicaragua any more than a policeman makes war on passersby...
...our natural friends have become our potential enemies...
...Two things induced the President to modify the stand he had taken on Mexico...
...In this age, exploitation and conquest are done in the name of civilization...
...Hoover a breakfast, after which, epeaking as his "spokesman," Mr...
...The strong bond of friendship that existed between us and China has been severely strained...
...The banks called a halt and there is hope that their restraining hand will cause the Coolidge administration to adopt a kindlier attitude and move more carefully in its future dealings with Mexico...
...But in his speech to the United Press, President Coolidge implies that even in his time an editor who criticizes our foreign policy is guilty of giving aid and comfort to the enemy...
...Foreign policy from the early days of the Republic to the present time has been the subject of criticism, both in peace and war...
...but there is little certainty in that declaration, when we take a survey of the course the administration has pursued in Nicaragua, Mexico and China...
...For just as WE dedicated ourselves to individual freedom from domination to other individuals so does OUR IDEAL DEMAND FREEDOM OF EACH NATION FROM DOMINATION*BY OTHERS...
...In fact the President, without the consent of Congress, has created a virtual state of war with our Nicaraguan sister republic...
...but the truce can not be of long duration...
...The President's statement that "Our actions will at all times be those of a friend solicitious for the well-being of the Chinese people," would be more comforting to the millions in this country, who are opposed to our interfering in China, were it not for the concentration of the Powers' fleet, including some of our vessels GOO miies up the Yangtse, opposite Hankow, the nationalist capital, and the dispatch of more marines for duty in China, Our continued joint action with the military and naval forces of the Powers makes it hard for the Chinese to believe that our intentions square with the friendly pronouncements of the President that our forces are in China only to protect our Nationals...
...Hoover discussed at length the mutual interest and interdependence of the nations of the Western Hemisphere...
...During his administration President Coolidge has recklessly antagonized our Latin American neighbors...
...Hoover to the skies...
...second, the business with Latin America is on the basis of several months in advance...
...Hoover would succeed him, evidently nettled the President and, speaking for himself, though disguised as his "spokesman," he declared to the newspapermen he would never appoint Mr...
...The other mollifying influence on the administration was the pressure brought by the great banking interests, who hold iarge blocks of Mexican bonds, upon which the Calles government has been making regular interest payments...
...Hoover is not in accord with President Cool-idge's policy of intervention and domination in Latin America...
...Anyone who reads the dispatches in the press from day to day knows that the undisputed facts are: We have a fleet in Nicaraguan waters...
...From the beginning the Mexican government has insisted that there was no confiscation intended, and has repeatedly stated that there would be compensation for proven loss if the oil companies accepted the transfer of titles to leases...
...Unofficial reports indicate a tremendous Jobs in business to our manufactur-turers and exporters, which of course has gone to European countries...
...On April 2nd, Secretary of Commerce Hoover delivered a speech in New York, the significance of which appears to have been overlooked by the press...
...President Coolidge's foreign policy has carried us far on the road to imperialism and war...
...The wonder is that they have held out so long...
...Nothing could more clearly reveal the weakness of Mr...
...We need not read between the lines of his address to discover that Mr...
...American business -interests are far from united in support of the Coolidge-Kellogg foreign policy...
...And herein is hope as well as explanation of the President's less stubborn and menacing attitude toward Mexico, as expressed in his speech to the United Press...
...our troops have guarded the railways, relieving the Diaz forces for active duty elsewhere, and have permitted only conservatives to use the road...
...The United States, one billion two hundred million—six times the amount from other sources...
...Outwardly, all is calm in the Cabinet...
...President Coolidge in his speech to the United Press entered a general denial to the accusation that his foreign policy is imperialistic...
...In the past eight years, Europe has furnished Latin America only two hundred million capital...
...Hoover Secretary of State, no matter what happened...
...First, the data published by the United States government is several months behind...
...If we do not keep our hands off this situation we will sow seeds of hatred that may one day yield a crop of war more terrible than the world has yet seen...
...Of these documents, the New York World said editorially: "It goes without saying that the publication of these documents would have been enormously embarrassing to the government of the United States and to the administration in particular...
...He has followed the behest of organized wealth at enormous sacrifice of our national ideals and risk of world neace...
...Modern governments do not go forth with imperialism emblazoned on the banners of their legions...
...the American troops have created neutral zones in every section where they would aid the military operations of the conservatives and embarrass those of the liberals...
...From the time President Coolidge decided to back the puppet of Wall Street bankers, Diaz, in his claim to the Presidency of Nicaragua with our armed forces, it was a foregone conclusion that the liberals supporting Sacasa would in the end be overcome...
...He said: "Whenever any section of our press turns on America and on American institutions, and assumes a foreign attitude, every informed person knows that it has fallen from the high estate, which is our common heritage, and becoming no longer worthy of regard is destined to defeat and failure...
...He did not hesitate to misstate the case, charging that the Mexican government had proposed confiscation of American property in Mexico, but he said, "The Mexican Ambassador has recently declared to me that she does not intend to confiscate our property...
...enough marines there to furnish a bodyguard of six to each American citizen in the country...
...One was the mysterious documents taken from the American Embassy in Mexico, transmitted directly by President Calles to President Coolidge, instead of publishing them to the world at large...
...He pointed out that since the great war trade between the United States and Latin America has grown enormously — the amount of products which we purchase of them has more than doubled, the amount of products they buy of us has doubled...
...But the Doheny, Sinclair, Mellon companies do not want compensation, they want repeal of the land and petroleum laws, confirmation of their titles regardless of whether they are tainted by fraud, corruption, or crime...
...If he > had pursued the same course toward any great ppvrer, we would in all likelihood now be deeply involved in actual war with all its fearful consequences...
...Naturally the friends of Mr...
...Hoover took these words from the President as an unwarranted attack upon the Secretary of Commerce...
...Secretary Hoover through the Department of Commerce was fully informed as to just how hard our export business to Central and South America had been hit to date and he further knew the inevitable losses that must follow if this policy was not discontinued and immediate steps taken to overcome the hostility that was being created...
...So long as that division exists in the business world, there will be division in the Cabinet...
...These banking interests feared if the Coolidge-Kellogg Mexican policy was pushed to the limit and the arms embargo lifted with its consequent revolution and chaos, their Mexican bonds would become so much waste paper...
...Unfortunately, we started out playing second fiddle to the British in dealing with the Nationalists in China and there is every indication, in spite of the expression of sympathy with the Chinese people, which the President uttered, that we are continuing to support the powers in their desperate effort to hold their exploiting privileges in that vast country...
...2) Rights of property legally acquired must be respected and guaranteed in conformity with the recognized principles of international law...
...It has aroused fear and resentment of our policy, not only in Nicaragua, but in all the Latin-American countries of the Western Hemisphere...
...While the President reiterated many of his previous statements regarding the controversy with Mexico, in doing so he struck a more conciliatory note, expressing the hope that the differences between the two governments would be amicably settled...
...The far-reaching consequences of this imperialistic policy in Latin America, launched by President Coolidge in violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of our Constitution, can not be over-estimated...
...The President's address to the United Press, in defense of his foreign policy, is a notable example of special pleading—a strange admixture of fine-sounding phrases and half-truths...
...Hence the Coolidge-Kellogg stand that property rights can not be arbitrated...
...Our trade with these countries, which should provide a splendid market for a part of our exportable surplus, has been seriously injured, the good-will which it has taken years to build up has been seriously impaired...
...Hoover: "There is involved also the great, thesis of the Federation of State Governments and of the relation between these diffei-ent federated governments whose IDEAL (the capitals are mine) is that the POSSESSION AND ENJOYMENT OF EACH SECTION OF THE WESTERN WORLD SHOULD BE BY THE PEOPLE WHO DIRECTLY INHABIT IT...
...No doubt, this disastrous effect on trade of the Coolidge-Kellogg policy toward Nicaragua and Mexico was the Cause of the much talked of "rift in the cabinet...
...Recent reports indicate that our marines have about finished the job of cleaning up the liberals and there is talk that a part of the army dispatched to Nicaragua may now return home...
...In order to overcome the ill effects of his remark and make it appear that peace was restored in his official family, the President gave Mr...
...One paragraph makes his position quite plain: '"Nor is this common task, which these new world democracies have undertaken, limited to the working out of the problem of ordered liberty for each individual...
...In dealing with the question of his Nicaraguan policy, the President falls back on the argument presented in his special message to Congress...
...Coolidge issued a long statement, praising the ability of Mr...
...This second demand to back up the President's foreign policy regardless of where it leads, lflce the one he made some weeks ago, has fallen on deaf ears...
...It has not met unqualified approval even of the conservative Coolidge - worshipping press...
...In November, 1926, the note of the Mexican Foreign Minister to Secretary Kellogg stated specifically that the Mexican government recognized that: (1) "Acquired rights cannot be prejudiced by legislation retroactive in character or confiscatory in its effects...
...The official figures avaiJable do not register this result for two reasons...
...Coolidge's position...
...The risk was too great...
...Coolidge Defends His Foreign Policy "By their works ye shall know them" PRESIDENT COOLIDGE opened his speech in New York, April 25th, by once more appealing to the press of the country to support the Administration's Foreign Policy, whether they approved it or not...
...During the World War, those who dared to raise a voice were persecuted, nevertheless there was a healthy protest against our foreign policy...
...Fortunately, the press in America has not sunk so low that even a President of the United States can successfully command its blind, unquestioning support of his foreign policy...
...No American can profit by selling his own country for foreign favor...
...we have sold arms and ammunition to the conservatives and embargoed shipments to the liberals...
...Says Mr...
...He thereby confesses that his policy has resulted in such a debacle that the only hope is to wave the flag and tell the press to "Stand behind the President...
...The split in the Nationalist party offers an opportunity for the Powers to choose what seems to them the lesser of two evils by backing one wing of the party against the other just as they supported the war lords of the North against the Nationalists...
Vol. 19 • May 1927 • No. 5
