THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES Dollar Diplomacy, Scotched, Strikes Back THE ANNOUNCED policy of President WILSON and Secretary BRYAN to put an end to Dollar Diplomacy is not to go unchallenged...
...The government of Ecuador has appointed Dr...
...One instance of Secretary Bryan's policy toward American interests in Latin America has come forcibly to the attention of the president and has caused the Nebraskan not a little embarrassment...
...He was then appointed by the department at the request of the railroad official, the railroad official being asked by the department to suggest a person for arbitrator...
...Janes was—and no reflection is intended upon the character or purpose of the man— has already caused irritation that is prejudicing American interests in Ecuador...
...The president's friend replied that his railroad in Ecuador had been having serious trouble with the government in connection with the collection of certain eminently proper claims, but that a Mr...
...The Ecuadorian charge d'affaires, knowing that he enjoys the sympathy of Mr...
...The powerful interests that have profited from the KNOX-TAFT policy of "a gunboat with every bond" have determined, it appears, to harass the new Administration in every effort it may make to sever completely the ties that bind the State Department to Wall Street...
...Janes, and appears to be receiving some encouragement from Mr...
...The contract provides that in case of dispute the matter in controversy shall be settled by a board of arbitration to be composed of the presidents of the two republics or, in case they can not act, of two persons, one appointed by each president...
...Under the Taft administration encouragement was given to Americans to develop the natural resources of the Latin-American countries, for the mutual benefit of those countries and the United States...
...Janes was not recalled until after the decision was rendered...
...Janes, appointed by President Taft, seemed about to secure an equitable settlement...
...Has the American citizen any rights whatever outside his own country which the government should protect...
...Janes was recalled to pay his respects to President Wilson...
...There is an unsettled feeling in the commercial world, due to apparent hostility of Secretary Bryan toward any foreign business project in which American financiers are interested, and as a consequence trade relations between the United States and other countries are seriously threatened...
...Janes did not meet the requirements of such an appointment...
...The country will support them if they hold to their course, undeterred by the misrepresentations and insidious threats of the privileged interests...
...They submit that this is manifestly unjust to them, because whatever may be the attitude of this administration toward the future investment of American capital in foreign countries, that which has been invested in the past, and when it was the policy of the government to protect and foster such investments, is deserving of continued protection...
...These men ask nothing in the way of concessions or guarantees, it is pointed out, but merely that it be made known that the United States will not tolerate injustice or injury to the property of its citizens abroad any more than it would injury to their lives...
...A telegram was sent instructing Mr...
...Pear is expressed by those who have invested money in the Latin-American countries that as soon as Secretary Bryan's attitude becomes generally understood there will ensue a series of repudiations of contracts or similar injuries to American property and investments...
...Accordingly, he induced President Wilson to authorize the recall of Mr...
...Almost all the facts in the case were obtained from this railroad official and they were laid before the President...
...From the Tribune Bureau...
...Bryan's pa-per, "The Commoner," tells what really happened, in the following words: The man who called at the White House was the vice president of the railroad and he called for the express purpose of laying the case before the President after the matter had been presented at the state department...
...Janes to remain...
...Repudiate dollar diplomacy as hard as you wish...
...Janes had been trying for more than three months to secure the co-operation of the government of Ecuador in the arbitration, but the government had given one excuse after another for refusing to accept him as arbitrator, the real objection being that he could not be considered unbiased...
...This was his attempt to recall Henry Janes, who was delegated by President Taft last November to act as one of the arbitrators in a claim dispute between the government of Ecuador and the Guayaquil & Quito Railway company, an American corporation, in accordance with the provisions of a contract between the disputants...
...By a strange coincidence a capitalist who is interested in the railroad called at the White House soon after Mr...
...Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno, president of the Ecuadorian senate, to act with Mr...
...What Really Happened WHAT ARE the facts...
...Will the friends and beneficiaries of Dollar Diplomacy succeed by such coarse means as this in "throwing a scare" into legitimate business...
...The President, after fully informing himself, rendered a decision, and Mr...
...but Secretary Bryan's disapproval of these enterprises threatens to result in grave loss to American investors and to reduce the countries concerned to a condition in which they will be unable to secure necessary financial aid to maintain their commercial progress...
...But don't permit your secretary of state to abandon those of us who invested our money in good faith and with the knowledge that we had the approbation of the government at Washington to our fate at the hands of these more or less irresponsible and oft-changing governments in Central and South America," President Wilson's caller is reported to have said, and the president heeded his plea...
...Neither was the recall recalled...
...He called upon the President with the approval of the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State heard him after he returned from the White House...
...Bryan, is bringing every influence to bear to effect the recall of Mr...
...His compensation was fixed by agreement between him and the railroad company and fixed at an amount more than six times as great as the salary which he was drawing in the department...
...The telegram recalling Mr...
...Whatever special privilege may demand, it is not to be believed that the American business man wants a double standard of honesty—justice and fair dealing at home and "profits by any means" abroad...
...It dawned on President Wilson that it was his friend's interests he had abandoned at the instance of Mr...
...Janes sent in his resignation, as asked, and a new arbitrator will be appointed...
...Bryan to American financial interests abroad, the Ecuador government submitted to the secretary statements regarding the dispute over the claims, which were for transportation and damages resulting from the revolutions in that country since 1908, with the result that Secretary Bryan promptly decided that the railroad company should not be aided in any way by the department in its efforts to collect the claims...
...He will have to induce the secretary of state not to withdraw his moral support of the rights of Americans, for it is that moral support which is usually most effective...
...FELT IN LATIN AMERICA Capitalists Who Invested in Foreign Enterprises in Good Faith Under a Protective Administration Object to Repudiation...
...It is argued that any other policy will jeopardize every dollar of American money invested, and, in addition, will greatly detract from the respect in which this country is held in Central and South America...
...The president, it is contended, will have to go further if he is to protect Americans who have invested their funds in the countries to the south...
...We think not...
...Bryan, and he immediately directed the countermanding of the order recalling Janes...
...Janes stated that the President had not had occasion to consider any questions personal to him but that he was recalled because he did not and under the circumstances could not meet the requirements of the contract between the government of Ecuador and the American company...
...The President and the Secretary of State are headed in the right direction...
...Janes, and the latter was ordered back to Washington...
...In their friendly chat the president inquired about his caller's business, not knowing that he was one of the heaviest stockholders in the Guayaquil & Quito Railway company...
...The New York "Tribune," one of the most powerful of the newspaper exponents of Dollar Diplomacy, recently printed the following "news" dispatch from its Washington bureau: BRYAN'S POLICIES MENACE TO TRADE His Hostility to Foreign Business Projects in Which Americans are Interested Causing Alarm...
...The attempt to secure arbitration before such an arbitrator as Mr...
...Throw it into the deep blue sea, if you wish...
...How gravely are American interests abroad to suffer as the result of Secretary Bryan's administration of the department of state...
...No disinterested citizen of the United States will dissent from the President's decision when the facts are fully understood...
...Janes is still at Quito, but Secretary Bryan is not satisfied with the situation, it is learned from an authoritative source...
...As a result there has been unprecedented prosperity, and at the same time American interests have been protected...
...The President believes that America's representative on the board of arbitration should be impartial and unbiased, a man in position to act as a judge or a juror acts in a court of law in this country...
...Janes in the arbitration of the dispute...
...Bryan, despite the president's attitude...
...In ease the arbitrators thus appointed can not agree, the two presidents are to appoint a third, and the decision of this board of arbitration will be final as to the matter in dispute...
...These questions are occasioning grave anxiety to those Americans who, unable to foresee the coming of the "Little America" policy of the state department, have invested capital in foreign countries...
...For more than a year he had assisted the railroad official in preparing the case against Ecuador...
...Encouraged by the apparent unfriendliness of Mr...
...The decision reached by the President in this case is hailed with joy, not only in Ecuador but throughout Central and South America because it is a promise that the moral force of this government will not be used to compel acquiescence in methods that are repugnant to our own principles of jurisprudence...
...The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES Dollar Diplomacy, Scotched, Strikes Back THE ANNOUNCED policy of President WILSON and Secretary BRYAN to put an end to Dollar Diplomacy is not to go unchallenged by the money power...
Vol. 5 • May 1913 • No. 19
