HOW TO PROVE OUR SINCERITY TO OUR SOUTHREN NEIGHBORS
Quick, Herbert
How to Prove Our Sincerity to Our Southern Neighbors by herbert quick BEING understood in South, Central and Mexican America is very im- portant to us. It is also important that Europe and Asia...
...Therefore, they fear us, and are inclined to hate us...
...That is inevitable...
...We are not trusted by the peoples to the south...
...Therefore, if we succeed in getting the army out of Mexico without a war, it will go farther to convince the rest of the republics of America that we are on the level with our protests of unselfishness than anything which has ever happened...
...If we are fundamentally predatory and imperialistic in our attitude toward South and Middle America, if we are impelled by our national soul to carry the Stars and Stripes as the emblem of conquest from the Rio Grande to the Isthmus of Panama, it is well for the world to know it—and for that part of the the world that objects to this policy to prepare to fight us...
...Everybody can see that, and everybody must see that we see it Therefore, if we now withdraw, if we now adjust our difficulties with Mexico, will it not be the supreme proof to all the world that we want nothing from Mexico, or of Mexico except the protection of our borders and the observation of national obligations...
...It is also important that Europe and Asia understand our attitude toward Mexico and her sister Latin republics...
...Mexico is capable of no more resistance to our arms than would be represented by the dying struggles of a starved military establishment, cut off from the world, impoverished, desperate...
...Our very power makes us an object of fear to them...
...If you and I and 20 others were to be suddenly thrown together under circumstances which established muscular power as the only guaranty of safety we should all be afraid of the man ten feet high if such a one happened to be of our party...
...On the other hand, if we of the United States agree with Wilson, as I think we do, in believing that we want no more territory, that we believe in the right of the Mexicans to settle their own destinies, even while we are fixed in the determination to protect our borders, it is the best thing in the world for our friendship with South and Middle America, for our trade with all the western hemisphere south of us, and for our own peace, that the world be shown, by the most convincing demonstration possible, that such are our peaceful intentions...
...And if he began taking things from us we should soon hate him, even tho his encroachments might be justified by our own turbulence or foolishness...
...It seems to me that when the troops are actually out of Mexico and the troubles composed as well as they can be the era of good feeling between us and South America will be definitely ushered in, that the Monroe doctrine will be safer than ever, that good understanding will begin to take the place of suspicion, friendship will begin to succeed to dislike...
...Well, we are the man ten feet high among the republics of the western world...
...We have had every provocation to war...
...We have mobilized our second line army...
...We might be suspected of being ready to invade Mexico...
...If this proves true, it may turn out that Villa did the best thing possible for the future peace and trade prosperity of the western world when he raided Columbus, that the soldiers, both Mexican and American, who have died in this half-war have died in the real service of the peoples, and that out of the nettle "danger" we have plucked the flower "safety...
...And we have taken from the others right royally...
...We took a large part of Mexico, we have our power established over Panama, Hayti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and the Philippines...
...If we want Mexico, now is the time to take her...
Vol. 8 • July 1916 • No. 7
