US Presidency
1909

The quick transition of the Government of the Ottoman Empire from one of retrograde tendencies to a constitutional government with a Parliament and with progressive modern policies of reform and public improvement is one of the important phenomena of our times. Constitutional government seems also to have made further advance in Persia. These events have turned the eyes of the world upon the Near East. In that quarter the prestige of the United States has spread widely through the peaceful influence of American schools, universities and missionaries. There is every reason why we should obtain a greater share of the commerce of the Near East since the conditions are more favorable now than ever before. LATIN AMERICA. One of the happiest events in recent Pan-American diplomacy was the pacific, independent settlement by the Governments of Bolivia and Peru of a boundary difference between them, which for some weeks threatened to cause war and even to entrain embitterments affecting other republics less directly concerned.