The Saint Paul globe., 1904-12-07

tralization of power. Incidentally the
president, in passing, throws in a rec
ommendation to extend the power of
the bureau of corporations over the in
surance business
President Roosevelt finally comes
out squarely with an announcement of
foreign policy absent from our his
tory hitherto and abhorrent to all our
conditions. We quote: 'In the West
ern hemisphere the adherence of the
United States to the Monroe doctrine
may force the United States, however
reluctantly, in fragrant cases of wrong
doing or impotence, to the exercise of
an international police power" This is
a boIder repetition of words or hints
already given, and Of acts committed
on the isthmus of Panama. We are to
justify a crime in action by perma-
nent departure from right principles.
1t will be observed that we ourselves
are to be the judges of "wrongd0fng'
and impotence" We are to say when
some other American power has vio-
lated right or is unable to maintain
order in its own territory. Then we
are to intervene. The Monroe doctrine
has been in force for more than three
fourths Of a century. But no other
American ever read into it this hateful
and un-American Interpretation. It is
at once a rod held out over every other
American state, alternating them from
our sympathy and inciting them to
enmity, and a stimulus to all the evil
lust Of greed and power which is the
last enemy of republican institutions.
Moreover, the president is amusingly
inconsistent with and contradictory of
himself. He has just been arguing the
need of a great navy. He has pointed
out that nations within themselves can
exercise police powers because the
mass of their citizens have assigned
to them that right. He states that
there is no tribunal to which interna-
tional affairs may be referred with au-
thority to settle them. No judge set
high above the nations can enforce his
DEGREES. Therefore, each must be pro-
vided with the physical power to up
hold his own. Having made this posi-
ton clear, he proceeds. to make the
statement that we have quoted above,
and to use repeatedly with JUNCTION this
phrase that pleases him, international
police power" Now the selection of
policeman implies power to appoint
him. BY what authority is the United
States to perform International police
duty, since the president has just truly
said that no such authority anywhere
exists? The truth is that we are to
make this menacing aggression be-
cause We want to; upon our own mo-
ton, and after a determination by our
selves that it suits our interest or our
pleasure to do so.
To those who love their country, and
to the admirers as well as the oppo-
nents of President Roosevelt, this mes
sage viii be most interesting. 1t cuts
out the silly detail of department rou~
tine with which messages are usually
stuffed, but substitutes vague disquisi
tions on abstract topics of as little
value. 1t is obviously honest and sim.
cere. The president believes what he
says. We think that any student and
lover of our institutions has but to
study the trend and ultimate neces-
sary consequence of the Reoseveltian
theory Of American evolution to see
that If accepted it would lead us far
from the safe and glorious path that
we have traversed. 1t is but an echo
of the system of suppression of indi-
vidualism, Capitalization. aggression
and aggrandizement under the name
and self -deceiying plea of duty that
have wrecked the fairest hopes of hu-
manity among all peoples and in all
times.