The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-04


 gives us a legitimate instrument by
 which We can make less probable such internecine strife.
 Allusion to Monroe Doctrine
 'In the assertion of that sort of guar dianship we have to be very careful to avoid the charge, which Is always made by the suspicious, that we are seeking our own aggrandizement in our interference with the affairs of other countries on this hemisphere. It Is an unfounded charge, for we envy no power It's territory We have enough. but we have been able to fend off war in five or more instances of recent date because of our attitude as an older brother of these
 smaller governments.
 Thus in Cuba, after the Platt amend ment we were able to intervene and pre- vent a bloody war of revolution and this after 20,000 rebels against the consti- tuted government were in arms imme- dately outside of Havana ready to take part We were able, by reason of the agreement we made with Santo Domingo to help her collect her revenues and li- quidate and satisfy her legitimate debts by putting our agents in charge at the custom houses, to take away the chief motive of revolution which is the &C., qusition of the custom houses In order to collect taxes. And by reason of our intervention between Haiti and Santo Domingo we have been able to prevent war between those two countries, grow ing out of dispute over a boundary line which is now in course of re-refer- ence to the Hague. So, too, as between Peru and Ecuador we were able, with the assistance of the great South Amer ican republics, Brazil, Argentine and Chile to stop war that was on the eve of breaking out war that involved chiefly a question of honor and both countries became willing to submit it to negotiation and arbitration
 Honduras and Nicaragua We have been able to bring the heads of two contending factions In civil war in Honduras onto the deck of an Amer ican vessel and there negotiate terms which have led to permanent peace NOW Honduras and Nicaragua ask us to assist them in paying their debts by agreeing in case of default to accent responsibility for the collection of the revenue and to make settlements in &C., cordance with the contracts of indebt- | edness. These two treaties are pending in the Senate. I sincerely hope that they may be confirmed, because 1 do not know another power that is so useful in tho prevention of war as that which enables the United States to collect revenues of banlSrupts and unstable governments and to apply them as law and the contracts may require. and thus to put the govern ment on their feet firmly.
 . Arbitration Treaties
 'iFor the further securing of peace and as an example to all the world of the possibilities of the use of arbitration we have invited England and France and Germany to make a treaty of the arbi- tration of all differences of an interna- tional character that in their nature can be adjudicated and we have left out in this treaty those exceptions which have heretofore always been excluded from ar- bitrable controversies, to witness, Ques- tions of nations honor and of its vital interest Of course I cannot say with positiveness that these treaties will all be made and confirmed I can only say that the prospect of an agreement with one of the countries is reasonably sure and we have every hope as to the other two, and that there three treaties will be followed by many of the same tenor