The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-21
THE MONROE DOCTRINE.
By Honorable John F. ShafrOth, Gov
 ernor of Colorado.

l
 | Qssued by the Press Bureau. Ma | tlonal Democratic League of Clubs)- All rights reserved.
 | Previous to the Revolutionary war | there had never been in existence a Republican form of government The | source of all powers of government
 had been recognized for ages to be in the monarch, under the claim, that
 he had obtained the right to rule from | God Almighty. It was this conten- | ton that brought forth the doctrine cf ''the divine righs of kings" So ] thoroughly had these principles been
 established and recognized that all | liberty and rights of the people were granted to them by the sovereign | himself These rights when granted under the seal of the king became
 constitutional liberties; such monar-
 ohles were then known as limited l mOnarchies'
 It is true that previous to 177G
 there had been in existence govern
 ments called republics, but they were
 not such in fact except for the privil- eged classes-the aristocracy. The
 rights of mankind were not recogniz- ca, put only the rights of the aristo- l craCc At the very time the repub- nc or Rome was at its zenith there ex- | lsted eighty million. of slaves. Ca large percentage of them being RomansJ, l which belonged to the privileged clas- Ses. It is said that several of the Roman Senators had as many as l twenty thousand slaves each.
 It was Jefferson who startled the | world by the declaration that 'all
 men are created equal;" that man lis
 entitled as an unalienabre right to 1 life, liberty and the pursuit of hap
 plness" and that to obtain these ends
 governments are instituted among
 men deriving their just powers from l the consent of the governed" And as
 a defiance to the monarchies of Eu- rope he declared these principles to 1 be self evident truths"
 1 The war of 1776 has been truly 1 called the Revolutionary war, not
 rom the fact that one army conquer l ed another, but because it established
 those fundamental principles of dem- ocracy which was complete revolu-
 t1on as to the then known forms of | government
 there is in every government in the 1 world, two schools of politics; one be- 1evlng in the right of some to gov-
 ern all. and the other believing in
 government only with the consent of | the governed. The first is the aris
 tocratic-the wealthy party of the 1 nation; the other Is the party of the
 people. While the party of the peo-
 pie should be the more numerous, yet | the dazzling influence of wealth and | power often procures the passage of
 those laws which tend toward central | ization of government and ultimately | the establishment of monarchies
 Immediately after the downfall of l Napoleon some of the continental
 powers of Europe formed an alliance | by which they sought to perpetuate
 the principles of absolute monarchy.
 In recognition of the idea of the "di
 vine right of kings this combination | Irf t~r,- l&I- o1 l liance." It was at meeting of the | diplomatic representatives of these na- | tions at Verona Italy, in 1922, that l 1t was proposed to restore to Spain
 the territory which she had lost by
 the uprising of the people in the west
 ern hemisphere. and in which they | had established republics. It was
 the concentration of the powers of
 monarchy in behalf of oppression and | against liberty. It was then that President Monroe, recognizing the | danger of such an alliance, sent to 1 Congress the message that he would 1 consider any attempt on the part of
 European monarchies to extend their l system to any part of this hemisphere l as dangerous to our peace and safe | ty. That message to Congress was i'm | tended as a communication to the l monarchies of Europe. It created in- | tense excitement in the eastern hem 1 ISpH6T6 anu It CTcdleu iIlLGllSo | siasm among the people of the United | States. It was an ultimatum to the !. .monarchies of Europe against their | intended expressions and a declara- | tion in behalf of liberty and indepen- dence. It was hailed as the second Declaration of Independence. by the | citizens of this republic. The Mon
 roe Doctrine was very startling to | the monarchies of Europe, but when analysed it was nothing more than | the doctrine of the balance of power, which had been recognized for ages among the monarches themselves. While the Monroe Doctrine has l never been openly recognized by Eu- ropean governments as principle of l interna tional law, no power has ever attempted to violate it. When Great | Britain sought to coerce Venezuela to recognize it's claims as to the boun- | dary of that republic it was Grover | Cleveland who sent thrilling message | to Congress declaring the determina- I tion on the part of the United States | to enforce the Monroe Doctrine" He | appointed a commission of United | States citizens to report upon the | boundary line that the United States would recognize as that of the repub- 1 lie of Venezuela. It was then that Great Britain herself yielded to the l commission and a war was averted which might have involved another conflict between this republic and the British Empire.
 The first moving impulse for the en- unciation of that principle was the safety of our own republic. With 1 the great European nations holding possessions contiguous to our land, 1t would have produced turmoils and wars which would have endangered the very existence of our government Such a condition at least would have produced wars that would have re- uuired enormous navies and standing armies and it would have seriously affected the development and prosper 1 ity of the Union. It is said that dur ing the Nineteenth Century in Europe there was expended and destroyed in | wars and in navy and army equip ments, more than one hundred bil- | lions of dollars. All war expenditures sooner or later must be met by the people and inasmuch as all capital is nothing but stored labor, these ex- penditures in one form or another ul- timately had to be met by labor. It I is because the United States has been free from these expenditures that we have prospered as no other nation in the world has prospered. It is that which has made so many Europeans seek the refuge of this country from the grinding taxation of European countries.
 l The second effect of the Monroe noo+r;poD uaS to SOund again the