The Washington herald., 1915-07-18

| under the Monroe doctrine to be the
debt collector and policeman of al
America. Both of these roles are onerous
and perilous and neither is becoming the
honor and dignity of the republic.
Earlier expounders of the doctrine con-
| fined its application strictly TO actual in
stances of conquest and colonization As
ii WAS construed for seventy-tive years
| II would not for example. impose any
/ special obligation on the United States
| for the restoration Of order in Mexico
| but would leave European nations en-
| tirely at liberty to intervene there and
| everywhere else for the protection Ot
their subjects. Eurore has SO INTERVIEWED
time and again without the least OBJ
! lection from Washington.
The Deadlin- Of Conquest.
| The truest measure Of the scope and
. force of the Monroe doctrine may h.
| gained nv looking a n map of the world
While Europe has been bringing all tine
! earth under subsection to her. the Amer
| icas alone have remained exempt from
| that otherwise universal campaign OF
conquest and been spared that system Of
alien exploitation.
The great continents of Asia and
| Africa. where the European powers had
gained only footholds at the time the
UOCtIlIle WAS ia q
been swept from end TO end with rire
and sword Today Abyssnia and little
Liberia. founded by Americans. are the
only African states that pretend to any
independence. In all Asia. Japan and
Turkey alone are in complete possession
of their sovereignty, with only three
native states. China Persia and STA
struggling to maintain what remains to
them. Australia and nearly all the tin
lest islets in the Seven Seas are under
European flags.
In the light of that experience. il is
easy to imagine what the lot Of Iberian
America would have been but for the
Monroe doctrine. The fate of every
feeble state. from the Transvaal to
Korea. would have been measured out
to the republics of the south and in a
hapless hour might have overtaken even
the republic of the north.
For the Holy Alliance. at least. de-
MED the legitimacy of any government
based on a revolution against crown
and was the enemy of all republics.
and Macmillan stole to the borders of
the United States when the Americans
were distracted by civil war?
Surely there can be no doubt that such
immense. rich. but feeble empires as
Brazil and Argentina would have been
taken at gulp by the omniverous pow
ers of the Old World. which thence
would have claimed and seized every
thing that adjoined. No one can res-
sonably suppose that South America
would have been left in possession of a
population which amounts to only five
persons to a square mile. while Africa
with sixteen to a square mile and the
swarming hive of Asia. with fifty-two to
the square mile. were being gobbled up
Thus one entire hemisphere has been
a closed book to Europe. which has re-
manned as innocent of it as a certain
member of the British Parliament. who.
in 1862 exclaimed to an American cler-
syman with whom he was dining in
London. why. there are you northern
ers placed in North America all by
yourselves, Then there comes the 18TH
mus-see Panama or whatever ii is
Then there are the southerners down
there In South America. Now my dear
sir. I think you must admit it is per-
fectly obvious that Nature never meant
YOU to be a union
A Martyr to the Doctrine.
The only time the Monroe doctrine has
been challenged, except on paper. the
only time it has been assailed with arms
in hand, was in the midst Of the civil
war. when Napoleon Ill undertook.
with 5000 French troops, to maintain
on a made to-order Mexican throne,
Macmillan, the brother Of the reisning |
Francis Joseph Of Austria. Within three !
months after Appomattox. Grant sent
to Texas for the purpose or |
making a demonstration against the inn |
ported empire. and In q few months !