Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-12-10

most e~nectually secured against the
danger of administration and that,
when any government shall be found
inadequate or contrary to these pur-
poses, a majority of the community
hath an indubitable, i~nalienable, and
indefeasible right to reform, alter, or
abolish it, in such manner as shall be
judged most conducive to the public
veal" We have unhesitatingly ap-
piled that heroic principle to the case
of Mexico. and now hopefully await
the rebirth of the troubled republic,
which had so much of which to purge
itself and so little sympathy from any
outside quarter in the radical but nee
essary process. We will aid and be-
friend Mexico. but we will not coerce
her; and our course with regard to her
ought to be sufficient proof to all
America that we seek no political
suzerainty or selfish control.
The moral is, that the states of
America are not hostile rivals but Co
operating friends, and that their grow
ing sense of community of interest,
alike in matters political and in mat
tiers economic, is likely to give them
a new significance as factors in inter-
national affairs and in the political
history of the world. It presents them
as in a very deep and true sense a init
in world . affairs, spiritual partners,
standing together because thinking
together, quick with common sympa-
fhiac ond common idaoIo CoDorofod
they are subject to all the cross cur
rents of the confused politics of a
world of hostile rivalries; united in
spirit and purpose they cannot be
disappointed of their peaceful destiny.
This is Pan-Americanism. 1t has
none of the spirit of empire in it. 1t
is the embodiment, the effectual IN
bodiment, of the spirit of law and in
dependence and liberty and mutual
service.
Drawing the Americas Together.
A very notable body of men recently
met in the city of Washington, at the
invitation and as the guests of this
government, whose deliberations are
likely to be looked back to as marking
a memorable turning point in the his
tory of America. They were represen-
tative spokesman Of the several in
dependent states of this hemisphere
and we're assembled to discuss the
financial and commercial relations of
the republics of the two continents
which nature and political fortune
have so intimately linked together. l
earnestly recommend to your p~erusal
the report of their proceedings and of
the actions of their committees. You
will get from them, l think, a fresh
conception of the ease and intelligence
and advantage with which Americans
of both continents may draw together
in practical cooperation and of what
the material foundations of this hope
full partnership of interest must on
sist-of how we should build them and
of how necessary it is that we should
hasten their building.
There is, l venture to point out, an
especial significance just now attach
ing to this whole matter of drawing
the Americas together in bonds of hon.
orable partnership and mutual advan-
tage because of the economic readjust-
ments which the world must ineyi-
tably witness within the next genera
ton, when peace shall have at last re-
sumed it's healthful tasks. In the per-
Torrance of these tasks l believe the
Americas to be destined to play their
parts together. l am interested to fix
your attention on this prospect now
because unless you take 1t within your
view and permit the full significance
of it to command your thought l can
not find the right light in which to set
forth the particular matter that lies
at the very front of my whole thought
as I address you today. 1 mean ma
tional defense.
No one who really CO 4prehends the
spirit of the great people for whom
we are appointed to speak can fail to
perceive that their passion is for
peace, their genius best displayed in
the practice of the arts of peace. Great
democracies are not belligerent. They
do not seek or desire war. Their
thought is of individual liberty and Of
the free labor that supports life and
the uncensored thought that quickens
it. Conquest and dominion are not in
our reckoning, or agreeable to our
principles. But just because we de-
mand unmolested development and
the undisturbed government of our
own lives upon our own principles of
right and liberty, we resent, from
whatever quarter it may come, the ag-
gression we ourselves will not prac-
tice. We insist upon security in prose-
cutting our s~elf-chosen lines of nation
al development. We do more than that.
We demand it also for others. We do
not confne our enthusiasm for indi-
vidual liberty and free national devel-
opment to the incidents and move
ments of affairs which affect only our
selves. We feel it wherever there is
a people that tries to walk in these