New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-05
Mexico and Pan-Americanism.

swer General Carranza's note not so much
because il is unwilling TO make an issue
with Carranza's lettering government as
because Of the effect Of candid reply on
Pan-American sentiment Mexico offers a
test case for the new theory of Pan-Amer-
icanism which Mr. Wilson and Mr.. Lansing
have been exploiting. Hayti offers a sec
ond test case and Nicaragua a third.
Every Pan-American diplomat in Wash
ington and every Latin-American Foreign
Office Is therefore anxiously waiting for
Mr.. Wilson's answer. The good faith Of
the Pan-American policy, which the State
Department has been preaching and try
ing TO embody in an international treaty,
will be tested by what the President has
to say In justification of his invasion Of
Mexican soil and his violation Of Mexican
sovereignty.
The Administration has indicated its
willingness to enter into Pan-American
alliance which is 10 guarantee in perpetu-
ity the political independence and terri
torial integrity Of all the American states.
Existing governments are even TO be sus-
tanned against domestic revolution. This
programme suits the Latin-American
states, especially the smaller and more
backward states. 1t nulliies a corollary
of the Monroe Doctrine which has been
most distasteful 70 them. For if the United
States becomes a party TO Pan-Ameri-
can concert the first principle of which Is
the maintenance Of the sovereignty and
independence of all the American republics
it can no longer perform the obligations
which it must assume to European ma
tons when it limits their right to seek
redress for injuries done their subjects IN
such Latin-American states as fall prey
to revolution and anarchy.
Under a Pan-American agreement such
a Mr.. Wilson and Mr.. Lansing are ad-
vocating Hayti would be immune from
American intervention. If the Admins
tration were willing TO act as it talks, 1t
would long since have recalled our marines
from Hayti, control Of whose finances and
government we have taken over by force,
and with no other warrant save that OF
our duty under the Monroe Doctrine to
police the disorderly countries Of Latin
America.
We have been exercising political pro-
tectorate over Nicaragua for several years.
We have invaded Mexico twice since 1914
and have been intervening in her political
affairs ever since the beginning of the
Wilson Administration. Our only excuse
for intervening in the affairs Of other
American nations land it is a perfectly
valid excuse) is that under the Monroe
Doctrine we exercise a guardianship of
the Western Continents. Our fiat is law
in these continents, as Secretary Olney
once bluntly put it, on all subjects to which
the United States decides to extend its
interposition.
Mr.. Wilson and Mr. Lansing have been
willing to renounce this portion of the
Monroe Doctrine so far as their assur-
ances to the Latin-American governments
generally are concerned. But they have
followed Mr.. Olney in dealing with Hayti,
Nicaragua and Mexico. Pan-American
statesmen are, therefore, on edge to see
what the Administration will say when it is
called TO account by General Carranza for
a plain violation Of the principle of Pan
Americanism-for an undeniabe infringe
ment of Mexican sovereignty.
Some members Of the McAdoo delega-
ton which recently visited South America
are credited with spreading the report
that the Latin-American governments gen
orally are in sympathy with Mr.. Wilson's
Mexican policy. But this is a clear mis-
representation of Latin-American senti-
ment. Latin America is very nearly united
If not absolutely united-in wishing to
limit the right Of the United States to i'm
teryene in Latin-American affairs. This
was shown very recently when our gov
crnment yielded TO pressure from the diplo-
matte representatives Of Argentina Brazil
Chilli, Uruguay, Guatemala and Bolivia,
and recognized Carranza as Provisional
President of Mexico.
Carranza's latest note TO Washington
presents an argument whose force all the
Latin American governments recognize. II
is unanswerable, once the principles of the
projected Pan-Amercan compact are con-
coded 70 be valid Mr.. Wilson and Mr.
Lansing have subscribed TO those prin-
ciples. They have done much more. They
have fathered a Pan-American treaty
which, if ratified, would bind tho United
States, so far as intervention in the af-
fairs of its American neighbors is con
cerned. TO become merely single unit
with single voice, in a congress of TWEEN
ty-one American powers. in that con-
gress we should inevitably be outvoted
on every question on which our interests
might happen to clash with the interests
of the smaller Latin-American states.
What the Latin-American world is most