The Washington herald., 1917-02-04

Admiral Mahan once described the
Caribbean as "pre-eminently the domain
ef sea power" That description was pro-
phetic, for II you take the trouble to ex-
anime the map you will notice that the
Caribbean Sea is nothing more or less
than the anti-room to the Panama Canal.
Nobody doubts that after the European
war is over commerce. going to rush
through the canal like mill race. The
slides will have all been "slid" by that
time, " they are not already. AS II is,
a great deal of tonnage is going through
and had it not been for the war and the
consequent upset of trade there would to-
day be a continuous procession Of ships
across the isthmus.
The average American only looks on the
Caribbean Sea and the Gulf OF Mexico
and adjacent waters as one time having
been famous as the Spanish Main, where
pirates held their sway. The pirates are
still there, but they are all running winter
resort hotels He does not realize that
Uncle Sam has taken over some man
sized obligations around those waters
The Monroe doctrine is the warrant for
1t, or the excuse or whatever you please
to call it.
1t is the general idea that by flying
the flag of the Monroe doctrine the
United States is going to control the
worlds commerce of the future. which in
the nature of things will surge through
| the blue waters Of the Caribbean and the
gulf
Now 1t so happens that no frst-class
power has ever pledged itself to recog-
| nize the Monroe Doctrine. It hasn't even
| the value of a scrap of paper to some of
! our neighbors on the other side of the
Atlantic. Even II it had, can the United
| States support its principles and defend
| the obligations it has undertaken in
| Latin-America?
Let's look at the map We have Just
taken over the government OF the re-
| public OF Santo Domingo. For some years
we have been handling their custom re-
| ceipts for them. in the nature of a re-
ceiyer of a bankrupt firm. Now we are
| running the whole shooting match, all
the departments Of the government, and
thereby removing from the black-skinned
natives all temptation to indulge in any
| more revolutions and such like foolish
| ness.
That's all very we'll We are doing It
| with very little trouble or expense. There
| are some marines and a few naval off,
| GERS and one warship down there to run
| the show. which is quite enough so far
as the Dominicans are concerned.
Just across the Caribbean. in Nicara-
qua. we have some 500 marines camp
been there several years and run the
elections and preserve order; that is.
! they discourage any revolution and
keep the existing government in
power.
Further down is our very own little
Canal Zone, bisecting our pet little
republic of Panama AS the republic
of Panama came into existence just to
oblige the United States. we have nat
urally got to extend our strong right
arm TO shield 1t II any trouble comes
along.
Adjoining Panama is Costa Rica,
which is practically under the control
Of the United Fruit Company. an
American business concern. To be
sure, the United States has no official
connection there. but American citi-
zens are financing the country and de-
veloping its resources, and, ] may add,
making a good Job of it AS that is
American capital. 1t has to be pro-
tected.
Then at the northeast corner of the
Caribbean We have Porto Rico as a regu-
lar part OF the United States. a real
hOnest-to-goodness colony; while our in
terest in the republic OF Cuba is consider
ably more than friendly. It's sort Of
Patriarchal. They even use our money
there. In addition to all this We are try
ing to buy for 100000 the two Danish
West Indian islands Of st. Thomas and
st. Croix. and will probably succeed.
To sum up our possessions. depend
encies and territorial obligations sur
rounding the future ''pre-eminent domain
of sea power we own two colonies, are
running two republics and have a moral
obligation to three others. Besides
neglected to mention that we have an
armed force in Hayti, but II would be
hard to classify our status there other
than as a sort of policeman
To defend all this we have on the south
shore of Cuba a naval base and rendez-
vous at Guantanamo Bay and just east