, 1922-06-19
The Matter of Foreign Policies

IL Is TRUE that the United States has no policy
l. of foreign aggression-no desire to subjugate
weak nations or take undue advantage of our
strength. 1t is also true that We have no policy
which will permit MS to make the ~supreme sacri-
flee" proposed by President Wilson when he advo.
Gated American participation in the league of ma.
tons. But because we are neither aggressive and
g~rasping, nor as yielding ms some would like to
have us, it does not follow that the United States
has no foreign policy at all.
Our foreign policy has been one of "live and help
live" We have undertaken to maintain here a ma
ton in which the people may enjoy the greatest
individual freedom, consistent with due respect
for the rights of others, and we are willing that
similar privileges shall be maintained in every
other land. When that policy of helping others
TO live and enjoy freedom brought us into conflict
with Spain, and gave us dominion over former
Spanish islands, we did not use that dominion for
our material aggrandizement but solely for the
w~en-being and happiness of the peoples who had
come under our control. Never has it been charged
that the United States has been an oppressor.
We have sought to cultivate friendship among
nations and to settle differences by conference,
arbitration or adjudication, r.ther than by force of
arms, but we never have yielded our right to con-
troll our domestic affairs, nor made ourselves sub
Ject to a superstatc. We have settled boundary dis
putes by arbitration and have induced other ma
tions to do the same. We have been prompt and
liberal in response to the cry of distress, from what
ever land it has come, but we have not let our SYM
pathies betray us into leagues with national dis
honor.
We have been consistent in avoiding political
affiliations with any other nation or interfering in
the affairs of any other nation, but we have been
jealous in guarding our own rights from direct
or indirect interference from abroad. We have
never yielded one iota of the doctrine that Euro
pean Interference with nations of the western
hemisphere must be construed as an offense to us.
We have readily Joined other nations where we
have had common interests and have co-operated
with them to the extent of our common interests,
but, when that had been accomplished we severed
the relationship in accordance with our traditional
policy of avoiding foreign political entanglements
Our one time citizen Lady Astor, possibly be
cause of prejudice growing out of her present Brit
ish citizenship, may kid herself into believing that
we have no international policy and that we shall
have none until at accords with what Britain
thinks our policy should be; but we beg to call the
attention of the honorable lady member of the
house of commons to the fact, and to suggest that
she refresh her memory by a perusal of forgotten
American history, that we have foreign policies as
honorable, as definite, and as permanent as those
Of any other nation of the world. And at the same
time we would challenge the dear lady to point out
any British policies equally enlightened or in any
sense superior to those of the land that gave her
birth.