Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-09-18
WASHINGTON Al
LETTER SKI


stopped to explain why our policy of
gentle benevolence toward chaotic
China was SO different from our COM
paratively rough and severe policy to-
ward such nearby republic as Mica
rague, Haiti and Mexico.
On the one hand, certain sections
of the press, the pulpit and the con-
gress loudly deplored the administra-
tions American policy and then
lavishly praised its noble refusal to
join with Great Britain in shooting up
the Chinese despite the fact that the
Chinese had been much more unruly
than the Latin Americans
Again, there we're those who cheered
Justify our iron-handed methods in
Nicaragua and toward Mexico and de-
plored the absence of similar tactics
in China.
AS matter of fact, neither great
blame nor high praise can be accorded
the present government on any theory
that it has acted with unaccustomed
taltruism or ruthlessness. Both in this
hemisphere and in the far east, it
merely followed out foreign policies
which have been we'll defined for at
least three decades and which have
been adhered to by both republican
and democratic administrations.
The Caribbean and the Asiatic poll
cies, however, have been fundamen-
tally different because the expanding
United States has had to deal with
two fundamentally different situations.
The difference began to be apparent
toward the close of the last century.
Prior to that America and her indus
tries were busy attaining their growth.
The west was being won and Ameri-
can production and enterprise had not
outgrown the national boundaries.
=
A policy of gradual acquisition had
been pursued intermittently, but this
was largely confined to Strengthening
out the borders of the United States
proper to the south and the southwest.
Nevertheless, Secretary of State Sew
ard under Lincoln, had seen visions
in the Pacific and bought Alaska. He
had forced the French out of Mexico,
and had sought to realize a dream in
the Caribbean by acquiring naval
base in Santo Domingo, the Virgin
islands by purchase and control over
the Panama isthmus by other means,
only to have congress refuse to ap-
prove his arrangements.
But the present policies began to
take shape under Mckinley when our
government, determining to extend it's
spheres of economic if not political
influence, looked to the south and the
west. 1t couldn't look to the east, for
there beyond the broad Atlantic lay
the old world firmly entrenched.
Thanks, perhaps, to the Monroe
Doctrine, it found the republics to the
south strictly within it's own sphere
and today we exert financial or mill
tary domination over all non-colonial
soil north of the canal with the pos
sible exception of unwieldy Mexico,
which has proved rather large bite
We had no competition.
But although we pushed out into
the Pacific as far as the Philippines,
we found that in the period before and
after Seward had declared for Ameri-
can command of the Pacific area, the
other powers had penetrated into the
orient and had begun to divide China
into spheres of British, German,
French, Russian and Japanese influ-
ence,. by means of various wars and
peculiar treaties All this was very
bad for expanding American trade.
Then came the Boxer Rebellion. The
United States, whose foreign policies
were then guided by Secretary John
Hay, could hardly partition a section
Of China-for one reason public opin-
ion was very much against it.
The best that our statesmen could
hope for was an even break with the
rest of the world and at this point
Hay enunciated the policy of the "open
door," The new Chinese policy called
for equal rights for American enter
prise and, theoretically, kindly atti-
tude toward the Chinese, for Hay
served notice that we we're opposed
to any more partitions.
Roosevelt and Taft continued the
policy Of seeking equal opportunities
for American trade and Investments;
Wilson receded a little, but the Cool
idge-Kellogg policy has been virtually
that OF their republican predecessors
and has been marked this year by
notable refusal to aid other nations
in Tightening their control over China.