Evening star., 1927-04-26
COOLIDGE CLEARS
FOREIGN POLICY
Address to Press Associa-
tions Held Most important
of His Administration.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

NEW YORK, April 26-President
Coolidge made here the most import
ant speech on foreign policy since he
took the oath of Office. 1t will &C
down in history not necessarily as q
corollary to the Monroe doctrine, for
it implied no relationship to Europe,
but as the Coolidge doctrine, namely,
that the United States intends to pur
sue a policy north of Panama which
involves responsibilities and obliga-
tions it does not feel toward nations
south of Panama or anywhere else In
the world.
The President selected the twentieth
anniversary banquet Of the United
Press Associations, to which he had
been invited six months ago, as the
occasion on which to deliver his pro-
nouncement. He discussed other
things, such as the need for fair
press that does not misrepreSent the
policies Of its own government abroad,
but the main theme was the protec-
tion of life and property of American
citizens and the application of this
principle to the situation in Mica
Yagua, Mexico and China.
Carefully Defines u. S. Position.
1t was in the course of his devei'
Opment of the idea that international
Justice and international law We're
higher than any domestic law or the
whims of changing administrations
to the south of us, that the President
read this carefully prepared para
graph, giving his doctrine for Amerf-
can policy between the Rio Grande
and the Panama Canal:
Toward the governments of coun'
tries which we have recognized TINS
side of the Panama Canal we feel a
moral responsibility that does not at
tach to other nations. We wish them
to feel that our recognition is of real
value to them and that they can count
on such support as we can lawfully
give them when they are beset with
difficulties. We have undertaken to
discourage revolutions within that
area and to encourage settlement of
political differences by the peaceful
methods of elections. This policy is
bound to meet with some discourage
ments, but it is our hope ana belief
that ultimately it will prevail.
Rich in Natural Resources.
'"This territory is rich in natural
resources and under orderly govern
lnents is capabIe of a development that
will give to its inhabitants all the adj
vantages Of modern civilization. 1t is
81 curious circumstance that some of
those who have been willing to have
us take mandates over far-off coun-
tries in Asia, where we have no in
terest that does not attach to all hui
manity, are most critical when we are
attempting to encourage the mainte-
nance of order, the continuity of duly
established government and the pro-
lection of lives and property of our
own citizens under a general reign of
law in these countries that are near
at hand and where we have large and |
peculiar interests
The foregoing contains no new |
thought, for one of the first things |
that President Wilson and Secretary |
Bryan did in 1913 was to announce /
that governments which came into /
being by revolution would not be |
recognized. Also the Central American |
countries embodied this principle in /
treaties to which the United States
was not a party, but which treaties
resulted from conferences called by
Secretary of State Hughes.
Doctrine Again Emphasized.
Thus under Democratic as well as
Republican administrations the doc
trine slowly has been envolving in
until Mr.. Coolidge's speech here has
the policy been as definitely stated or
as positively circumscribed. 1t means
that the mandate idea which has pre-
vailed in other parts of the world
under the authority of the League of
Nations has been applied in modified
form as sort of trusteeship in this /
hemisphere north of Panama.
The Coolidge doctrine is the develop
ment Of the power to extend or refuse
recognition, but affirmatively along
with it goes moral as well as material |
support for the government that has
been recognized. Mr.. Coolidge cited /
the precedent Of supplying arms to |
President Obregon and the later in
stance Of similar help to the duly |
recognized President of Nicaragua,
Adolfo Diaz, as the measure of Amer.
lean support when once a government |
had been recognized.
This means briefly that it is hoped |
The revolutionists throughout Central |
America will see at once the futility