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WILHAM jf. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
VOL, 13, NO.' 31
'Liftcoin, Nebraska, November, 1913
Whole Number 655
Declaration of a New American Policy
The President, at the Southerit.Commercial Congress, Mobile, Alabama, October 27, 1913.
Your Excellency, Mr. Chairman: It is with
unaffected pleasure that I And myself here to
day. I once before had the pleasure, in another
Southern city of addressing the Southern Com
mercial Congress. I then spoke of what the
future seemed to hold in store for this region
which so many of us love and towards the future
of which we all look forward with so much con
fidence and hope. But another theme 'directed
me here this time. I do not need to speak of
the South. She has, perhaps, acquired the gift
of speaking for herself. I came because I want
to speak of our present and prospective relations
with our neighbors to the south. I deemed it a
public duty, as well as a personal pleasure, to be
here to express for myself and for the govern
ment I represent the welcome we all feel to"3
those who represent the Latin-American states.
' The future, ladies and gentlemen, is going to
bo very different for this hemisphere from the
past. These states lying to the south of us,
which have always been our neighbors, will now
be drawnrcloser to us by innumerable ties, and,
I hope, chief of all, by the tie of a common
understanding of each other. Interest does not
tie nations together. It sometimes separates
them; but .sympathy and understanding does
unite them, and I believe that by the new route
that is just about to be opened, while we
physically cut two continents asunder, we spirit
ually unite them. It is a spiritual union which
we seek.
I wonder . if you realize, I wonder f if your
imaginations have been- filled with the signifi
cance of the tides of commerce. Your governor
alluded in very fit and striking terms to the
voyage of Columbus; but Columbus took his
voyage under compulsion of circumstances.
Constantinople had been captured by the Turks
and all the routes, of trade with the East had
been suddenly closed. If there was not a way
across the Atlantic to open those routes again,
they were closed forever, and Columbus set out,
not to discover America, for he did not know
that it existed, but to discover the eastern shores
of Asia. He set sail, for Cathay and stumbled
upon America. With that change in the outlook
of the world, what happened? England, that
had been at the back of Europe with an unknown
sea behind her, found that all things had turned
as if upon a pivc-t and she was at the front of
Europe; and since then all the tides of energy
and enterprise that have issued out of Europe
have seemed to be turned westward across the
Atlantic. But you will notice that they have
turned westward chiefly north of the equator
and that it is the northern half of the globe that
has seemed to be filled with the media of Inter
course and of sympathy and of common understanding.
Do you "not see now what is about to happen?
Those great tides which have been running
along parallels of latitude will now swing south
ward athwart parallels of latitude, and that
opening gate at the Isthmus of Panama will open
the world to a commerce that she has not known
before, a commerce of intelligence, of thought
and sympathy, between North and South. The
L'atin-American states, which to their disad
vantage, have been off the main lines, will now
be on the main lines. I feel that these gentle
men honoring "us with their presence today will
presently find that some part, at any rate, of the
center of gravity of the world has shifted. Do
you realize that New York, for example, will be
.nearer fchevwestern coast of South America than
rShiMWTo the eastern coast of South America?
Do you realize that a line drawn northward,
parallel with the greater part of the western
coast of South America, will run only about one
hundred and fifty miles west of New York? The
great bulk of South America, if you will look at
your globes (not at your inercator's projection),
lies eastward of the continent of North America.
You will realize that when you realize that the
Canal will run southeast, not southwest, and
that when you get into the Pacific, you will be
further east than you were when you left the
Gulf of Mexico. These things are significant,
therefore, of this, that we are closing one chapter
in the history of the world and are opening an
other, of great, unimaginable significance
There is one peculiarity about the history of
the Latin-American states which I am sure they
are keenly aware of. You hear of "concessions"
to foreign capitalists in Latin-America. You do
not hear of concessions to foreign capitalists in
the United States. They are not granted con
cessions. They are invited to make investments.
The work is ours, though they are welcome to
CONTENTS
DECLARATION OP A NEW AMERICAN
POLICY
THE NEW MONROE DOCTRINE
THE PRESIDENT'S POLICIES
APPROVED
THEIR FAITH JUSTIFIED
THE BOGEY MAN BURIED
A PLAN THAT WENT WRONG
THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS '
GOVERNMENTS CAN ENDURE ONLY BY
CONSENT OF GOVERNED
PRESIDENT WILSON'S THANKSGIVING
PROCLAMATION
THE TRUST QUESTION NEXT
GOVERNMENT EVOLUTION AND IN
DUSTRY THE TRUST PROBLEM
- PARTISANSHIP RUN. MAD
SCHEDULES OF THE NEW TARIFF
ACT OF 1913
invest in it. We do not ask hem to Kupply tho
capital and do the work. It is an invitation, not
a privilege; and states that are obliged, becaubo
their territory does not lie within the main field
of modern enterprise and action, to grant con
cessions arc in this condition, that foreign in
terests are apt to dominate their domestic af
fairs: a condition of affair's always dangerous
and apt to become intolerable. What these
states are going to see, therefore, Is an emanci
pation from the subordination, which has been
inevitable, to foreign enterprise and an assertion
of the splendid character which, In Bplte of theso
difficulties, they have again and again been able
to demonstrate. The dignity, tho courage, tho
self-possession, . the self-reenect of the Latin
'American wVoWhp(phlevements in tho face
of all theso adverse circumstances, deserve noth
ing but the admiration and applause of the
worlds Tiiey have had harder bargains driven
with them in the matter of loans than any other
peoples in the world. Interest lias been exacted
of them that was not exacted of anybody else,
because the risk was said to be greater; and then
securities were taken that destroyed tho risk,
an admirable arrangement for those who woro
forcing the terms! I rejoice in nothing so much
as in the prospect that they will now be emanci
pated from those conditions, and we ought to bo
the first to take part in assisting in that emanci
pation. I think some of theso gentlemen have
already had occasion to bear vitness that the De
partment of State In recent months has tried to
serve them in that wise. In the future they will
draw closer and closer to us because of circum
stances of which I wish to speak with moderation
and, I hope, without indiscretion.
We must prove ourselves their friends and
champions, upon terms of equality and honor.
You can not be friends upon any other terms
than upon tho terms of equality. You can not
be friends at all except upon the terms of honor.
We must show ourselves friends by comprehend
ing their interest, whether it squares with our
own interest or not. It is a very perilous thing
to 'determine the foreign policy of a nation in
tho terms of material interest. It not only is
unfair to those with whom you are dealing, but
it is degrading as regards your own actions.
Comprehension must be the soil in which shall
grow all the fruits of friendship, and there is a
reason and a compulsion lying behind all this
which is dearer than anything else to the
thoughtful men of America. I mean the develop
ment of constitutional liberty in the world.
Human rights, national integrity and oppor
tunity as against material interests, that, ladies
and gentlemen, is the Issue which we now have
to face. I want to take this occasion to say
that the United States will never again seek one
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