other people. The attitude of Germany to Belgium suggests that the Germans think it suitable to assume possession of any country which is of military or commercial advantage to them, and which they are strong enough to hold. There is no evidence that the colonial conscience of Germany reawakes on this side of the ocean. If the Empire, now or hereafter, should fancy a colony in North or South America, it will not be held back by Monroe's Declaration that the "American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintained are henceforth not to be considered subjects for colonization by any European power. Hence the safety of Brazil and Venezuela does not depend upon their being entered upon the maps of the world as independent countries. Nor is the future of California or Texas secured simply by being geographically a part of the United States, but by the ultimate ability of the United States as a nation to hold on to them. Americans in general believe that neither Germany nor any other power has the physical ability to invade or dismember the United States. None of the other independent American powers have the same confidence, and that is why they favor the American Doctrine so far as it protects them. No other of the World Powers seems at present in the least inclined to establish itself in America. Spain has lost all her colonies. France and England have all they can do to hold what they now possess. Italy is looking toward the Orient. Germany is the one power that has enough physical force and a broad enough ambition to give any chance of success in Latin America. Against Germany, therefore, more than any other nation on earth, all the American powers are seeking some rallying cry which would enable them to make head if danger came upon them. THE AMERICAN DOCTRINE IN THE EUROPEAN WAR So potent is the American principle that it has cropped out in the fierce discussions caused by the European war. September 3, 1914, the German Ambassador at Washington, Count von Bernstorff, calmed an apprehension which had not been felt by sending a note to the Department of State in which he stated that No German "He was instructed by his Government to deny most emphatically the rumors to the effect that Germany intends, in case she comes out victorious in the present war, to seek expansion in South America." This statement was afterwards elaborated in public by Doctor Bernhard Dernburg, who was considered to be an unofficial representative of the German government : "If the Government of the United States wants assurances from Germany that in the event of victory she will not seek expansion No German or colonization in North America, including Canada, Expansion and also South America, Germany will give the asin North or South surances at once. Germany has not the slightest inAmerica. tention of violating any part or section of the Monroe Doctrine. "We have already laid before the Government of the United States an official note stating that Germany would not seek expansion in South America. North America was not included because it never entered our minds that any one could conceive that we had such intentions." The Administration had not invited either of these statements, was not nervous about the possibilities of annexations by Germany, and did not make the Ambassador's communication public until it had been revealed by Dernburg. However, to these statements, which could in no way give offense, Dernburg added a warning about a part of America which has very seldom been mentioned in connection with the American Doctrine: Breach of "The fact that Canada has taken part in this struggle has opened up a new prospective to Americans. It is a wilful breach of the Monroe Doctrine for an American self-governing dominion to go to war, thereby exposing the American Continent to a counter-attack from Europe and risking to disarrange the present equilibrium. But I think America can set her mind to rest on that point. I at least would most emphatically say that no matter what happens the Monroe Doctrine will not be violated by Germany either in North America or in South America. When she is victorious there will be enough property of her antagonists lying about over the four parts of the globe to keep Germany from the necessity of looking any farther, and causing trouble where she seeks friendship and sympathy." This curious remark seems to point to a hazy idea that the Monroe Doctrine is something which, if disregarded, should call upon the culprit the disapprobation of the world. The point in Dr. Dernburg's mind is apparently that Canada was protected by the Monroe Doctrine (which it has never been), on an implied promise that Canada would keep out of European quarrels (which Canada has not done), and that by venturing across the ocean in defense of Great Britain, the Dominion has lost a sanctity (which it has never possessed). When the Canadians sent a force to the Boer War in 1900, it never occurred to the Germans that it was a breach either of international law or of the American Doctrine. Almost the only thing which directly affects the American Doctrine in the European war, is the effort made by both sides. to push or draw the United States out of neutrality and into a war in the causes and results of which she has only a distant interest. That is the penalty which the United States pays for acceptance of world power. The conquest of the Philippines, the share in the Open Door despatch, the Chinese intervention of 1900, and the agreement of 1908 to act in common with Japan on certain Asiatic questions, all commit the United States to a responsibility outside of America which cannot be reconciled with the old Doctrine of the Two Spheres. There are now three spheres of world action- West, East, and Near East and the United States has a part in all of them. In fact, the United States Government has a remarkable connection with the underlying causes of the present European struggle. In 1906, on the personal request of the Emperor of Germany, the United States sent Mr. Henry White as a representative to the European conference at Algeciras to decide whether Germany should have a foothold in Morocco. The influence of the American representative, acting under instructions from Washington, was very strong, and the United States must take part of the responsibility for shutting Germany out of this cherished ambition. If the United States feels an interest in Morocco, she cannot blame Germany for feeling an interest in Brazil. On the other hand, if the Germans have felt their exclusion from North Africa so keenly that they make it one of the causes for a terrible war, the United States would be equally justified in considering a German invasion of Brazil an act to be resisted by the American army and navy. CHAPTER XVIII PACIFIC AND ASIATIC DOCTRINES EARLY AMERICAN INTEREST IN ASIA THE late Professor Edward Bourne of Yale, used to say that the Philippine Islands were attached to the Spanish West Indies till after 1823, and therefore it ought to be presumed that Monroe intended his Doctrine to apply to that Asiatic archipelago. The quip leads the mind to the important fact that the relations of the Pacific Coast of America, the Pacific Ocean, and the nations of Asia, are all bound together. The first Asiatic trade went from Philadelphia, Boston, Providence, and other Atlantic ports via the Northwest Coast to China. The relation of the original Monroe Doctrine to Oregon is sufficiently described above. It is a curious fact that the objection to "colonization" which was intended to block the way of Russia, has been applied almost entirely to the West Indies and the eastern coast of North and South America. The clause in Monroe's Declaration had little to do with the process by which the United States came to have a Pacific front. The three-cornered trade with a cargo of trinkets to the Northwest Coast, a cargo of furs to China, and a cargo of tea and silk and other Oriental products and some hard dollars, died down as furs grew less abundant; but in the palmy days of the clipper ships there was a big trade "Round the Horn" to China and India, and the great islands off the southern coast of Asia. Quite a different trade was that of the whaling ships, which soon swarmed into the Pacific. The national service of the whalers was to put in at the Sandwich Islands and give their crews a little experience of society in the South Seas. They were followed by the missionaries, and the missionaries are chiefly responsible for the transition from the native kingdom of the Sandwich Islands to the present territory of Hawaii, as a part of the United States. China was first reached by the ship Empress of China, in 1784, and the United States shared with other nations the scanty privileges of the port of Canton, till the British smashed a way for their opium trade in 1842. The United States went up through the breach thus made, and, in 1844, secured a commercial treaty. Our diplomatic influence in China was for many years trifling, except that Anson Burlingame, when recalled by his own government, was taken up by the Chinese as their representative and negotiated the Treaty of 1868. Our entry into Japan has a curious connection with the proceedings in China. It was a happen-so that among several nations who were trying to get into communication with Japan, the United States should have won the prize. We now know that Perry and his fleet would have gone home unsuccessful but that a shrewd Japanese statesman called the attention of his court to the things that happened to China when that power refused to negotiate. Nevertheless, the conditions of the treaty of 1854 have pleased the dramatic instincts of both nations; and ministers, missionaries, and advisers from the United States have had an honorable part in the development of Japan. THE MONROVOID DOCTRINE ON HAWAII (1842-1849) Edgington, in his book on the Monroe Doctrine, repeatedly takes our government to task for not applying the Monroe Doctrine to the Pacific Islands. Not a single responsible official utterance can be found to show that any President or Secretary of State has ever tried to stretch the term Monroe Doctrine over that far distant area, which in Monroe's time was little known, little visited, little prized, and had little relation with Europe. Nevertheless, for many years the United States took a position with reference to Hawaii, which much resembles the Monroe Doctrine. In December, 1842, Secretary Webster made the following communication to commissioners who had appeared in Washington, asking for the recognition of the Hawaiian kingdom "The United States. . . are more interested in the fate of the islands and of their government than any other nation can be; and |