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sent to a claim of this kind. Nor ought we to demand it. A suspicion that this is the real meaning of the Monroe Doctrine is the specter that has prevented the great South American states from accepting the Doctrine. It has been the chief obstacle to mutual confidence and cordial relations with them, and the sooner it is definitely rejected the better."

A fourth danger in the present situation is the new emphasis on militarism and materialism, which in spite of all that has been said concerning new desire for spiritual life, has been felt by many Latin Americans. Many Latin American nations who have had practically no army or navy are now considering it imperative to spend the larger part of their national income on militarism.

The following is a summary of a reply to several questions addressed to a prominent lawyer and educator in Chile:

"First of all the war's lessons is that all nations and principally the small ones must be prepared for war on the Swiss model, so that every man and woman and factory would be a factor in war. The school must be the first step in war preparation. Rights must be supported by force, as force has proved, once more, that it is the best defender of rights. Had it not been for their perfect military organizations Holland and Switzerland would have been invaded. If international wars come to an end, they are going to be replaced by internal wars headed by the working classes against capitalism, and mankind will suffer more by these than by the former."

This feeling of materialism is further illustrated by the following published words of a prominent Argentine :

"The uselessness of the exaggerated religious spirit of our times is revealed by its own inefficiency. What use has religion been in the present world conflict? *** Religion has not been able to avert the war. On the field of battle peoples are being massacred by those of their own belief, and they march hand in hand with those whom they believed to be heretics but yesterday. *** But there must

come out of it all, as a logical consequence of the struggle, the universal decadence of religious morality, and, with the strengthening of democracy, there will come the implantation of a human morality."

Summing up, the influence of the war in Latin America has been very marked in industrial, political and spiritual ways. It has brought new economic independence, an awakening of labor, and a new attention to these countries from the rest of the world. A new friendship for the United States has been fostered and a new open-mindedness and spiritual hunger have been created. There have also been certain imminent dangers created-trade rivalries, imperialistic possibilities, and strengthening of materialism and militarism. A correspondent aptly puts the whole matter

as follows:

"The war has generated a vortex of questions which have never presented themselves to a great many before the outbreak of hostilities. The employment of force, the doctrine of the universal brotherhood, the ancient problem of rampant evil, the baffling mystery of sacrifice, the inevitability of war, the relation of woman to nationhood, etc., have been forced upon them."

The Latin American nations have ceased to be children. Formerly they have been looked after by outside nations, their finances have been provided for them, their national resources exploited, their intellectual life dominated. The war has changed all this. Just as the child who has been protected by others comes to be thrown on his own resources and is forced to make his own choices, so these young nations are beginning to face life with new seriousness and new responsibilities. As with all young people this will not be an unmixed evil. They will yield to many temptations unless they have the strongest possible help from their matured friends. It is not only a fight for supremacy in the world of commerce that we shall see taking place in Latin America, but a fight for supremacy in the world of culture and morals.

Sources of Further Information on Latin America and the World War

INGENIEROS, José: Los Tiempos Nuevos.

INMAN, SAMUEL G.: Intervention in Mexico, Social and Religious Conditions in South America.

KIRKPATRICK, F. A.: South America and the War.

LUGONES, LEOPOLDO: Mi Beligirancia.

MARTIN, PERCY A.: Latin America and the War, World Peace Foundation.

South American Opinions of the War, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The best material is found in the files of the following magazines: Inter-America, The South American, Pan American Bulletin, Hispanic American, Historic Review, Current History, La Nueva Democracia, La Reforma Social.

Chapter VIII

PROBLEMS OF THE CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES

Few North Americans realize how extensively and with what rapidity our "far-flung battle-line" is growing. Our conception of our native land is generally limited to the forty-eight states represented in our national congress. It is a positive shock therefore for the ordinary North American to travel through the various Caribbean countries, as I have during the last year, and come face to face with the predominance of the influence of the United States in these little Caribbean republics (so-called). This influence has increased gradually but very steadily. As the result of the Spanish-American War we came into complete possession of Porto Rico. While Cuba was turned back to her own people, by means of the Platt Amendment, we still maintain virtually a protectorate in that country and own outright a naval station at Guantanamo. The war with Spain showed the necessity of building the Panama Canal and the United States forced its control over the Isthmian territory -as President Roosevelt said: "I took Panama." The Canal Zone became entirely ours, with the Panamanian Republic itself under our influence. In 1912 we sent marines into Nicaragua to restore order and since that time we have maintained a garrison of at least a hundred marines in the capital city, Managua.

In 1915, after one of the worst of Haiti's many disturbances, we landed marines on that island, directed new elections and proposed a treaty which gives us practical control of the country. A year later a revolution in Santo Domingo was the cause for our landing marines there and when the government then in power would not agree to the kind of a treaty that the United States desired, martial law was declared and Admiral Knapp was made Military Governor.

Since that time the government of the Dominican Republic has been carried on by decrees of the Military Governor. In 1916 the United States government purchased for 25 million dollars the Virgin Islands in order that our strategic position in the West Indies might be still more

secure.

The influence of the United States has also been extended over most of the other countries of this area by the new Caribbean policy begun during the Roosevelt administration and continued and developed during that of Taft and Wilson. This policy is marked by a tendency to force peace and order by establishing fiscal and police control, by denying recognition to revolutionary governments and by blocking the securing of financial aid from abroad. These means were used to restrain violence and irregularities and to maintain progress, as the United States understood that word. It amounted to the establishment of protectorates over these small, disturbed lands, although that term has been, as far as possible, avoided. In subjecting them to guardianship or tutelage, the aim was not to deprive them of their sovereignty or independence, but to extend needed help in insuring stability, solvency, sanitation, protection from foreign creditors and general welfare.

This altruism has not been altogether appreciated by the Caribbean countries. They seem to think they had rather be rowdy children in their own house than orderly children in that of someone else. On the other hand the United States believes that we have come to a time in the world's life when continued disorder cannot be allowed, both because of its dangers to the peace of the United States and to the equilibrium of all international relations, economic as well as political.

STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

The two most important trade routes in the world are the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. The former has seen the greatest play of the world's forces of any body of water in the world up to the present time. The two great twin seas, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, are destined pos

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