CHAPTER XXI

FORMING A PAN-AMERICAN UNION.

President Wilson announced, eight days after his inauguration, that "one of the chief objects of my administration will be to cultivate the friendship and deserve the confidence of our sister republics of Central and South America." The American people accepted that pronouncement as the expression of an idealist whose patriotism was exceedingly buoyant after an unusual election. However, few, if any, had the gift of prophecy to foretell the result of such a policy. But, nearly three years afterward, a great Pan-American Congress was sitting in Washington, and representatives of all the Republics of the two continents, bound together by ties of friendship and bearing gifts of great confidence to the chief executive of this nation, were working earnestly together for the domestic peace of the two Americas, and the international peace of the world based "upon the solid, eternal foundations of justice and humanity."

The President's Pan-American policy before the outbreak of the European war has been told in a previous chapter. But its effects were hardly definable on that fateful day when Austria declared war on Servia. How

ever, the new impact of military forces in Europe shook the Western Hemisphere so violently that the twenty-one Republics looked immediately to one another for sympathy and assistance, and for a new bond of union.

A Pan-American Union was a corollary to other issues such as military preparedness, commercial preparedness, and industrial preparedness. It was so related to every measure looking to better shipping facilities and to every scheme for strengthening our defense that even Congress was compelled to consider our relations to the Latin-American states while discussing these other great issues, although no direct legislation was necessary.

But what were the real ties that bound these twentyone Republics together at the outbreak of the war? The Monroe Doctrine was the strongest bond, but it was being assailed both in this country and in Europe. Citizens of the United States referred to it as "an anachronism of folly;" some said that it has "become only a disad vantage to the United States" and we should "modify it." In Europe, it was declared that the efficiency of the Doctrine "will be proved by the distance that the guns of the United States can cover." Thus, in both Europe and America, this bond of union was being vigorously attacked.

The second tie that bound these twenty-one Republics together was trade and commerce. Since the United States was more powerful than all the other republics

combined, it would be natural to suppose that the lines of trade and commerce between this country and each of the other states would be direct and very strong. However, such was not the case. A large business was carried on between the two Americas, but strange as it may seem, the greater part of it was conducted through European ports. Therefore, the commercial ties that bound the two Americas together passed through European hands, and the strength of those ties was measured by the willingness of European bankers and traders to facilitate intercourse between the two Americas. We have already seen that European vessels carried over 90 per cent of American commerce, and the shortest route from New York to Rio or Buenos Aires was by way of Hamburg or Liverpool. Moreover, the financial transactions between the two Americas was conducted not in American money or through American banks, but in European banks. The exchange was made in Europe, and the balance of trade was settled in European coin.

Furthermore, this long-distance union of the two Americas, made in the interest of European business and silently permitted through the negligence of American business, was encouraged by educational theorists; they advised teachers of geography to follow trade lines in instructing the youth, and to lead the students from North America to Europe and from thence to South America.

These were the very doubtful ties that bound the two

Americas together when Woodrow Wilson began ❝to cultivate the friendship and deserve the confidence" of the Latin-American states. Through this means he sought to preserve the Monroe Doctrine and to increase the commercial and financial intercourse between the two continents, and in this way create an irresistible PanAmerican Union, in the interest, not of the United States solely, but of every republic in the two continents founded on constitutional government.

The Latin-American states were the first to feel the effects of the President's new Pan-American policies, because the militaristic policies of European nations appeared more formidable to Latin-America than to the United States. A new declaration of independence for constitutional governments needed to be stated so strongly that every republic in the Western Hemisphere might feel secure in its independence, and every imperialistic European nation might beware. The Latin-American states were soon to see in President Wilson's policies the outlines of this long hoped for declaration, and LatinAmerican writers noted them down with an eagerness that surprised the cool-headed Anglo-Saxon of North America.

It is well to sum up here the articles of the Wilson Doctrine as applied to this hemisphere: The rule of right and justice shall be applied to business activities in America; this government will not be a partner in any business enterprise in a foreign country that

would be unlawful at home; the United States is the friend of constitutional government in the two Americas; the republics of this hemisphere shall treat one another as equals, and each shall have the right to govern its internal affairs without interference from any other republic; the United States will never again seek an additional foot of territory by conquest; and one republic has a friendly interest in the other twenty, and it is the duty of all to guard and maintain the rights of each.

This new declaration of independence for the Western Hemisphere did not pass without a protest at home and much criticism in Europe. But, as Senor Leopold Lugones, a writer on political and economic questions of Argentina, declared just before the outbreak of the European war, "The serenity with which President Wilson accepts the most severe criticism, even to the point of endangering the material prestige of the United States, is the best proof of the honesty of his idealistic policy," and "The Pan-American ideal, in countries where great natural obstacles created barriers, may not be realized for many years to come, but to Latin-America it is a noble aspiration."

At the beginning of the European war it became very clear to Americans that Europe had dominated South America, because she controlled all the leading trade lines to South America and all the important international banking institutions of that continent. But these