and discredit government and injure none so much as the people who are unfortunate enough to have their common life and their common affairs so tainted and disturbed. We can have no sympathy with those who seek to seize the power of government to advance their own personal interests or ambition. We are the friends of peace, but we know that there can be no lasting or stable peace in such circumstances. As friends, therefore, we shall prefer those who act in the interests of peace and honor, who protect private rights and respect the restraints of constitutional provision. Mutual respect seems to us the indispensable foundation of friendship between states, as between individuals. The United States has nothing to seek in Central and South America except the lasting interests of the peoples of the two continents, the security of governments intended for the people and for no special group or interest, and the development of personal and trade relationships between the two continents which shall redound to the profit and advantage of both and interfere with the rights and liberties of neither. From these principles may be read so much of the future policy of this government as it is necessary now to forecast; and in the spirit of these principles I may, I hope, be permitted with as much confidence as earnestness to extend to the governments of all the republics of America the hand of genuine disinterested friendship and to pledge my own honor and the honor of my colleagues to every enterprise of peace and amity that a fortunate future may disclose. AMERICAN BANKERS AND LOANS TO CHINA 2. Statement of President Wilson. March 18, 1913 (American Journal of International Law, VII, 338.) We are informed that at the request of the last administration a certain group of American bankers undertook to participate in the loan now desired by the Government of China (approximately $125,000,000). . . . The present administration has been asked by this group of bankers whether it would also request them to participate in the loan. The representatives of the bankers through whom the administration was approached declared that they would continue to seek their share of the loan under the proposed agreements only if expressly requested to do so by the government. The administration has declined to make such request because it did not approve the conditions of the loan or the implications of responsibility on its own part which it was plainly told would be involved in the request.1 The conditions of the loan seem to us to touch very nearly the administrative independence of China itself; and this administration does not feel that it ought, even by implication, to be a party to those conditions. The responsibility on its part which would be implied in requesting the bankers to undertake the loan might conceivably go to the length in some unhappy contingency of forcible interference in the financial, and even the political, affairs of that great oriental state, just now awakening to a consciousness of its power and of its obligations to its people. The conditions include not only the pledging of particular taxes, some of them antiquated and burdensome, to secure the loan, but also the administration of those taxes by foreign agents. 1 The official announcement of the withdrawal of the American group of bankers, issued March 19, 1913, may be found in Commercial and Financial Chronicle, XCVI, 825. The responsibility on the part of our government implied in the encouragement of a loan thus secured and administered is plain enough and is obnoxious to the principles upon which the government of our people rests. The Government of the United States is not only willing, but earnestly desirous, of aiding the great Chinese people in every way that is consistent with their untrammeled development and its own immemorial principles. The awakening of the people of China to a consciousness of their possibilities under free government is the most significant, if not the most momentous event of our generation. With this movement and aspiration the American people are in profound sympathy. They certainly wish to participate, and participate very generously, in opening to the Chinese and to the use of the world the almost untouched and perhaps unrivalled resources of China. The Government of the United States is earnestly desirous of promoting the most extended and intimate trade relationships between this country and the Chinese Republic. This is the main material interest of its citizens in the development of China. Our interests are those of the open door a door of friendship and mutual advantage. This is the only door we care to enter. ANTI-ALIEN LAND TENURE LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA 3. Extract from Telegram of the President to Governor Johnson of California. April 22, 1913 I (New York Times, April 23, 1913) appeal with the utmost confidence to the people, the Governor, and the Legislature of California to act in the matter now under consideration in a manner that can not from any point of view be fairly challenged or called in question. If they deem it necessary to exclude all aliens who have not declared their intention to become citizens from the privileges of land ownership they can do so along lines already followed in the laws of many of the other States and of many foreign countries, including Japan herself. Insidious discrimination will inevitably draw in question the treaty obligations of the Government of the United States. . . ADMINISTRATION'S PLANS FOR INTERNA- 4. Statement of Secretary Bryan to the Press. (Commercial and Financial Chronicle, XCVI, 1184) The statement presented to the representatives [i. e., the diplomatic corps at Washington] is only intended to set forth the main proposition, namely that the President desires to enter into an agreement with each nation severally for the investigation of all questions of every nature whatever. This agreement is intended to supplement the arbitration treaties now in existence and those that may be made hereafter. Arbitration treaties always exempt some question from arbitration. The agreement proposed by the President is intended to close the gap and leave no dispute that can become a cause of war without investigation. It will be noticed that each party is to reserve the right to act independently after the report is submitted, but it is not likely that a nation will declare war after it has had an opportunity to confer during the investigation with the opposing nation. But whether or not the proposed agreement accomplishes as much as is hoped for it, it is at least a step in the direction of universal peace, and I am pleased to be the agent through whom the President presents this proposition to the Powers represented here.1 ANTI-ALIEN LAND TENURE LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA 5. Extract from Telegram of Secretary Bryan to Governor Johnson of California. May 11, 1913 (New York Times, May 12, 1913) He [the President] is fully alive to the importance of removing any root of discord which may create antagonism between American citizens and the subjects of Oriental nations residing here, but he is impelled by a sense of duty to express the hope that you will see fit to allow time for diplomatic effort. The nations affected by the proposed law are friendly nations nations that have shown themselves willing to co-operate in the establishment of harmonious relations between their people and ours. 6. Extract from a Communication of Secretary Bryan to the Japanese Ambassador at Washington. May 19, 1913 (American-Japanese Discussions Relating to Land Tenure Law of California, Department of State, p. 5) The Government of the United States regrets most sincerely that the Imperial Government of Japan should regard 1 The plan in detail may be found in the text of the first of the treaties, published in American Journal of International Law, VII, |