Modernizing the Monroe Doctrine

Front matter

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Preface

I BiSLDEVX in Pan-Amencanism and its great future because it is at the same time the most altruistic and the most practical foreign policy to which any country has ever devoted itself. It honorably reconciles the two seemingly irreconcilable shibboleths, ''Safety First'' and ''America First," because it satisGes both our patriotism and our desire for security. It is based upon a study of and a regard for the viewpoint of other nations, thus educating the spirit of our own nation: advance the spiritual side of a whole people and things material will take care of themselves. It provides a definite foreign polipy upon which the most practical of men may consbtently unite with extreme idealists. It is an attempt to a»* semble the finest traits of twenty-one republics so as to employ them in combination for the common good of all, meanwhile disregarding their shortcomings: this mixture of appreciation and toleration will surely be as effective when applied in the family of nations as it has proved in many a family of individuals. Once this attitude of mind is gained, it matters little how much the republics concerned differ in racial traits. Pan-Americanism makes for a broader and deeper type of patriotism, because it adds a consideration for the viewpoint of other nations to the nar-

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PREFACE rower and often selfish patriotism for one's homeland, whose interests nevertheless it saf^uards. It is the lineal descendant of the Spirit of '76, whose Source was acknowledged by those armed Americans who at daybreak knelt in prayer on Cambridge Green before marching out to defend Bunker Hill.

Some policies are only beneficial when completely worked out, but Pan-Americanism, even when incomplete, is beneficial, and complete, it would be an immeasurable blessing. It is the most practical agent for international peace thus far devised. By means of joint mediation by American republics it has already prevented a conflict between the United States and MexicOi and upon that achievement as a base, let us erect a completed triangle, whose easterly side shall protect us from future friction with Europe, and whose westerly side insure peace on the Pacific; thus shall we have a Pan-American Triangle for Peace. The responsibility for Pan-Americanism is a continental one. The responsibility for the Monroe Doctrine will always be peculiarly our own, though it may be shared in by others. Together they should be guaranteed by a strong navy both in the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, and by an adequate army with a citizen reserve trained as are the peace-loving Swiss.

Charles H. Shisbbill.

20 East 05th Stbbr, New Yobk Citt.

Contents

I. What is South Aiiebica loud?. . . . 1

n. South Amhbigan Mabxbtb: ComiXBCB as an

Intbbnational Pkaceicakisb . • • • 17

Introduction

In the f dlowing pages l£r. Shenill offers a vigorous and stimulatiiig discussion of some of the most interesting and most in4>ortant questions that now confront the American people. He touches on many disputed points and makes some novel and even radical proposals. In doing these things he stimu* lates and indeed compeb the reader to think for himself on questions ol international politics, and this is just now the most crying need of the American people.

Circumstances over which we have had no control, and conditions which we have been powerless to diange, have completely altered the relation of the United States to the rest of the world during the lifetime of the present generation. International trade we have always had m(»e or less, and the tide of immigration has flowed stron^y toward our shores for the greater part of a century. Science, which knows no national boundaries and no limitations of language^ has always been a f <»ce making for international appreciation and understanding, as have the fine arts, while literature has lagged only a little distance behind. The world had been internationalized almost without our knowing it, and when the storm of mTBODUCnON war broke with frightful suddenness on August 1, 1914, it found in operation a silent but powerful system of international intercourse and international dependence of which it straightway made a complete and costly wreck. Americans, who had never before thought of the world outside the limits of their own countries as other than part of another and distant planet, were forced to appreciate that th^, too, were bound to men and women whom they had never seen and whose language they had never heard, by invisible ties that only a world-war could break or destroy. In a twinkling of an eye international shipping, international trade, international finance, international communication of every sort feU from their place of high security and comfort to positions of the utmost danger and damage. This was as emphatic and as severe a lesson in what internationalism means as the world, including America, has ever received.

Mr. Sherrill deals chiefly, as the title of this book directly suggests, with problems of the American continent and with other international problems that grow out of these. The present is the psychological moment to draw the Republics of the three Americas together, since th^ are all alike removed from the immediate theatre of the world-war. They are all alike rq)ublican in their form of government, and they are all alike dealing with the problems that face new peoples with fresh soil and unexhausted natural

INTEODUCTION resources. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that the several American Republics in drawing dos^ together are thereby thrown in contrast with the older nations of Europe and of Asia, or are in any way to be brought in antagonism to these. On the contrary, the drawing together of the Republics of the three Americas should be rather a symbol of that greater and larger drawing together which the whole world will one day witness. The war may postpone, but cannot wholly prevent, the march of the human spirit toward its ideals of universal brotherhood, with liberty and justice assured to all men. There are not two worlds, an American world and a non-American world, but only one, and the part which the Americas will play in that one world wiU dq)end upon their faithfulness to their own ideals and upon the sincerity and permanence of their feeling of comradeship for each other and of friendship for their broth^s in other and older lands than their own. If from these pages Americans shall leam to look

out across the waters that bound them on the east and west and south, and if they leam that it should be quite possible for them to live in as great harmony and security with their neighbors overseas, as th^ do with their neighbors to the north, who are separated but by a long imaginary and quite undefended line, Mr. Sherrill may be happy indeed. In

that case his years of diplomatic service, his dose

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INTBODUCnON study of Americaji oracmieroe and its needs, and his earnest efforts to play the part of a hi^-minded Amerkan dtisen, will not have been in vain.

The happiness of the world, as wdl as its peace, win be promoted when men leant to look at worldproblems not from the viewpoint of their own nation alone, but from that of other nations as wdl. Mr. ^lerrill's bodk will help Americans to see the worldproblems as other peoples see them.

Nicholas Mubrat Bxttlbb

Counau Uhumwii, 1. 1916