@7-30-42 GS Replacement Barnes & Noble- PREFACE TO THE THIRD PRINTING SINCE the first publication of this essay a number of the desiderata for which it pleads have become realities. Within the past few months our legations in Argentina and Chile have been raised to the rank of embassies, a courtesy which was immediately recognized by similar action on the part of our southernmost neighbors. In the second place, the Congress of the United States has made an appropriation of $35,000 toward the expenses of the next Pan-American Scientific Congress, which it is hoped may be held in connection with the coming celebration of the opening of the Panama Canal. In the third place, what might have been a long and serious war with Mexico has been averted by the action of the “ABC” Powers, whose representatives acted as mediators between the United States and Mexico in the celebrated conference at Niagara PREFACE TO THIRD PRINTING Falls, which seems to mark the beginning of a new era of Pan-American friendship. Finally, the present administration at Washington has had very little to say about the Monroe Doctrine. President Wilson has not attempted to follow in the footsteps of President Roosevelt and devote paragraphs in his Messages to Congress to defining the sphere and true meaning of our ancient shibboleth. Instead, he has on several occasions let it be known that the United States desired to be regarded as a friendly and not an aggressive neighbor. It is to be hoped that the people of the United States will adopt a similar attitude. The great European war has given us a remarkable opportunity to prove our disinterested friendship for the other republics of this hemisphere. This is for them a time of great stress. The customary channels of European trade and the ordinary supplies of European capital are largely closed to them. New Haven, Connecticut January 29, 1915 H. B. PREFACE For the past five years I have felt that conditions in South America were such that we ought to adopt a new foreign policy. In 1908 I learned how strongly and with how much reason the people of Argentina and Chile detested the Monroe Doctrine. Two years ago, in "Across South America," I ventured to say: "On mature consideration it does seem as though the justification for the Monroe Doctrine both in its original and its present form had passed." In lecturing on the relations between South America and the United States, and in conversation with public men incidental to four journeys in the Southern continent, the importance of securing general recognition of the obsolete character of this national shibboleth has been borne in on me. When the Editor of the "Atlantic Monthly" asked me to put my ideas into the form of an essay I welcomed the opportunity. The cordial response to that article is so significant of a decided change in public opinion that it has seemed worth while to present herewith, in more extended form than has been hitherto possible, the reasons for my belief. Naturally, this is not the place for an exhaustive treatise. The historical aspect alone might fill several volumes. What has been attempted is to sketch the growth of the Doctrine, to indicate the obligations and disadvantages it entails, and, more particularly, to portray the attitude toward it, and toward us, of our neighbors to the south. I have also suggested, very briefly, the outlines of a new foreign policy. It is evident that the problems which are likely to arise in the future will require something more than the mere negation of outgrown doctrines. HIRAM BINGHAM June, 1913. |