Volume Vi Part 13 (1/2)

Favorable replies to the invitation sent by President Roosevelt were received from all the nations. Russia, then in the midst of war with j.a.pan, while approving, stipulated that the conference should not be called until the end of that war. When peace was restored, in the summer of 1905, Emperor Nicholas II issued an invitation to fifty-three nations to send representatives to such a conference. For the first time, nearly every independent nation on the globe was represented among the delegates in an international gathering of this nature. It met at The Hague during the summer of 1907.

[Ill.u.s.tration: About one hundred delegates.]

First session of the second Peace Conference, The Hague, Holland.

Delegates from the United States were instructed to favor obligatory arbitration; the establishment of a permanent court of arbitration; the prohibition of force in the collection of contract debts; immunity from seizure of private property at sea; a clearer definition of the rights of neutrals, and the limitation of armaments.

While belief was rea.s.serted by the conference that there should be the obligatory arbitration of all questions relating to treaties and international problems of a legal nature, the principle was not adopted, although thirty-two nations of the forty-five represented favored it.

The resolution adopted, which provided for the collection of contract debts, is as follows: ”In order to avoid between nations armed conflicts of a purely pecuniary origin arising from contractual debts claimed of the government of one country by the government of another country to be due to its nationals, the signatory powers agree not to have recourse to armed force for the collection of such contractual debts. However, this stipulation shall not be applicable when the debtor State refuses or leaves unanswered an offer to arbitrate; or, in case of acceptance, makes it impossible to formulate the terms of submission; or, after arbitration, fails to comply with the award rendered.”

Provision was made for an international prize court, to which appeal might be made from the prize courts of the belligerent powers. The declaration was adopted prohibiting the throwing of projectiles and explosives from balloons.

Before the end of the year 1908, one hundred and thirty-five arbitration treaties had been concluded. The United States was a party to twelve of these. Most of the treaties bind the signatory powers to submit to the Hague Tribunal all differences in so far as they do not affect ”the independence, the honor, the vital interests, or the exercise of sovereignty of the contracting countries, and provided it has been impossible to obtain an amicable solution by means of direct diplomatic negotiations or by any other method of conciliation.”

CHAPTER VI

THE UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA

[1905-1906]

Looking toward the completion of the Panama Ca.n.a.l, there has been a revival of interest on the part of the United States in the republics of South America. From the time of the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine, there has been a distant friends.h.i.+p on our part for these nations. The plan inaugurated by James G. Blaine when Secretary of State is much better understood to-day than in his time. In 1881, with the desire of emphasizing the leaders.h.i.+p of the United States in the western hemisphere, he proposed a congress of all the American nations. Nothing came of the proposal at the time, but in 1888 Congress pa.s.sed a resolution providing for such an international conference. The meeting was in Was.h.i.+ngton the following year, and Secretary Blaine, as chairman, exercised great influence. While the direct results of the meeting were not great--princ.i.p.ally a declaration in favor of the arbitration of all disputes among these nations--the indirect benefits were considerable.

In 1901 a second Pan-American congress was held in the city of Mexico.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Courtesy of the Pan-American Union.

Federal Palace, where the second Pan-American Congress was held in the City of Mexico.

In the meantime the trade with these countries has been largely monopolized by England, France, and Germany. During the year 1905, the total exports and imports of the Latin-American countries amounted to $2,000,000,000. Of this foreign trade the United States bought 35 per cent of the exports and sold to these countries only 27 per cent of their imports, producing an unfavorable balance of trade amounting to $200,000,000. Of the goods imported from this country, over one-fourth went to Mexico and Cuba. In that year Brazil bought from the United States only 11 per cent of its imports. Argentina, with a larger foreign trade than either j.a.pan or China, bought only 14 per cent of its imports from the United States. With the exception of Mexico, the foreign commerce of the Latin-American states with European countries has increased more rapidly than with the United States. Various reasons have been given for this situation. The sensitive South American resents the air of superiority a.s.sumed toward them by the people of the United States. In our newspapers there is a seeming disregard for the real evidences of their national development. Revolutions and boundary disputes have been exaggerated. In general, citizens of the United States have no comprehension of the advancement of these countries within recent times and appreciate but slightly that their economic future is as fully a.s.sured as our own. Argentina const.i.tutes an excellent example of this progress. This country has an area of 1,135,840 square miles. Splendid rivers water the immense plains. The chief of these, the Parana, which flows 2,000 miles through the country, carries a volume of water to the sea one and one-half times that of the Mississippi, and is capable of floating s.h.i.+ps having a draught of 18 feet for 600 miles into the interior. Buenos Ayres, with a population of 1,000,000, in 1906 had a volume of foreign trade amounting to $562,000,000, const.i.tuting it the twelfth port in the world. In 1905 over 10,000,000 acres of land were cultivated in Argentina, an increase of fourfold within fifteen years. The cereals, cotton, fruits, and meats produced amounted to $350,000,000.

That the volume of trade between this country and the South American states has been so small has been due also to the fact that so few vessels flying the stars and stripes are engaged in this trade.

According to the report of Secretary Root, in 1906, there were in the harbor of Rio Janeiro the previous year, 1,785 s.h.i.+ps flying the flag of Great Britain; 657 the flag of Germany; 349 the French; 142 the Norwegian, and 7 sailing vessels (two of them in distress) the flag of the United States. The bulk of goods from this country to South America goes by the way of European ports and on foreign s.h.i.+ps.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Courtesy of the Pan-American Union.

Monroe Palace, where the third Pan-American Conference was held in Rio de Janeiro.

July 4, 1906, the third Pan-American conference was opened at Rio Janeiro. Among the leading questions discussed were: (1) the right of creditor nations to enforce by war on the debtor nations contractual obligations, or the right to use gun-boats as collection agents; and (2) those relating to commercial intercourse. Besides the regular delegates from the United States, Elihu Root, Secretary of State, was present at the opening session. His address at this meeting, together with his visit to the leading cities, served to inaugurate a new understanding between these countries and the United States. The true American policy was set forth by Secretary Root in the following toast: ”May the independence, the freedom, and the rights of the least and weakest be ever respected equally with the rights of the strongest, and may we all do our share toward the building up of a sound and enlightened public opinion of the Americas which shall everywhere, upon both continents, mightily promote the reign of peace, of order, and of justice in every American republic.” He went as Amba.s.sador Extraordinary representing the President of the United States. In order to emphasize his official position, he travelled on an American war-s.h.i.+p. His addresses made in the various cities were intended to be an official declaration from the government of the United States, and that position was outlined in his formal address before the congress. ”We wish for no victories,” he said, ”but those of peace; for no territory except our own; for no sovereignty except the sovereignty over ourselves. We deem the independence and equal rights of the smallest and weakest member of the family of nations ent.i.tled to as much respect as those of the greatest empire, and we deem the observance of that respect the chief guaranty of the weak against the oppression of the strong. We neither claim nor desire any rights or privileges or powers that we do not freely concede to every American republic. We wish to increase our prosperity, to expand our trade, to grow in wealth, in wisdom, and in spirit, but our conception of the true way to accomplish this is not to pull down others and profit by their ruin, but to help all friends to a common prosperity and a common growth, that we may all become greater and stronger together.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: Large crowd in a downtown street.]

Courtesy of the Pan-American Union.