dents of Nicaragua, Honduras, and Salvador were invited to talk matters over on board the U. S. cruiser Tacoma, and there a preliminary understanding was reached, with the result that the United States next invited delegates of the five republics (not including Panama) to confer in Washington, with Secretary Hughes as their host. That the affairs of Central America should be settled in distant Washington, instead of at home, seemed not to occur to Mr. Hughes. Under his tactful guidance, the conference agreed on an arbitration court; armies were limited, a free trade convention was signed, and various other unifying measures were adopted. The United States presided over Central American affairs, and presided with a hand which could be gentle, though firm.

INTERVENTION IN HAITI AND SANTO DOMINGO

It is time to turn back to the Caribbean islands, as President Roosevelt turned, after he had established his foothold in Central America by taking the Canal Zone in 1903. Most of the smaller islands in the West Indies, as every American knows, are colonial possessions of England and France; Denmark had St. Thomas; and Holland owned Curaçao. The four largest islands are Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and Porto Rico. What happened to Cuba and Porto Rico we have seen; Jamaica was British, Haiti, however, was independent. On the island of Haiti there are two republics, the western third of the island being the Republic of Haiti, a negro state with a cultured French-speaking upper class, and the eastern two-thirds being the Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo), a Spanish-speaking mulatto state. In both republics the long arm of the United States has been felt.

Roosevelt's attention was attracted to the Dominican Republic in 1904, by the fact that the government was unstable and bankrupt. The only feasible method of protecting the European owners of Dominican bonds against loss seemed to be the seizure of Dominican customs houses, and collection of the customs revenue for the benefit of the bondholders. Germany, as the most interested European power, was reported to be on the point

'Conference on Central American Affairs (1923); cf. Buell, International Relations, p. 232, and G. Stuart, Latin America and the United States, cha. 12-13

of taking such action. So were France and Italy. Roosevelt, of course, would not permit this encroachment on the American sphere of interest. Moreover, the Dominican government requested American aid. Roosevelt did not desire to annex the country-"I have about the same desire to annex it," he said, "as a gorged boa constrictor might have to swallow a porcupine wrong-end to." But he was willing to do police work. A plan was agreed on, whereby Americans would collect the customs and turn 55% of the revenue over to foreign creditors. This plan was put into operation quietly and immediately by executive order, though the United States Senate did not ratify a treaty sanctioning the arrangement until 1907.2 Santo Domingo was now a financial protectorate, a bankrupt in the hands of an efficient American receivership.

The western republic, Haiti, meanwhile continued independent, until 1915. In the summer of that year the American public, or as much of it as reads the foreign news dispatches, was shocked to learn that President Villbrun Guillaume Sam of Haiti had caused two hundred political prisoners to be butchered in cold blood, and that he himself had taken refuge in the French legation, only to be dragged out and beheaded by an irate mob. That American marines should thereupon have been landed to restore order seemed natural enough. Subsequently, however, it appeared that more than a year before this bloody drama, the United States had unsuccessfully demanded the signature of a treaty giving the United States charge of the customs collection and debt service, as in Santo Domingo, and that the United States Navy Department had dispatched the Washington to Haiti in January 1915. It also appeared that a strong reason for this forehanded action was to prevent Germany from obtaining a naval base in Haiti. It was the French, however, rather than the Germans, who landed marines in June 1915, to be followed by United States marines in July. All this seems to have occurred before the massacre of July 26 and the beheading of July 27, 1915.

After the events of July 26-27, more American marines were landed, and Rear Admiral Caperton took charge of the customs 'Bishop, op. cit., I, p. 431.

Foreign Relations, 1905, pp. 298 ff.; Malloy, Treaties, I, p. 418.

Foreign Relations, 1914, pp. 347-350, giving Bryan's dispatch of July 2,

houses and administration against the protest of the Haitian Congress. The treaty which had been rejected by Haiti before the occupation could now be put through with ease and dispatch. A president who would accept the desired treaty was elected in August 1915, and the treaty was signed on September 16. The United States, so this interesting document stipulated, would aid Haiti in developing her agricultural, mineral and commercial resources; the United States would also name a General Receiver and a Financial Adviser to hold Haiti's purse-strings and see that the bankers owning Haitian bonds got their due; Haiti would make no new loans or changes in her tariff without obtaining consent from the White House; nor would Haiti lease or cede territory to any foreign power; and, finally, not only would the United States organize an armed constabulary to establish order in Haiti, but also American forces would intervene whenever necessary, in the future, to preserve individual liberty, life, and property. This meant a protectorate, if there ever was one.1 As there was inevitably some popular opposition in Haiti to this signing away of the republic's independence, it was not thought expedient to permit elections until 1922. American marines still remained in the island, and the elections went off well enough, resulting in the election of a president who promised to cooperate loyally with the United States. And still the marines remained. While the Occupation continued, American business interests were actively carrying out the treaty pledge to aid in developing Haitian resources. New York banking interests purchased control of the Banque nationale de la République d'Haiti. American capitalists bought up land, sugar mills, railways, lighting plants, and other property.

Moreover, the American naval authorities were active in promoting sanitation and road-building. The natives might not enjoy being compelled to work on the roads under the supervision of American engineers, but Americans felt that the end justified the means. Let the Haitians protest as they would, American newspapers such as the New York Times were joyfully certain that "the Americans are in Haiti to raise its people from a state of ignorance and savagery for which their rulers were responsible. . . ." An official American report insisted

67th Cong. 2d Sess., Sen. Doc. 136; Amer. Jour. Int. Law, supplement, X, p. 234; Foreign Relations, 1915, pp. 538 ff.

that the Occupation was characterized by "freedom from all suggestion of selfish aims." The United States, in short, was assuming a small share of "the white man's burden."1

The Haitian treaty of 1915 so pleased the State Department that an early opportunity was sought to force a similar arrangement on the Dominican Republic, since the new plan afforded so much wider scope for American control than was allowed by the Dominican treaty of 1907. The opportunity was afforded by a revolution in the spring of 1916. American marines were landed, and recognition was refused to the new Dominican president unless he signed a treaty on the Haitian model. With more patriotism than prudence, he refused, with the result that in November the American commander of the forces of occupation assumed control of the administration of the republic. Year after year the occupation continued, while American bankers increased their interests, and American marines performed the task of policing the country, and promoting sanitary and material progress much as in Haiti. In 1920, the Wilson administration announced its intention to withdraw the marines from Santo Domingo, but Wilson was followed by Harding, and Harding by Coolidge, and the marines remained. Not until the summer of 1924 were the American marines withdrawn, and then only on condition that all the acts of the American military administration establishing revenues, authorizing expenditures or creating rights in favor of third persons be ratified by the Dominican Government. Furthermore, the treaty of 1907 was replaced by a treaty signed in December 1924, which provided for the collection and control of Dominican revenues by an American receiver and his staff, until the loans of 1908, 1918, and 1922, and new loans up to a maximum (including the balance of old loans) of twenty-five million dollars, shall have been completely paid. The Dominican Republic may be added to the list of Caribbean financial dependencies of the United States. The International Banking Corporation (National City Bank of New

In the Senate Committee's voluminous Hearings on the Occupation of Haiti and Santo Domingo there is a wealth of testimony, valuable and otherwise. The Report is in 67th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Rep. 794. Cf. Nearing and Freeman, Dollar Diplomacy, pp. 133-151, 316-320; Dunn, op. cit., pp. 135-6.

'This interpretation of the treaty was set forth in an exchange of notes in connection with the exchange of ratifications, Oct. 24, 1925.-U. S. Department of State, press bulletin, Dec. 4. 1925.

York), with seven branches in Santo Domingo, has "almost complete control over the financial life of the country," and it is estimated that a third of the Dominican sugar industry is owned by American capital.1

One other extension of American control in the Caribbean islands merits brief mention, namely, the purchase in 1916 of the Danish West Indies, for twenty-five million dollars.2 These islands, now known as the Virgin Islands of the United States, were of negligible economic importance. They were acquired solely for strategic reasons, in accordance with the twentiethcentury policy of the United States-the acquisition so far as possible of all important naval bases in the Caribbean region.

OIL AND TURMOIL IN MEXICO

Much more important than the diminutive republics of Central America and the Caribbean islands, with which we have thus far been concerned, is the great republic of Mexico, a fourth as large as the United States, with a population (census of 1921) of about fourteen millions. In Mexico the conditions which usually constitute an invitation to imperial conquest were present in exceptionally high degree. Mexico was, and is, a peculiarly tempting morsel for imperialists. It would have been eagerly appropriated by the United States, had imperialist sentiment there been as rampant as in France, Italy, Germany, or England. Even in spite of a stubborn anti-imperialist spirit in America, Mexico has been a sore temptation, a grave problem, one might almost say a provocation, to American imperialism.

Mexico has been a temptation because of her marvellously rich resources-her peerless silver mines and productive gold mines, her oil wells which pour out a fifth of the world's petroleum, her copper and lead. Naturally such wealth attracted foreign capitalists. The American investment in Mexican mining and smelting properties was estimated in 1902 at the figure of $80,000,000; in 1912, at $233,000,000; in 1924, at $300,000,000. The Guggenheim interests, operating through the American Smelting and Refining Company with its subsidiaries, the Ryan and Cole

1 Dunn, op. cit., pp. 133-4. For further details on the occupation of the Dominican Republic, see Nearing and Freeman, op. cit., pp. 124-133, and the Senate Hearings on the Occupation of Haiti and Santo Domingo. 'State Papers, 1916, vol. 110, pp. 843 ff.