Should We Abandon the Monroe Doctrine

"The Monroe Doctrine, or the doctrine of the dual political organization of the nations of the earth, is a barbarie stumbling-block in the way of enlightened international policy." So wrote the late William Grahrun Summer, in an essay on "Earth Hunger," in 1897. At that time, very Iittle attention was paid to bis remarks. Professor Sumner had a way of being many years ahead of public opinion in his attitudc toward political and economic policies. During the past few months the number of people who have cometo take an unfriendly attitude toward the Monroe Doctrine has very greatly increased. True, this national shibboleth is still a plank in the platforms of our great national parties. In many quarters it is still a rallying cry. A great ch.ain of newspapers, extending from San Francisco to Boaton, edited by the most highly paid editorial writer of the day, constantly refers to the Monroe Doctrine as somcthing sacred and precious, like the Declaration of Independence. Other powerful newspapers, less popular in their appeal, but no less powerful in their influence, still resent any attack on what is considered by them the most essential ·feature of our foreign policy. And they continue to uphold the Monroe Doctrine, while at the samé time they try to expl.ain away its disagreeable features. A recent editorial in a journal devoted to the intcrests of the army and navy, in vigorously denouncing the present attacks being made on the Monroe Doctrine, and calling loudly on patriotic Americana to see to it that no academic sentimentalists were allowed to wcaken our national defenses, declared that without the Monroe Doctrine, we could not hold the Panama Canal!