Unite In Applause Of Isthmian Plan.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 22, 1913:
True Application of Monroe Doctrine Is View of Many Senators of Bryan Plan.
LODGE SEES NEW ERA IN IT
Borah Alone Calls It Imperialism — Means Raising the Flag All the Way to Panama, He Says.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, July 21.—William J. Bryan was not in Washington to enjoy all the complimentary things that were said to-day about the proposal he made to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations last Saturday for declaring a United States protectorate over Nicaragua by treaty arrangements with that country. On every hand the Secretary's policy was approved.
    The striking feature of the comment on the subject was that the heartiest indorsement of the project came from conservative Republican Senators. What little opposition is likely to develop in the Senate when the Nicaraguan treaty comes before that body for consideration probably will be voiced by a few Democratic members.
    The only pronounced criticism of the protectorate plan heard to-day came from Senator Borah of Idaho, Republican Progressive, a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations. He denounced the Bryan plan as imperialism, thus accusing Secretary Bryan of proposing a policy against which the Commoner waged his second contest for the Presidency. But in disapproving the Nicaraguan convention Senator Borah appears to be alone among the Republican members of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
    Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, the ranking Republican member of that committee; Senator Root of New York, who was Secretary of State under a Republican Administration; Senator Burton of Ohio, who is by no means radical and Senator Sutherland of Utah, one of the regular Republican leaders in the upper house, all commended the principle involved or were credited with commending it as an excellent move destined to have a good effect. Others who expressed approval of the proposed treaty, were Senator Bacon of Georgia, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations; Senators Stone of Missouri, Hitchcock of Nebraska, O'Gorman of New York, and Smith of Arizona, all Democratic members of the committee, and Senators Perkins of California and Cummins of Iowa, Republicans, who are not members of the committee.

Treaty Sot Signed Yet.
    The Nicaraguan treaty has not been signed, but a tentative draft of its terms has been submitted to the Committee on Foreign Relations by Secretary Bryan. On Saturday Mr. Bryan will appear before the committee again to furnish further information as to the compact. He is not likely to be heckled on that occasion, because the sentiment in the committee is strongly in favor of the protectorate idea.
    It was said in an official quarter today that President Wilson did not know of the suggestion made by Secretary Bryan to the Ministers of Salvador and Honduras that he would be willing to make a treaty with their Governments along the lines of the Nicaraguan treaty, which at that time, it is understood, did not include the protectorate idea in its present complete form. The President is not unwilling, however, to make similar arrangements with other Latin-American countries, but it was represented in his behalf to-day that he preferred the initiative in any proposed treaty negotiations of that character to come from the republics themselves and not from the United States.
    This attitude of the Administration is a far different thing from a policy of insisting that the smaller republics on the western hemisphere be compelled to accept the protection of the United States.

President Misquoted.
    President Wilson was quoted in an out-of-town afternoon newspaper to-day as having said that this country would establish a protectorate over all Central American countries to guard the Panama Canal. When the fact that he had been quoted in this manner was brought to the President's attention late this afternoon he was indignant, and to-night he caused Joseph P. Tumulty, his secretary, to issue a formal statement with reference to this and another remark attributed to him to the effect that he would not recognize the Huerta administration in Mexico, and that it would not last a year.
    "Secretary Tumulty stated," read the White House announcement, "that there was no foundation in truth for either of the above statements."
    But while the President has indicated that the Nicaraguan policy will not be extended to other Latin-American nations unless upon their own desire, leading Senators, both Democratic and Republican, are confident that the arrangement with Nicaragua is the entering wedge in a general programme of bringing all the weaker countries on this hemisphere, and certainly all those of Central America, under the guardianship of the United States.

Monroe Doctrine Applied.
    Senator Lodge regards the new Central American policy of the Administration as a practical application of the Monroe Doctrine. He said to-day:
    "I am cordially in favor of the policy embodied in the Nicaraguan treaty as submitted by Mr. Bryan, with the approval of the President, to the Committee on Foreign Relations. If we are going to maintain the Monroe Doctrine, as we always have and as we always shall, it is absolutely necessary that we should see to it that order is maintained in the republic bordering on the Caribbean Sea, so that not only our own citizens and interests, but the citizens and interests of other countries, may be protected.
    "We say to all the world in the Monroe Doctrine that they must not colonize or take land on the American continent, and in practice that they must not interfere with American affairs. We cannot take this position unless we are prepared also to say to all the world that we will see to it that the rights of their citizens or subjects are protected in the countries affected by the Monroe Doctrine.
    "We cannot sustain the Monroe Doctrine and play the part of the dog in the manger."

Imperialism, Says Borah.
    Senator Borah poured hot shot into the Bryan proposal. "This means the going up of the American flag all the way to the Panama Canal, so surely as time goes on," he said. "It is the beginning of that policy whose irrefutable logic is complete dominance and control and ownership of the United States from here to the Panama Canal. When we pay the $3,000,000 for a canal right of no earthly benefit or use we are, of course, paying that $3,000,000 under cover, but for other reasons. We had just as well to be candid with ourselves, for we are not misleading or fooling the other people of the world.
    "The Central American States are vastly wealthy in natural resources. They are an inviting field for exploitation, and the minute we begin establishing protectorates American citizens and American capital will flow in and take possession and we will have to protect those citizens and that capital in all the minutest details of government."
    "The American people in the rôle of protector is not exactly in accord either with the conceptions of those who framed the Republic or our own present professions of what it ought to be. Here in Central America are a number of Governments or States, insufficient and unsatisfactory governments, it is true, according to our standards, but, nevertheless, in their own way they are self-governing people. They are as to us an independent people. We take them over, we destroy their nationality, and we become to them a monarchy, and they to us subservient dependencies. We govern them. They are not a part of us, but still we govern them. We are their rulers.

Cites Porto Rico and Philippines.
    "This is a new rôle for a Republic which is just now preaching from a million rostrums popular government and the rights of every people to say what kind of government they shall have. True, we have not heretofore lived up to our precepts, but we have always been professing that we are going to after we get out of certain conditions into which war had thrown us. We are now in Porto Rico, and are refusing her people citizenship. We are now in the Far East with a class of people unfit for citizenship and whom we have no intention, notwithstanding our pretenses, of turning loose.
    "Thousands and thousands of our people think we ought to be in Mexico. We are on our way to Central America to destroy the Governments therein, because while it is done by the soporific influence of each it is no less destruction than if we should send our hostile fleets and hammer down their capitals.
    "I cannot accept that programme. I would rather take the three millions and put it into our good roads, improvements about which we are now so parsimonious. I would rather direct our humane efforts toward taking care of our own citizenship and its restless and dissatisfied thousands. I should rather turn our attention to the internal affairs of this Republic for the next fifty years, at least, and see if we cannot make our own people thoroughly satisfied with our own Government and thoroughly contented with such environment and conditions as we can throw about them. I cannot get away from the belief that we have more to do at home than we have yet shown any capacity or willingness to take care of."
    Other members of the Foreign Relations Committee differed from Mr Borah. Senator Hitchcock, Democrat, said the United States had no obligation toward the other countries of Central America, and he believed it would be cheaper to look after them in a friendly way than to send ships to their shores when they became involved in trouble.
    Senator Sutherland, Republican, expressed views similar to those of Senator Lodge.
    "Because of the Monroe Doctrine we are under an obligation to do what we can to protect legitimate and honest foreign creditors," he said. "It is hard to say that they shall not seize the custom houses or take other means of enforcing their claims; it would be easier and more satisfactory if we had this suggested power of vetoing extortionate or improper loans in advance.
    "Such a policy undoubtedly would bring trouble and responsibility with it, but those are bound to come to any strong nation. We have vital interests in Central America now and we should protect them by insuring stability and prosperity to Central American countries."
    In expressing approval of the new Bryan doctrine. Senator Perkins said he wished some such arrangement as that proposed for Nicaragua could be made with Mexico. Senator Cummins said he regarded the plan as writing down the Monroe Doctrine in black and white. He thought, he said, that treaties similar to that with Nicaragua would be made with other Central American countries.

Must Fight for It.
    One member of the Foreign Relations Committee pointed out that while there undoubtedly was a general sentiment for the treaty, it would be necessary for the Wilson Administration to push it to obtain its ratification by the Senate.
    "Treaties have been dumped on us by the State Department, and that is the last we hear from the department about them." he said. "Mr. Bryan must show an interest in this treaty if he wants us to accept it."
    Other members of the committee, both Democrats and Republicans, said that the treaty would have to be perfected in several particulars before it was sent to the Senate. They thought that the details of the plan for exercising a protectorate over Nicaragua would have to be drawn with greater care. What was said in this connection was not intended as criticism of the central idea. Even Secretary Bryan, It was remarked, had admitted that the tentative draft of the convention needed considerable revision.
    Senators and Administration officials are anxious to see what effect will be produced in Central America by the news that Nicaragua is to assent to an American protectorate over her affairs. Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are expected to indulge in displays of rhetorical pyrotechnics, for there is bitter feeling in those countries over Nicaragua's willingness to be counted out of the proposed Central American Federation. Opposition from Costa Rica will cause surprise here. This little republic has gained the good will of the Washington Administration by the manner in which it has conducted its affairs.
    A member of the Foreign Relations Committee said to-day that under the terms of the proposed convention Nicaragua would be safe from the aggressions of her neighbor States.
    "The treaty," he said, "will obligate us to prevent invasions of Nicaragua by any of her American neighbors as well as foreign powers. There is bound to be tranquility in Nicaragua if the treaty goes through. Her people began to realize the beneficent effects of American methods when our marines were in control there after the ending of the recent revolution."

POLICY PLEASES LONDON.
Control of Central America Agreeable to Investors, Says Press.
    LONDON, Tuesday, July 22.— The London morning newspapers display no interest in the proposed supervision over Nicaragua by the United States. The subject is referred to in the financial columns only as good news for bondholders.
    The Express says that British investors doubtless would welcome American control of all Central American republics.
    The Post says: "That both political parties in the United States would favor and forward the policy of intervention in Central America must naturally concern and cheer the bondholders."
    The Daily News asks: "Were we not given to understand that dollar diplomacy had been dropped?"