which our competitors have found it impossible sucessfully to compete.
"But if, by purchase or by such means as the time and circumstance may demand, we are to found a colony or colonies in South America, it will be necessary to clear the air by disposing, once and for all, of that curious fiction which has come to be known as the 'Monroe Doctrine.' The peculiar claims set forth therein by the United States have been described as 'the most magnificent bluff in all history and, so far, the most successful.' But you and I know, and it is known in all the chancellories of Europe, that the bravado has been successful only by our sufferance, and because the great problems of Europe, for which the late war has been fought, called for more pressing solution.
"I have spoken of the 'Monroe Doctrine' as a fiction—perhaps I had better have described it as composed of many fic-
