tens of thousands of Americans and Mexicans to their deaths besides?
Of course I am not advocating this alternative. Indeed, it is doubtful if the patriotic gentlemen would accept it. They would demand pay not only for their investments, but for their prospects, which they value even more highly—and for which they wish you to risk your skins. What they want is for you to risk your skins and your property to protect their prospects, under the misapprehension that patriotism demands it.
The Doheny theory—which is only a form of stating the theory of Imperialism—assumes that the national interests are something different from what they are. It assumes that international law is not what it is. It assumes that the sovereignty of a country extends to the persons and property of its citizens; wherever they may be, which is not true. It overlooks the fact that Mexico is a sovereign state, and that the Mexican nation, acting through the Mexican Government, has first call upon the resources of Mexico; that it has the right to control, tax, or use those resources as it sees fit, in accordance with its own views of the general welfare, and without dictation or interference from any outside power.
Shorn of all humbug, the Doheny theory amounts to this, that the American Government ought to grab for American capitalists anything anywhere that they may happen to lay claim to, regardless of the rights or interests either of the American people or the people of any other country.
9.
PLEDGES OF PRESIDENT AND PEOPLE
For every interventionist argument there are a number of good and sufficient answers. One answer to all of them is the book of faith by which we professed to be guided in entering and prosecuting the war "to make the world safe for democracy."
It may be painful at this time to recall the articles of that book of faith, as they were enunciated by the President of the United States. But whatever discrepancies there may be between the President's promises and his performances, and whatever
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