The United States does not "want" Mexico. To proceed to its annexation would be to act against its political impulses. In fact, as has been repeatedly shown, the United States will endure great provocation rather than come to conflict with the Mexican government. That under no circumstances will forcible action ever be taken nor any Mexican territory annexed is unfortunately a corollary, which some in Mexico have recently come to believe logically follows. Their opinion has unfortunately been given no little support by declarations made by prominent persons in the United States itself. The sooner reliance on any such statements is abandoned the better for the peaceful relations of the two countries. Neither Mexico nor any other state can count on the freedom from responsibility that such a policy would involve. The economic advantage that would result to the United States from annexation as contrasted to that which may follow independence and friendship is doubtful. Mexican trade, both import and export, is already almost inevitably American and investments will be increasingly so.
The United States does want order in Mexico, and for a number of reasons. Order would increase its profitable trade exchange, it would make secure the lives and properties of the many Americans whose interests are bound up with those of the republic and finally it would simplify maintenance of the fundamental principle of American foreign policy—that American states be not interfered with in their development by non-American political influences. Fair treatment for American and other foreign interests in Mex-
