INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
scope of the Pan-American Union in relation to the peace and progress of the Western Hemisphere.
On the practical obstacles to the realization of the projects, broached by President Brum at Montevideo and President Wilson at the Second Pan-American Scientific Congress, for the merging of the Monroe Doctrine into a Pan-American Doctrine it is not necessary to dwell. At the present time there is apparently little disposition on the part of the United States government or the American people to share the responsibilities for upholding or enforcing the Monroe Doctrine with even the more advanced of the Latin-American nations. And since these nations feel they no longer need or desire the protection of the United States, there is little disposition on their part—save possibly in the case of Brazil and Uruguay—to assume such obligations and responsibilities. Again—and this point cannot be overemphasized—the essence of Pan-Americanism at least in the eyes of Latin-Americans, is the doctrine of equality and the respect for the sovereignty of even the smallest and weakest of the American republics. Without such equality there can be little mutual confidence, respect, or co-operation. Unfortunately the United States, in spite of the eloquent assurances of some of her most distinguished public men, in spite, too, of her disinterested role in the Great War, has failed entirely to convince Latin America of her sincere belief in two of the fundamentals of Pan-Americanism—political equality, and the efficacy of the principle of co-operation as contrasted with the principle of force. As has already been pointed out, one of the greatest obstacles to the growth of the spirit of solidarity is the peculiar relation between the United States and certain of the states in the Caribbean zone. As long as the United States continues to exercise a protectorate or quasi protectorate over these states, the great northern republic will be charged by her sister nations to the south with harboring imperialistic designs on her weaker neighbors. Not until the United States is willing or able to relinquish all idea of hegemony in Central America or the Caribbean will it be possible to convert the Monroe Doctrine into a truly Pan-American Doctrine.
493
