ADDRESS AT THE NATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE EXTENSION OF THE FOREIGN
COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, D. C., JANUARY 14, 1907
I thank you for your cordial greeting, and I thank you, Mr. Chairman,
for the very kind terms which you have used regarding myself. I have
come here with pleasure, not to make a prepared address, or to attempt
oratory, but to talk a few minutes about subjects of common interest to
us all.
I wish first to express the satisfaction that I feel in the existence of
this convention. The process of discussion, consideration, mutual
information, and comparison of opinion among the people who are not in
office, is the process that puts under the forms of representative
government the reality of freedom and of a self-governing people. The
discussion which takes place in such meetings as this, and which is
stimulated by such meetings as this, in the club, in all the local
associations and places where men meet throughout the country, is at
once far removed from the secret and selfish devices of the lobbyist and
from the stolid indifference which characterizes a people willing to be
governed without themselves having a voice in government.
I congratulate you that you have come here to the nation's capital to
discuss and consider subjects which are properly of national concern;
that you have not come to ask the national government to do anything
which you ought to do yourselves at home in your separate states, but to
consider the exercise of the great commerce power of the nation, the
power which from the beginning of our government has been fittingly
placed in the hands of the national administration.
To my view we are advancing, and the whole world is advancing, in the
opportunities and in the spirit and method which create opportunities
for that kind of commerce which is profitable and beneficial to both
parties the world over. Our relations continually grow more reasonable,
more sensible and kindly with Europe and all the powers of Europe, with
our vigorous and growing neighbor to the north, with our rapidly
advancing and developing neighbors to the south, and with the nations
that face us on the other side of the Pacific. Little occasions for
controversy, little causes for irritation, little incidents of
conflicting interests continually arise, as they do among friends and
neighbors in the same town, but the general trend of international
relations is a trend towards mutual respect, mutual consideration, and
substantial good understanding.
Of course our relations to Europe, and our relations to the Orient, and
our relations to Canada have long been much discussed and are worthy of
discussion; but it seems to me that the subject which at this particular
time opens before us with more of an appearance, and just appearance, of
new opportunity than any other, is the subject of our relations to the
Latin American nations to the south. I am not going to detain you by any
extended discussion of that subject. I made a long--perhaps too
long--speech about it before the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress
at Kansas City a few weeks ago, and that has been printed in various
forms and some of you, perhaps, have seen it or will see it. The
substance is that just at the time when the United States has reached a
point of development in its wonderful resources and accumulation of
capital so that it is possible for us to turn our attention from the
development of our own internal affairs to reach out into other lands
for investment, for the fruits of profitable enterprise, for the
expansion and extension of trade--just at that time the great and
fertile and immeasurably rich countries of South America are emerging
from the conditions of internal warfare, of continual revolution, of
disturbed and unsafe property conditions, and are acquiring stability in
government, safety for property, capacity to protect enterprise. So that
we may look with certainty to an enormous increase of population and of
wealth throughout the continent of South America, and we may look with
certainty for an enormous increase in purchasing power as a consequence
of that increase in population and wealth.
These two things coming together spread before us an opportunity for our
trade and our enterprise surpassed by none anywhere in the world or at
any time in our history.
It was with this view that last summer I spent three months, in response
to the kind invitations of various Governments of South America, in
visiting their capitals, in meeting their leading men, in becoming
familiar with their conditions, and in trying to represent to them what
I believe to be the real relation of respect and kindliness on the part
of the people of the United States.
I wish you all could have seen with what genuine reciprocal friendship
they accepted the message that I brought to them. We have long been
allied to them by political sentiment. Now lies before us the
opportunity--with their stable governments and protection for enterprise
and property, and our increased capital--now lies before us the
opportunity to be allied to them also by the bonds of personal
intercourse and profitable trade.
This situation is accentuated by the fact that we are turning our
attention to the south and engaging there in the great enterprise of
constructing the Panama Canal. No one can tell what effect that will
have upon the commerce of the world, but we do know that there never has
been in history a case of a great change in the trade routes of the
world which has not powerfully affected the rise and fall of nations,
the development of commerce, and the development of civilization.
We, by the expenditure of a part of our recently acquired capital, are
about to open a new trade route that will bring our Atlantic and Gulf
ports into immediate, close intercourse with all the Pacific coasts of
South and Central America, and which will bring our Pacific ports into
immediate and close relation with all the countries about the Caribbean
Sea and the eastern coast of South America. The combination of political
sentiment which has long allied us with the Latin American countries,
the opportunity which comes from their change of conditions and our
increase of capital, and the effects that must necessarily follow the
opening of the great trade route of the Panama Canal, all point to the
development of American enterprise and American trade to the south.
Now, in considering that view of the future there are certain practical
considerations that necessarily arise. How are we to adapt ourselves to
this new condition? How are we to utilize this opportunity? One subject
naturally presents itself, and that is the increase of means of
communication through which our intercourse and our trade may be carried
on. And that may be in two ways: one by the promotion of the railroad,
long ago projected, and in constant course of development--the road that
we speak of as the Pan American road. When we speak of the Pan American
Railroad we are speaking of something of the future, and which exists
today only in a great number of links, each of which has its separate
name. They are being built, and being built with great rapidity. In
Mexico, in Guatemala, in Bolivia, in Peru, in the Argentine, in other
countries pieces of road are being built--many of them by American
capital and American enterprise; some of them by capital coming from
other countries--promoted by the strong desire of the people of these
Latin American countries to break out from their isolation and to be
brought into closer contact with the rest of the world. Those pieces are
being built until now, when the work actually under contract is
completed, there will be less than 4,000 miles remaining to be built to
make a complete railroad which will unite the city of Washington with
the city of Buenos Ayres in the Argentine.
One of the objects of the Rio conference last summer was to promote and
further the interest of all American countries in the building of this
road, and I am glad to believe that the action taken by that conference
has had that effect. The line now running to the south is almost through
Mexico--has almost reached the Guatemala line; and lines are being built
in Guatemala to connect with that; and within the life of men now
sitting in this room it will be possible for passengers and merchandise
to travel by rail practically the entire length of both the North and
South American continents.
The other method of communication is by steamships. We are lamentably
deficient in that. A great many fine, swift, commodious lines of
steamships run between the South American ports and Europe and very few
and comparatively poor ships run between those ports and the ports of
the United States. No American line runs south of the Caribbean Sea. Our
mails are slow and uncertain. It is a matter of hardship for a passenger
to go directly between the great South American ports and the great
North American ports, while the mails run swiftly and certainly to and
from Europe, and it is a pleasure for a passenger to go between one of
those ports and the European ports. The Postmaster-General reports that
the best way for him to get the despatches from my Department to our
ministers in South America with certainty and swiftness is to send them
to Europe and have them sent from there to South America. That condition
of things ought not to continue if we can prevent it.
One great reason why it exists is, that American shipping is driven off
the seas by two great obstacles interposed in its way by legislation.
One is the legislation of foreign countries which has subsidized foreign
shipping; the other is the legislation of our own country which by the
protective tariff has raised the standard of living of all Americans--a
most beneficent result--has raised the standard of living of all
Americans so that American ships paying and feeding their officers and
men according to the American standard cannot compete on even terms with
foreign ships, the cost of whose officers and men is under the foreign
standard.
If our Government will equalize these artificial disadvantages under
which our vessels labor and will do for them enough to make up to them
the disadvantage caused by raising the standard of living of the men
they employ and to make up to them the disadvantage, coming from the
fact that their foreign competitors are subsidized by foreign
governments for the purpose of promoting foreign trade against American
trade, we will have an American merchant marine and American ships to
carry passengers and freight and mails between South and North American
ports. A bill to provide that is pending in Congress now. It has passed
the Senate. It is in the Committee of the House. I hope that all of you
who agree with me in believing that our Government ought to be fair to
the American merchant marine will say so out loud; say so to your
neighbors; say so in such a way that American public opinion will
realize that that kind of fair treatment is not a matter of the
lobbyist, but is a matter of broad, American public policy.
There is one other subject--very important as a part of this general
outlook and forecast of American policy looking towards the south. That
is our special relation towards the countries, the smaller countries
about the Caribbean, and particularly the West Indian countries, the
islands that lie directly on the route between our ports and the Panama
Canal. Some of them have had a pretty hard time. The conditions of their
lives have been such that it has been difficult for them to maintain
stable and orderly governments. They have been cursed, some of them, by
frequent revolution. Poor Cuba, with her wonderful climate and richness
of soil, has suffered. We have done the best we could to help her, and
we mean to go on doing the best we can to help her.
I think the key of our attitude towards these countries can be put in
three sentences:
First. We do not want to take them for ourselves.
Second. We do not want any foreign nations to take them for themselves.
Third. We want to help them.
Now, we can help them; help them govern themselves, help them to acquire
capacity for self-government, help them along the road that Brazil and
the Argentine and Chile and Peru and a number of other South American
countries have travelled--up out of the discord and turmoil of continual
revolution into a general public sense of justice and determination to
maintain order.
There is a good deal of talk in the newspapers about the annexation of
Cuba. Never! so long as the people of Cuba do not themselves give up the
effort to govern themselves. Our efforts should be towards helping them
to be self-governing. That is what we are trying to do now and what we
mean to try to do.
So with Santo Domingo. Poor Santo Domingo! With her phenomenal richness
of soil, her people ought to be among the richest and happiest on earth;
but the island has been the scene of almost continued revolution and
bloodshed. Her politics are purely personal, and have been a continual
struggle of this and that and the other man to secure ascendancy and
power. She has come to us for help. She is burdened with an enormous
amount of debt, much of it fraudulent, much of it created by
revolutionary governments in the bush or by regular governments in
distress, needing a little money to save themselves from being
overthrown, in desperate circumstances, ready to make any sort of
bargain, to pay any sort of interest, to promise anything to get
immediate relief. Many debts have been created in that way and are
hanging over her, foreign debts as to which she has pledged the
resources of this custom-house to the creditors of this country, and of
that custom-house to the creditors of that country, and of another
custom-house to the creditors of the third country. She is unable to pay
interest; unable to make any settlement because she could not give
anything to carry out any settlement. With this enormous debt hanging
over her like a pall, and with this record of continual revolution and
strife depriving her of credit, depriving her of courage and of hope,
she came to us to help her. And we are trying to arrange so that she may
have the little--very little--moral support of the United States which
is necessary to settle her debts, to insure the honest collection of her
revenue and its application to carry out the settlement, and that she
may be able to stand and walk alone. Now, we are trying to make an
arrangement of that kind by a treaty; trying to perform the office of
friendship and discharge the duty of good neighborhood towards Santo
Domingo. I hope you wall take a little interest in this unfortunate
neighbor and try to create a little interest in her on the part of our
people; for our treatment of Santo Domingo, like our treatment of Cuba,
is but a part of a great policy which shall in the years to come
determine the relations of this vast country, with its wealth and
enterprise, to the millions of men and women and the countless millions
of trade and treasure of the great world to the south.
Our treatment of Santo Domingo, like our treatment of Cuba, is but a
part of the working out of the policy of peace and righteousness as the
basis for wealth and prosperity, in place of the policy of force, of
plunder, of conquest, as the means of acquiring wealth.
The question is frequently asked, Should not a series of reciprocity
treaties be adopted for the purpose of promoting our relations with
these southern countries? That is not so important in regard to the
South American countries as it might seem at first, because so greatly
do the productions of North and South America vary that most of the
products of South America already come into the United States free, as
they are not competing with our products. Between eighty and ninety per
cent of all our imports from South America are now admitted to the
United States free of duty. The great country of Brazil--over ninety per
cent of all our imports from there come in free of duty. So that the
field to be covered by reciprocity treaties with those countries is
comparatively narrow, and that question is not a question of first
importance in regard to our relations with them. There are, however,
some countries in regard to whose products I should like very much to
see an opportunity to make reciprocity treaties.
But this opens up a broader subject. I do not think that the subject of
reciprocity can now be adequately considered or discussed without going
into that broader subject, and that is the whole form of our tariff
laws.
In my judgment the United States must come to a maximum and minimum
tariff.
A single straight-out tariff was all very well in the world of single
straight-out tariffs; but we have passed on, during the course of years,
into a world for the most part of maximum and minimum tariffs, and with
our single-rate tariff we are left with very little opportunity to
reciprocate good treatment from other countries in their tariffs and
very little opportunity to defend ourselves against bad treatment. Of
course this is the side that I look at; this is my point of view. I may
be wrong, but this is the way it looks to me--that any country in the
world can put up its tariff against our products as compared with
similar products from another country without suffering for it so far as
our present laws are concerned. We go on taking that country's products
at just the same rates as we did before. Any country in the world knows
that if it puts down our products in its tariff it will get no benefit
from it because we will have to charge it the same rates that we charge
the country that treats us the worst. The maximum and minimum tariff
would be free from one serious difficulty that arises in the negotiation
of reciprocity treaties. That difficulty is this: When you make a
reciprocity treaty with Country A, agreeing to receive certain products
from that country at less than our tariff schedules, you are immediately
confronted by Country B, which is equally friendly with us, treats us as
well or perhaps better, and to which we cannot with good grace refuse
the same. Then comes Country C with the same demand, and D and E. The
result is that with that fair and equal treatment which we wish to
accord to all countries there is a tendency, by means of successive
reciprocity treaties, to change the whole form of the tariff, and to
change it without that full and general discussion, without that
deliberate consideration of the effect upon all American interests,
which there ought to be in dealing with this complicated and interwoven
business of tariff rates. Now, a maximum and minimum tariff would enable
us to deal equally with all countries, as we are friendly, and ought to
be, with all countries. It would be free from invidious discrimination;
it would enable us to protect ourselves against those that use us badly,
to reward those that use us well; and it would proceed upon a general
and intelligent consideration of all interests.
There is but one other subject that I want to speak to you about, one to
which the convention that met here last year contributed very much, and
that is representation abroad under the American consular system.
The American consular service, I had the honor to say here last year,
has been an exceptionally uneven one. There have been many very good men
in it, and there have been many men in it who were simply passing the
remainder of their days in dignified retirement. That came along
naturally enough when we did not have much foreign trade and we were not
pushing much for foreign trade; but the strain on that machinery has of
late years become rather great. We are pushing out in all the world for
trade, and our people want information. Some of them need it--all want
it--and they need to be well represented among the people of the other
countries where they want to do business. And wherever there is a weak
spot there is trouble and dissatisfaction. So that with changing times a
change in method has become necessary.
Congress passed a law at the last session, the material parts of which
had been hanging in Congress for over thirteen years, introduced years
ago by men with foresight a little in advance of the practical
requirements of the time. Their ideas did not receive endorsement and
practical effect until the last session. The Congress in that law
classified the consulates in different grades. They provided an
inspection service, so that now we have inspectors who have been
selected from among the most able and efficient consuls and whose
business it is to see what consuls are doing and whether they are doing
anything, so that now the State Department will not be the last place
where information is received about the misdeeds of a consul.
They made provision that all fees should be turned into the Treasury and
the sole compensation of consuls should be their salary, thus closing
the door to temptation.
They did in that act a number of very good things for the consular
service. There was a clause in the bill originally which provided that
all appointments to the higher positions in the service should be by
promotion from the lower positions, and that all appointments to the
lower positions should be upon examination. That was stricken out
because it was considered that Congress had no constitutional right to
limit the President in that way. There is a good deal to be said for
that view; but it is equally true of appointments to the army and to the
navy, yet there have stood upon the statute books of the United States
for many years provisions for the filling of higher grades in the army
and navy by promotion, and for the appointment to the lower grades only
upon a satisfactory examination. And those provisions, while doubtless
the President could break over them with the consent of the Senate,
nevertheless have constituted a kind of agreement between the President
and the Senate, having the appointing power, and Congress which creates
the offices and appropriates the money to pay them, as to how the
offices are to be filled. I would like to see that kind of an agreement
applied to the consular service, so that the method of selection could
be settled, and permanently settled, as it has been in the army and the
navy.
Immediately after the passage of the consular reorganization act with
that clause omitted, the President made an order, known as the Order of
June 27, 1906, in which he provided that all the upper grades should be
filled by promotion and that the lower grades should be filled only upon
examination, and prescribed the method of the examination, and also
provided that as between candidates of equal merit the appointments
should be made so as to equalize them throughout the United States, as
they ought to be equalized so far as it is practicable, and also that
the appointments should be made without regard to the political
affiliations of the candidates.
Under that order we will have the opportunity, in filling all of the
important consulates, to get the best possible evidence as to whether a
man is fit for the important place by scanning the work of the young men
in the lower places--better than a dozen examinations and better than
ten thousand letters of recommendation.
Under that plan we will put in the young men who come along for the
lower grades of places and bar out the lazy fellows that want to fall
back on a living they are not energetic enough to get for themselves.
And when we have seen how the young fellows work in the lower places we
will pick out the men here and there who are born consuls and put them
into the higher places.
Now, that is the law for this Administration. It is good until March 4,
1909. What will become of it then no one can tell. I should be very glad
if the public opinion of the country would say to Congress: Agree to
that in such a way that it will be permanent for all time.
Gentlemen, I thank you for your attention and again renew my expression
of satisfaction at the intelligent public service you have rendered by
leaving your homes and your occupations to come here and do the work of
self-governing American citizens.