VENEZUELA AND AFTER 311 



appointed by the President began its laborious 

 task of determining the true divisional line be 

 tween Venezuela and British Guiana. 



It is agreed by persons experienced in earth 

 quakes that this species of phenomenon includes 

 distinct varieties, clearly marked off from one 

 another by physical and psychological effects. 

 The most destructive materially and most dis 

 turbing mentally is that known in unscientific 

 parlance as the &quot;twister.&quot; President Cleve 

 land s message had all the effects of the twister. 

 Materially there was a huge displacement of 

 credits and securities in the financial markets. 

 Psychologically there was manifest on both sides 

 of the Atlantic great bewilderment and obfusca- 

 tion, with strange distortions and incoherencies 

 in the reasoning processes. American public 

 opinion sustained with extraordinary emphasis 

 and unanimity the President s assertion of the 

 Monroe Doctrine and his belligerent attitude 

 toward the violation of it by Great Britain. 

 Every latent current of hostility to the British 

 and all the springs of aggressive national con 

 sciousness united in an impressive flood of popu 

 lar feeling. If the administration had had no 

 other purpose than to evoke for the information 

 of the world the visible spirit of the American 



