THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 195 



" open door " in China, for universal freedom of trade com- 

 petition, for the removal of protective tariffs, also calls for 

 the unrestricted use of all commercial highways. The com- 

 mercial isolation of the United States should not be main- 

 tained. The great extension of her commerce has already 

 brought her so intimately in connection with other powers, 

 that her own commercial interests have in a great measure 

 become indentical with theirs. To close so important a high- 

 way as the Nicaragua Canal involves the adoption of a policy 

 opposed to progress and civilization; it would remove the 

 United States from the commercial fellowship of nations, 

 and bring upon her every form of retaliatory legislation. 

 With the enmity and jealousies engendered by so narrow and 

 selfish a policy, the way would be constantly open to disagree- 

 ment and war upon slight provocation. The sympathies of 

 the world would be against the United States, and other 

 nations would find common cause against her. 



The neutralization of the canal is an inevitable result, and 

 it does not comport with the progressive character of Western 

 ideas to delay or seek to avoid it. 



The principles of the Monroe Doctrine are in no manner 

 violated by equalization of the route. It would not introduce 

 the political system of the Old World into the New, nor give 

 to Europe a right of interference in the affairs of the Ameri- 

 can continent. On the contrary, a guarantee of neutrality 

 is the very opposite of interference. It is a pledge of non- 

 interference. It places a lasting check upon the advance of 

 foreign influence at a particularly vital spot in the Western 

 continent. 



Such an agreement does not contemplate the yielding of 

 the United States to any foreign influence or control of the 

 canal, but expressly removes all possibility of such interfer- 

 ence or control by any one or more nations. It does not, 

 then, even violate the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine ; it is 

 rather directly in line with it. It exacts a promise from the 

 most powerful and most rapacious nations of the world, made 

 firm and binding by treaty regulations, to abstain from any 

 kind of interference in the affairs of the isthmian canal. 



