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 governmen