ts 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 alr