n which existed in 1898 has changed. Spain has
been removed from the Caribbean. Of her former possessions the United
States holds Porto Rico; Cuba is independent, but is in a way under the
protection of the United States, which possesses on her coast the naval
station of Guantanamo. The American treaty with the new republic of
Panama practically created another American protectorate, and the
fortification of the canal gave the United States another strategic
position. The negotiation for the purchase of the Danish islands has
been completed successfully. But these obvious footholds are of less
importance than the more indirect relationships which the United States
has been steadily establishing, through successive Administrations, with
the various other powers located on the borders of the Caribbean.

The Spanish War did not lull the suspicions of the United States
regarding the dangerous influence which would be exerted should the
ambitions of European powers be allowed a field of action in the
American continents, and the United States remained as intent as ever
on preventing any opportunity for their gaining admittance. One such
contingency, though perhaps a remote one, was the possibility of a rival
canal, for there are other isthmuses than that of Panama which might
be pierced with the aid of modern resources of capital and genius.
To prevent any such action was not selfish on the part of the United
States, for the American canal was to have an open door, and there was
no economic justification for another seaway from the Atlantic to the
Pacific.

There might, however, be some temptation in the political and
military influence which such a prospective second canal could exert.
Negotiations were begun, therefore, with all the transcontinental powers
of Central America, offering liberal compensation for the control of all
possible canal routes. These negotiations have been long drawn out and
are only lately coming to fruition. They have served, however, to taboo
all projects by other nations, and one of these treaties negotiated with
Colombia, but not yet ratified, holds out the prospect of winning back
her friendship which was so seriously alienated by the recognition of
the republic of Panama by the United States.

In one respect the changing world has rendered quite obsolete the
pronouncements of President Monroe. In the case of Japan there has grown
up a great power which is neither European nor American. Ameri