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It could also refuse to recognize any government resulting from military coups or from elections attended by manifest violence. Simple denial of recognition would in these cases be sufficient, because our governments by reason of their weakness, need a strong protecting hand to assist them in their entrance into the concert of civil. ized governments.
It is not because they are incapable of governing themselves that the republics of Central America stand in need of such declarations, for they are no exception to other nations in the history of mankind, but because mod ern improvements and means of prosperity have so multiplied in the United States, that the advantages of the latter in comparison with those of Central America are as a hundred to one. The United States travel by steam and electricity, while the republics of Central America travel in an old cart drawn by weary oxen. Hence, the enormous disproportion, and the dissatisfaction arising from the fact that the people of the United States do not stop to consider the injustice of requiring from our people what they are unable to give.
I, therefore, assert, for am thoroughly penetrated with the belief, that what we need most is economic aid, coupled with that which would be derived from practical schools. Assistance of this character would carry with it an unobtrusive, but yet very effective political influence.
It is a fact, however, that loans by American capitalists, without the guarantee of the American Government, is not the best form in which this economic aid could be rendered.