49 EPILOGUE.
The preceding pages have hardly been written, when we are apprised by the press of the country that even President Taft, himself, is seeking to mould public opinion in the direction indicated in this paper. In a recent speech he urged the people to bring all their moral influence to bear upon the Senate to effect the ratification, not only of the international peace treaties, but also of the agreements made with Nicaragua and Honduras.
With his usual remarkable clearness, the President sees that the cause of peace upon this hemisphere would be best conserved by the confirmation of those Central American treaties; and he also perceives the duty of the United States, arising from the Monroe Doctrine, to assist the Central America Republics along the path leading to a secure national existence and to republican liberty under pacific, constitutional governments.
The President also emphasized the important point that such assistance to the Central American States should be of an economic character, declaring, as reported in the newspapers, that if the United States insists upon the Monroe Doctrine, it should also be willing to help the republics, as was done with Santo Domingo, by collecting their revenues for them and applying these revenues to the payment of just obligations. At Mountain Lake Park (Md. Chautauqua, August 7th, 1911.