that it would not be possible under present day conditions to insert a Platt Amendment into the agreements or practical arrangements which should now be made to give new life to these small neighboring Republics.
It is respectfully submitted that the adoption of other means, possibly some thing along the lines of those used in the Haitian situation, might produce the favorable effects desired.
There are many ways to help Central American countries, some of which will be pointed out later.
An American Senator recently told me, confidentially, that he thought there was no doubt but that our Government would have ultimately to annex everything from the Rio Grande River to the Panama Canal.
Such an opinion, which one hears frequently from civilians, was surprising as coming from a legislator.
If there were any probability of this action taking place, this expression would be even more striking.
However, no such steps are contemplated.
Notwithstanding this fact, we may be unconciously tending toward just such an outcome.
Is it not time to apply some definite plan to help these countries to progress as they must do if the danger of ultimate annexation is to be averted?
Their progress during the last hundred years cannot be compared with our own.
They are drifting