THE HAVANA CONFERENCE

Deposited appropriately by a battleship on Cuban soil while Marines were planning a new bombing attack on Niearaguan villages. President Coolidge eloquently clouded the issue in the speech of optimistic generalities in which he assured a doubtful world that the interests of this country are anything but imperialistic. But if the United States treatment of South America where the investments of her citizens exceed the total of those placed in Europe is not imperialistic. It is a form of aggressive and armed commercialism. Foreign nations, forbidden themselves to interfere, have sneered at what they choose to call a hypocritical, forceful exploitation of weaker nations by America in her role as the Monarchy of Big Business. "It is better for peoples to make their own mistakes," said the President, but the South American countries are not allowed the opportunity when the error can affect the enterprises of men from this country.

At present it is undeniably the procedure of the United States to support, in a civil conflict, the administration favorable to North American business. And however pragmatically sound this policy may be, it is not held to be morally defensible by its opponents here and abroad. To collect debts and alter governments by force of arms as the United States has regularly done is usually called imperialism, despite the assertions of Mr. Coolidge. It was the treatment of Nicaragua several decades ago that gave rise to the term "dollar diplomacy", and more recently the casual remark of a marine, "We'll see the right man elected, even if we have to vote ourselves," has been widely quoted. And so, when the press of the sister continent is unanimous in opposing the American program in Nicaragua, and in fearing for the sovereignty of the other nations, it is not unnatural that interest here should center on the Havana Conference in the hope that future relations may be put on a substantial basis that will leave no room for conscientious doubts. President Machado's determination to rigorously exclude the Nicaraguan problem from the program, and President Coolidge's refusal to be concrete, do not augur well for such a conclusion. Certain Latin delegates, however, have expressed themselves vehemently on the subject in published interviews. It can be hoped that the frankness with which they state their desires, and the willingness of the United States to admit the rights of free states even while she protects her citizens in them, will remove the stigma of guilty selfishness from this country in her future dealings with a rich and disorganized continent.