But proximity alone is not enough. The United States enjoys no extensive barter with the Caribbean countries, notwithstanding their nearness. Brazil and Argentina are as close to Europe as to the United States. The need of expanding the home market will be stronger in the future, and when that is felt more keenly the north and south trade-wave will deepen its channel.

Always there will be resourceful, persistent competition. The Pacific coast does not become a mare clausum. The United States would not and could not make it a closed sea. The foreign commerce of South America is approximating $1,000,000,000. Of this amount relatively $600,000,000 is exports and $400,000,000 imports. The ratio of the West Coast to the entire continent is about 25 per cent; that is, on the basis of $1,000,000,000 it will have $250,000,000 foreign commerce. The United States is in this trade to the amount of $175,000,000. In one year its exports were $53,000,000 and its imports $140,000,000. The disproportionate balance was caused largely by the coffee and rubber imports from Brazil. But on the West Coast the balance is in its favor.

I have written this chapter as though the admonition of John Quincy Adams had been addressed to my own country instead of to another commonwealth. But it again may be said that empire is not the national thought of the United States, and lust of territorial dominion is not a serious malady with the strongest South American republics. Commerce and navigation are based on agricultural and industrial development. The interoceanic waterway renders certain the permanent influence of United States capital on the industrial and commercial life of its southern neighbors. It is for them to reap the larger benefit in the increased development of the national resources and the more stable political institutions. Some of them chafe under the implication that the Monroe Doctrine will be necessary in the future, and view it as a shadow rather than a shield. The new basis, the economic basis, of that doctrine which is provided by the Panama Canal furnishes the foundation on which its evolution may begin, so that they may get out from under the shadow while enjoying the sheltering protection of the shield.

The lessons in physical and commercial geography embraced in these chapters have shown that the geographical sphere of the Canal includes the Amazon basins, the Argentine wheat plains, and the Andes treasure box of mines from Panama to Patagonia. They have shown how railroad progress is crowding mule-trail civilization, how the arteries of trade are lengthening, how fresh commercial currents are developing, how the new industrial life is unfolding, and how the problems in the political conditions of the Western Hemisphere are being solved. They give promise of the deferred realization of Henry Clay’s population prophecy. Finally, they bid the citizen of the United States to look out from the windows of his own self-contained nation down the South American Canal line, and, accepting the responsibility which that grand enterprise has brought, to share in the opportunity which it has created for contributing to the civilization that comes through the spread of commerce and industry.

APPENDIX

The relation of the Panama Canal to ocean transportation routes is best exhibited in the painstaking tables prepared by the Hydrographic Office of the United States Navy. These show, in terms of nautical miles, the comparative distances, which are as follows:

WEST COASTS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA

San Francisco
Monterey
Santa Barbara
San Diego
San Blas
Guaymas
Acapulco
Salina Cruz
San José
Corinto
0 90 295 451143015101836218924462671 San Francisco
0 220 376135514351805212423712596 Monterey
0 164116612461616193521822407 Santa Barbara
0 843 9231493181220592284 San Diego
0 500 520 78010741310 San Blas
0 954125115081774 Guaymas
0 300 563 799 Acapulco
0 291 529 Salina Cruz
0 238 San José
0 Corinto
Puntarenas
(Costa Rica)
Panama
Esmeraldas
Guayaquil
Paita
Pacasmayo
Callao
Pisco
Islay (Mollendo)
Arica
2916327733953608355237094012411544514579 San Francisco
2841322733203528347736343937404043764504 Monterey
2652303831313339328834453748385141874315 Santa Barbara
2529296530083216316533223635372840644196 San Diego
1534194820332254221023742680278431263254 San Blas
1968238224672668264428083114321835603688 Guaymas
1023143715321762172018892189230326472775 Acapulco
765116013021538153516151989210923172493 Salina Cruz
474 88810261298128114531759187121932354 San José
284 698 8301130112613021608172020422203 Corinto
0 490 640 947 94811251431154318662026 Puntarenas
0 475 842 84910311337144917711932 Panama
0 409 416 600 906101813401501 Esmeraldas
0 226 415 721 83311551316 Guayaquil
0 200 506 618 9401101 Paita
0 316 430 754 913 Pacasmayo
0 127 452 622 Callao
0 335 511 Pisco
0 139 Islay (Mollendo)
0 Arica
Iquique
Antofagasta
Copiapo
Coquimbo
Valparaiso
Talcahuano (Concepcion B.)
Lota (Concepcion B.)
Valdivia
Punta Arenas
(Sandy Pt., Chile)
464547704885503651405272528754106199 San Francisco
457046954802496450655197521253356124 Monterey
438145064620474548705002501751425945 Santa Barbara
425843684501462647474879489450195822 San Diego
332134443582371337243993400841394976 San Blas
375538784016414742854427444245735410 Guaymas
284229733113325333983554356937084580 Acapulco
268827942966308632543412342435664510 Salina Cruz
242125502704286432243203321833784295 San José
227023992553271328793069308432554186 Corinto
209322222376253827022894290930714019 Puntarenas
199921282282244426082801281629793932 Panama
156816971851201321772370238525483501 Esmeraldas
138315121666182819922185220023633316 Guayaquil
116812971451161317771970198521483101 Paita
99011091267144216081808182319872949 Pacasmayo
689 807 965113913091514152916972666 Callao
578 703 861103312041413142815972550 Pisco
222 428 604 790 9671196121113842370 Islay (Mollendo)
110 323 538 697 8811102112913012294 Arica
0 222 437 600 7841005103212042185 Iquique
0 229 392 576 797 824 9961981 Antofagasta
0 179 361 582 609 7811705 Copiapo
0 198 426 450 6231613 Coquimbo
0 240 266 4371425 Valparaiso
0 39 2221210 Talcahuano}*
0 2071194 Lota }*
01011 Valdivia
0 Punta Arenas
(Sandy Pt., Chile)

* Concepcion Bay

EAST COASTS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA