In the present agitation in America for the invasion of Mexico, ostensibly for the purpose of establishing order or punishing a bandit for an invasion which it has been declared on the floor of the United States Senate was organized and financed by Americans, they see a cleverly planned scheme of financiers to force intervention and they know that once the army and the flag were in Mexico they would remain permanently. They see that unless this is resisted to the death, the ultimate fate of Mexico is to be absorbed by the colossus of the North and her independence as a nation destroyed.
There is abundant proof that their fears are well grounded by the record of events that have recently occurred in Central America and the West Indies. Some years ago Nicaragua borrowed $3,000,000 from J. P. Morgan & Co. of New York. A revolution broke out and this was urged as an excuse to land the marines from American warships to protect American interests. They are still there. America has established a protectorate over that country and the present congress has ratified a treaty and appropriated $3,000,000 for the exclusive right to the Nicaraguan canal route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and it further stipulates that the money shall be used to pay its foreign debt under the advice and supervision of the Secretary of Treasury of the United States.
This is an example of what is known as "dollar diplomacy." First get a nation into debt and the rest is easy.
United States troops are also in possession of the Republics of Hayti and also of Santo Domingo under precisely similar conditions. The troops were landed and took possession of the Custom Houses; in other words, of the Nation's finances. Representatives of the United States are at the elbow of the native officials, dictating the expenditures and in general telling what may and may not be done.
Porto Rico is the absolute property of the United States. Cuba is dominated by the American tobacco and sugar trusts and cannot make any treaty without the consent of the United States government.
The Panama Canal strip was seized as the result of a plot formulated in Washington and of which President Roosevelt was fully advised—American warships were in the harbor when the so-called revolution was sprung. A provisional government was organized and immediately recognized by the powers at Washington; a treaty already drawn up was hastily adopted and accepted by Washington; the troops were landed and took possession of the ten-mile canal strip, and when the navy of Columbia, which consisted of one small gunboat, arrived, it was confronted with the American fleet and was helpless. All this was done within the space of forty-eight hours.
And this dastardly piece of land piracy was endorsed by all the governments of Europe—Kaiser Wilhelm personally congratulated President Roosevelt. Ten million dollars was loaned by J. P. Morgan & Co. to the Republic of Panama and the bonds are guaranteed by the United States.
In 1848 the dominant economic class was represented by the slave-owning, cotton-growing element in the South. They sent troops to the border of Mexico with the sole purpose of fomenting trouble so as to have some valid excuse for the invasion of Mexico. They succeeded and took from Mexico one-half of her territory.
The dominant economic class today is represented by Banking, Railroad, Oil, Mining and other interests and they are playing the same game that the exploiters of chattel slaves played in 1848. To prove this is an easy matter, all one has to do is to read a few extracts from the current press.