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Defense or Imperialism? Robert M. La Follette february 1921 There will never be another time when it will be so easy to induce the nations of the earth to reduce armaments as the present. Our navy today is vastly superior to any except Great Britain’s. Our coast defenses are declared on the highest authority to be “the best in the world.” Counting the men just released from service as a potential reserve, we have the largest army of trained soldiers on earth. With a total estimated wealth equal to that of any two nations in the world, and larger than Great Britain and Japan’s combined, this country must choose whether it will lead the movement to disarm or set the pace in a new competition which can only lead to war. The people—who must pay the staggering price of a race in armaments—are opposed to such a program. They have no foreign investments to protect, and no dividends, derived from armor contracts, at stake. Conceding the right of the owner of capital to invest his money where he pleases, the people must force Congress to declare against the policy of using the State Department and the military arm of the Government for collecting private claims for those seeking large proWts in foreign lands. When our capitalists withdraw their money from this country to stake it on the turn of fortune’s wheel in some foreign land, let them take the gambler’s chance. If money is to be spent to make their foreign risks secure, let it be their own money. If lives are to be risked to protect their Mexican mines—their Central and South American concessions—let it be their own lives that take the hazard. It is time for the people to call a halt. Every man and woman in the country should make senators and congressmen understand that they will be held to account if under the dishonest plea of preparing for the national defense they rebuild the American navy to serve the wicked aims of conquest and imperialism. Armed Intervention in Nicaragua Robert M. La Follette Jr. january 1927 “We denounce the mercenary system of foreign policy under recent administrations in the interests of Wnancial imperialists, oil monopolists and international bankers, which has at times degraded our State Department from its big service as a strong and 54 p a r t 3 renouncing empire kindly intermediary of defenseless governments to a trading outpost for those interests and concession-seekers engaged in the exploitation of weaker nations, as contrary to the will of the American people, destructive of domestic development and provocative of war.” (La Follette–Wheeler Platform, 1924) The armed intervention of the United States in Nicaragua under the Coolidge Administration is a startling example of the “mercenary system of foreign policy under recent administrations in the interests of Wnancial imperialists, oil monopolists and international bankers,” which was so vigorously denounced in the La Follette– Wheeler platform of 1924. Without authority from Congress, American marines have been landed in Nicaragua. This armed invasion of a friendly republic and the support of the government of General Diaz are justiWed by the Coolidge administration under the Ximsy pretext of protecting American lives and property in Nicaragua. In spite of repeated demands in the press and elsewhere, upon the State Department to furnish the names and places where American lives and property have been threatened or endangered, no answer has been forthcoming. To understand why a great and powerful nation of 105 million people should be using its power and prestige, and its armed forces, in bending to its will a small weak republic of 638,000 people, helpless and practically defenseless, a few facts must be reviewed. In 1910, the Wnances of Nicaragua having become involved, the State Department sent a Mr. Dawson to that country. He worked out what was known as the Dawson plan, which was subsequently embodied in a three-party loan treaty between the State Department, the Nicaraguan government, and certain New York bankers. The United States never ratiWed this treaty and it became a dead letter, but while it was under consideration by the Senate, Brown Brothers & Company, the U.S. Mortgage and Trust Co., and Seligman & Company “reWnanced” Nicaragua. Under the terms of the loan the American investors were given 51 percent of the stock of the Nicaraguan railroad and the Nicaraguan National Bank. In all, approximately $6 million was loaned to this little country over...

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