American state over its weaker neighbors has been growing steadily for two decades. The responsibilities assumed in Cuba and Panama have been followed by others, which now include practical protectorates over all of the West Indian republics and a complex of responsibilities in Central America.
Although this extension of influence has been steady it has not been the result of any well thought out plan, indeed, to a very large degree, it has been a product of circumstances rather than of policy. It is not an increase of control which the government or people of the United States has actively desired and it is not one which either wishes to see further extended. Nevertheless it can but be evident that the circumstances that are developing in the world will make the policy to be followed toward the countries encircling the Caribbean one of the leading factors in American foreign policy in the immediate future.
One of the most important problems that American statesmen will have to face and one of the most difficult of the adjustments that must be made during the period of reconstruction following the World War involves the relations of the United States and Mexico. The foreign policy adopted toward this, the most important of the Latin republics of North America, may be the outstanding factor in American international policy in the next decade. The solution arrived at will be important for the world at large, and especially for the United States, for a large number of reasons.
1. From the broadest international viewpoint it will be significant because it will show what standard is
