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fed “xoct -_ °* FOREIGN AFFAIRS. ee ieee would preach united national aims and ideals, I would instill anew the great a truth that democratic institutions are the only hope for the personal worth, the dignity, and the individual liberty of the citizen. I would frame all laws and ~ shape all policies, foreign and domestic, with that great end in view. In no other way can we hope for contentment and unity at home and respectand . power abroad, —*' In conclusion, permit me to say that I believe in the foreign policy which ~o offers peace to all nations, trade and commerce with all nations, honest friend- ship with all nations, political commitments, express or implied, with none — _ the policy which not only in fact respects the rights and sovereignties of other — states and nations without distinction of great and small, and particularly upon this Continent, but which would also refrain from words or acts that would seem to challenge those rights. As an evidence of that faith, I would at the present time abandon what is known as the Platt Amendment as irritating and umiliating to Cuba and as imposing upon the United States an impossible task. Under the shelter and the inspiration of such a foreign policy I would foster and strengthen that brand of Americanism which believes in the worth, the efficiency, and grandeur of constitutional democracy, in the vigilant pres- - ervation of the personal liberty and the individual privileges of the citizen, realizing that our institutions and the whole vast scheme of democratic govern- ment depend upon our ability here on this western continent to harmonize the rapacious economic forces of the modern world with the political freedom and economic rights of the individual. Thus, armed with a sense of justice toward other nations on the one hand and a sense of duty toward our own people on the other, this nation will remain at peace with all nations who want peace, and if there be those who do not, and will not, have peace, we under such circumstances need have no fear, _ There is no creed or faith, no political principle or form of government, but must at some time or other undergo attacks — and this seems to be one of the eriods of challenge and general assailment. We read of a movement late'y initiated in one of the leading countries of Europe to delete the Ten Command- ments, presumably that part which says: Thou shalt not kill; to edit the Lord’s prayer, since that perfect supplication encompasses all men regardless of race or creed; to abolish Christianity, and conform the teachings of the Nazarene to the practices and principles of their political leader. This wicked and blas- phemous exhibition of diseased minds seems only a little more impious and no ess vain and impotent than the persistent attacks everywhere encountered upon popular government, the right and capacity of the people to direct and manage their own political affairs. Here in this country and elsewhere, either by those who in their own land have destroyed the last vestige of personal liberty, sending to prison and to the torture chamber men and women because of race, religion or political opinions and sacrificing all rights of the people to the gratification of personal power, or by those in our own land who consult appearances rather than realities and mistake surface indications for the deep currents which move below, we hear the solemn pronouncement that popular government has failed and constitutional democracy is dead. We need not be dismayed but we cannot be unconcerned. The right to wor- ship according to the dictates of one’s conscience, the right to freedom from