may be adequate and may not be interfered with, it is agreed (fourth) that the customs duties shall not be changed without the consent of the Government of the United States. To assure the proper collection and administration of the customs by a competent person, it is provided (fifth) that a receiver-general of customs shall be appointed by the Government of the country concerned from a list of names prepared by the fiscal agent of the contemplated loan and approved by the President of the United States. To insure the proper discharge of the duties of the receivergeneral of customs, it is agreed (sixth) that he shall be under obligation to report annually, and upon request, to both parties to the conventions. In order that he may effectively, conscientiously, and independently perform his functions, and to prevent customs houses continuing to be the goal of revolutionists, it is stipulated (seventh) that the Government of the country concerned will protect him, and (eighth) that the Government of the United States shall afford him such protection as it may deem requisite, there being thus obtained just so much assurance of stable conditions and proper customs collections as will enable Nicaragua and Honduras to borrow the money necessary to rehabilitate their national finances at anything like a reasonable rate of interest.

I wish to call especial attention to the fact that in the Dominican Republic just this potential safeguard, unexercised and without any undue interference on the part of the United States, has cured almost century-old evils, and to ask you to judge these conventions in the light of the plain facts.

There has been a good deal of confusion of ideas in regard to the relation of the conventions to banking arrangements for the rehabilitation of Honduran and Nicaraguan

finances. The conventions themselves are quite separate from any bankers' contracts. They may be ratified and put in force as between the Governments concerned, but they remain purely potential unless and until bankers' contracts are negotiated which are deemed acceptable by both Governments, and, in the case of the Governments of Nicaragua and Honduras, which would be direct parties to the contracts, approved by their legislative assemblies. The sole desire of the Department of State has been that Nicaragua and Honduras make the best contracts that are possible under the conditions, and it is gratifying that American bankers have been able to undertake the business.

The Government of Nicaragua has already approved the convention and, to relieve its urgent and pressing necessities, has placed a preliminary loan in the United States and engaged American citizens — one as financial adviser, two as claims commissioners, one as collector-general of customs, and one as assistant collector-general of customsand in this way has laid a foundation for its financial regeneration. This, however, is merely a temporary expedient, and what has been done must be lost and the bright prospect destroyed unless the convention, upon which the future important and permanent improvements depend, is ratified by the United States.

If these conventions are put into operation what has happened in the Dominican Republic will be repeated in the Republics of Nicaragua and Honduras, which are the key to the peace of the whole of Central America, and within a few years the revolutions which keep these countries in a state of constant unrest will be eliminated; the neutrality of Honduras and Nicaragua in Central American affairs will become an accomplished fact; and the peace of the rest of Central America will be immensely strengthened.

These conventions, as I have said, are not a new experiment; in principle they have been tried and it has been found that they produce results beneficial to the debtor and creditor alike. Instead of producing foreign entanglements they have precisely the opposite effect because they do away with the present discontent and clamor of foreign creditors, because they insure prosperity, and because they make for peace.

Alone, these countries find it impossible to extricate themselves from the thraldom of civil strife, and they quite naturally look to their more prosperous and powerful neighbor for aid and guidance. Shall we refuse it any more than we refused to heed the cry of Cuba or that of the Dominican Republic?

With the Monroe Doctrine as a tenet of our national faith, can we refuse to these Republics that measure of assistance which will render their Governments stable and keep them from foreign interference? These are the questions involved in these treaties which are now pending before the United States Senate.

The adoption of the present conventions is counseled not only by the humanitarian motive of preventing useless bloodshed (hundreds of lives having already been saved by the Dominican arrangement) and by the ever-increasing important political reason of avoiding the danger of European entanglement in the affairs of the countries surrounding the Caribbean, but is also more than justified from a purely material standpoint. In 1909 the total foreign trade of the Central American States, including Panama, amounted to approximately $60,000,000, of which about one-half was with the United States. When we consider that the total commerce between Mexico and the United States is in the neighborhood of $117,000,000 we can realize

in some degree the trade possibilities with the Isthmian Republics, especially if it be understood that under the arrangement between the United States and the Dominican Republic the trade with that country has increased since 1903 (prior to the installation of American officials in the customhouses), when it was somewhat over $4,000,000, to about $11,500,000 for the year 1910, and that the share of the United States in the total foreign commerce of the Dominican Republic has materially increased in the same period.

Several of the republics of South America have grown great and powerful and enjoy the highest culture, fine political ideals, and stable governments. These republics, indeed, are, consciously or unconsciously, fellow sponsors with the United States of the Monroe Doctrine as a Pan-American idea as well as an American policy. The growth of such nations lightens our responsibility. The logic of political geography and of strategy and now our tremendous national interest created by the Panama Canal make the safety, the peace, and the prosperity of Central America. and the zone of the Caribbean of paramount interest to the government of the United States. Thus, the malady of revolutions and financial collapse is most acute precisely in the region where it is most dangerous to us. It is here that we seek to apply a remedy.

It would not be sane to uphold a great policy like the Monroe Doctrine and to repudiate its necessary corollaries and neglect the sensible measures which reason dictates as its safeguards.

As practical measures of peace, as wise measures of policy, as useful instrumentalities for commercial expansion I firmly believe that the Nicaragua and Honduras conven

tions will commend themselves to all thoughtful American citizens. (Applause).

Francis Lynde Stetson, of New York:

Mr. President, I esteem it a privilege to be permitted to move that the distinguished orator of the evening, the Hon. Philander C. Knox, be elected an honorary member of the New York State Bar Association.

A. T. Clearwater, of Kingston:

I second that motion.

The President:

Gentlemen of the Association, you have heard the very appropriate motion made by Mr. Stetson and seconded by Judge Clearwater, that Mr. Knox be made an honorary member of the New York State Bar Association. All who are in favor of the adoption of the resolution will signify it by saying aye.

The motion was carried unanimously.

The President:

We greet Mr. Knox as our fellow-member, feeling very greatly honored ourselves by our new associate. This meeting will now adjourn and the members of this Association will repair to the building of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, there to experience the hospitality of that organization. I wish before we separate to give a warning to the guests who are to attend the dinner of the Association to-morrow evening at the Waldorf-Astoria, it is a warning that you be prompt in your attendance at seven o'clock because the President of the United States is to be