Speech #620098724

We are tempting. we are inviting. other nations to raise these perilous and vital questions. which now slumber peacefully in a sleep which should know no waking. If they were raised. they would come in such form. some of them. that this treaty would be blown to the winds and be as if it had never been. That is the danger which I apprehend. and I apprehend it not because I fear for the United States. not because I am alarmed lest the Monroe doctrine. be overturned and our immigration laws interfered with. for neither this nor any other treaty will be permitted to destroy the safeguards which certain policies throw around the United States. I fear it because I am the friend of peace. and. in my opinion. no greater disaster could befall the cause of peace than to make a promise In a treaty designed to promote peace which we know when we make it will not be kept in certain contingencies. 3othing could do more harm to the cause we all have at heart than such an outcome as this. When we make a general promise of arbitration we must make nothing more and nothing less than a promise which we intend to fulfill to the very letter of the agreement.