Self-government: (b) The American Method.—America is trying a colonial method which carries self-government a step farther than in British colonies. Our plan is not merely to permit colo nies to enjoy self-government when they demand it, but to give them definite training in order to fit them for self-government as soon as possible. Our purpose as practiced in the Philippines and Porto Rico is to treat the colonies as good parents treat their children, checking them if they do wrong, but striving earnestly to aid them in their education. As fast as they show themselves fit to take charge of their own government we want them to do so. We only insist that first they must learn. We think that they cannot be truly trusted to manage their own government until they have learned self-control, just as a parent would not leave a six-year-old child to play with a razor. S6trtk. al.r(AA'V (4) Benevolent Cuba a new and promising method of partnership rather than control has been established between a strong nation and a weaker neighbor. We have said to the Cubans, "You may govern yourselves so long as you govern properly. If, however, you have a revolution, if you get too deeply into debt, or if in other ways you show yourselves unfit, we shall intervene."
Thus without exploiting the weaker people we are trying to help them forward in civilization. That is the method which has become our ideal. Under the guidance of the League of Nations and under the impulse of worldwide public opinion it bids fair to prevail among all the strong nations who live in the stimulating regions of cyclonic storms. As all parts of the world become more and more closely bound together through the development of transportation, industry, and commerce, the strong nations have ever-increasing opportunities to dominate the others. The world is fast becoming a great family of nations just as our own country is a family of States. If one nation remains poor, ignorant, vicious, misgoverned, discontented, all the nations suffer, just as the whole United States suffers if poverty, illiteracy, crime, violence, or discontent prevail in any of our States. If the world is to go forward rather than backward the strong nations must remember that the more a nation can promote the progress and especially the contentment of other nations, the more it is doing fox itself and for the whole world.