Even the average American, who is always on the side of justice and fair play, was rather taken back by this radical departure in American and foreign relations. For American diplomacy, although usually equitable, always took into consideration the interests of the Americans in a foreign country first and last, even if they clashed with the fundamental rights of the natives. In the case of American interests in Mexico, it was long suspected they had been playing politics and throwing their all powerful influence in favor of the government which could give them the best advantages in a business way, which were in opposite relation to the liberal principles and the welfare of the majority of the Mexicans. The great corporations have always received extraordinary favors from dishonest governments. The mining and oil syndicates, the railroad and land concessionaires, acquired great privileges and gave very little in return for them. For example, an American oil company in Mexico made as high as 450 per cent. profit on its original investment and doubled the selling price of oil and gasoline. As soon as an English company invaded the field they fought each other for a while, then realizing that it was an expensive affair which redounded to the benefit of the Mexican consumer, they came to an agreement by dividing the territory among themselves and right away the price of oil and gasoline went up again. Scores of cases can be cited to prove that all the advantages are in favor of foreign investors. The salaries of the Mexican workingman or peons are not raised, but the prices of commodities are never lowered. The great Orizaba cotton mills, all the factories, the great mining corporations have always paid the lowest salaries. Whenever there was a strike for higher wages or for better conditions, the Diaz and Huerta régimes always protected the foreigners and at the slightest pretext massacred the strikers. In the rare cases when the government was fair to the strikers, as happened under Madero and Carranza, then the foreign investors protested to their governments that their interests were in danger of destruction. With the Mexican laborer and peons it has become a conviction that foreign interests are always on the side of dictators as against the Mexican people. In Central and South America the new democratic policy was watched with keen interest; the Latin Americans shrewdly guessed that the attitude of the Democratic administration would be a test stone of their relations with the State Department. So much had been written about the famous Monroe Doctrine by successive American statesmen that the original meaning of this doctrine had been entirely lost to view. The original Monroe doctrine was uttered as a warning to the Holy Alliance in its well known designs to attempt the reconquest of the provinces lost by Spain.