Only a little over a year ago another controversy arose through the demand made by the State Department of the United States for the settlement of a claim which had been in dispute for many years. As a result much anti-American comment appeared in the newspapers of Chile, as though the United States was trying to enforce a rejected claim against a weaker nation. The visit of President Montt to the United States, while on his way to Europe to seek medical advice, only a few months afterward, however, seems to presage that the government of Chile has buried all difficulties and good will is again restored. It was not necessary for President Montt to come this way, and he undoubtedly did it in a spirit of amity and good will. A great many erroneously place strong reliance upon the favourable effect of the Monroe Doctrine in South America. As a matter of fact the Monroe Doctrine at no period has caused the sale of a dollar’s worth of merchandise in those markets. It has, on the other hand, through misinterpretation of its intended beneficence, caused ill feeling, and, perhaps, prevented the sale of American goods in many instances. If the United States adheres to this doctrine, the completion of the Panama Canal will increase the responsibilities of the United States instead of lessening them. We, of the great North American republic, know that the action of the United States under this doctrine has always been intended for the welfare of the other Americans. Those who should feel kindly toward us, because of it, as a matter of fact rather resent its effect. They feel able to fight their own battles without the aid of the powerful republic on the North American continent. The visit of the United States fleet a few years ago at the various ports of South America, and the trip made by Elihu Root, then Secretary of State, did more to encourage a kindly feeling toward the United States and to develop a Pan-American spirit than anything the United States has ever done. It now needs only a wise and diplomatic policy to strengthen and extend the good feeling engendered by those events.