Show THE MONROE DOCTRINE JEOPARDIZED It is mid that France is trying to buy 100000 square miles of land from Brazil That announcement causes a good deal of apprehension in this country coun-try It would be all right if France bought the land and made no claim to sovereignty over it because France needs more soil for her people hnd we suspect that if the rumor ahall be confirmed con-firmed Brazil will receive a gentle notice no-tice from the United States that it will save a great deal of trouble In the future fu-ture If she declines to sell her sovereignty I sov-ereignty over the tract with the tract itself because it will put the United States in a position where she will have to fight for what would bo considered In Europe none of her business or she would have to abandon the Monroe doctrine so far as to permit any foreign power to plant a colony on the American Ameri-can continent to be ruled by the home Government provided the foreign Government Gov-ernment could make satisfactory terms with the seller on this continent It IH I truo that Franco Is a republic and on that score she might claim that she was not interfering with lie Monroe doctrine but there would come in another an-other trouble Suppose Germany were to buy u large tract In Argentine or one in Paraguay or Colombia or Venezuela I Ven-ezuela with the consent of the IOWeI from which she purchased and that the purchase Included the surrender of the sovereignty with the land Ve could not very well interpose because Germany Is an empire and France Is a republic but the Monroe doctrine as originally stated declared that the Western hemisphere was no longer open to colonization by a European power Would that be given up It Is plain that If It were yielded to once then every power of Kuropc would claim the same rights that France had obtained It will be for SpanishAmer ica herself to decide the matter Her territory has been held sacred for eighty years because of the Monroe doctrine Now if some of those Stales for tho sake of getting money please to sell territory and with It sovereignty sovereign-ty there will be only one of two things to do on the part of our Government either to surrender the doctrine or to fight Lately the SpanishAmerican states have been drawing closer to each other and the reason has more than once been expressed tbpt they feared the extending power of the United States of the north It acems to us that if the Government of Brazil Is contemplating any such sale to France the proper thing would be for the Ministers Min-isters from this country to thp several states to notify those stales that they must stop the contemplated act on the part of Brazil or give up the protection protec-tion which they have heretofore received I re-ceived from the Great Republic |