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Visible Empire. The seeds of empire, sown the last decade of the last century, first sprouted in 1893 when 160 U. S. Marines were landed for a Hawaiian "revolution." Later the islands were annexed to put their sugar production inside the U. S. tariff wall. The Spanish War added Porto Rico, the Philippines and Guam as imperial outposts, gave the U. S. a protectorate over Cuba. From the 1902 revolution in Panama the U. S. got land for the canal, laid the foundation for U. S. dominion over the Caribbean. Theodore Roosevelt, if not an imperialist, was a master empire-builder; he enlarged the Monroe Doctrine, took over the collection of the Dominican customs. The sphere of U. S. influence in the Caribbean widened; other powers were shut out as the U. S. undertook the job of policing this new domain. National defense dictated the purchase from Denmark of the Virgin Islands for 25 million dollars in 1917, to give the U. S. military control over the portals of the Caribbean and hence the Panama Canal.
The Navy. To hold this empire the navy maintains for its fighting fleets large stations at Guantanamo Bay (leased from Cuba under a treaty), at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, at Cavite near Manila, small ones at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, at Guam, Panama, Samoa and Olongapo. Policing the Caribbean is the Special Service Squadron under Rear Admiral Edward Hale Campbell. On its beat along the China coast moves the Asiatic fleet of two cruisers, 19 destroyers, auxiliary vessels, gunboats on the Yangtze River.
The Army. To bulwark its empire the U. S. has posted 14,228 Army officers and men in Hawaii, 8,784 in the Canal Zone, 5,770 (exclusive of the Scouts) in the Philippines, 1,012 at Tientsin, China. One hundred and fifty U. S. Army engineers are spending Christmas surveying a new canal route across Nicaragua.
Invisible Empire. Far beyond these visible outlines extends the invisible empire of the Dollar. Ten billion dollars, in full battle array, are yearly fighting the pound sterling, the franc, the guilder, the mark for supremacy.
Diplomats. The field generals in this spread of economic empire are U. S. diplomatic representatives, whose prime task is to keep the gates of trade peacefully open. The 13 U. S. ambassadors and 28 U. S. ministers are aided by 457 U. S. consuls, trained to report trade opportunities, to note and remove new and old obstacles to foreign commerce.
Trade Scouts. To open up new commercial fields abroad in which the Dollar may grow and thrive is the duty of the Department of Commerce's trade scouts—56 men in two classes, commercial attaches and trade commissioners. At Washington their reports are assembled and presented in a periodical pamphlet called What the World Wants. There it may be found this week that Rosario, Argentina, will buy buggy wheels; that Nottingham, England, wants battery chargers; Lagos, Nigeria, needs canned fish and lump sugar. Other world wants noted in the latest bulletins: kitchen sinks at Bordeaux; machines to make banana flour at Lourengo Marquez. Portuguese East Africa; fertilizer grinders at Batavia; sneakers and sporting wear at Mukden; fountain pens at Calcutta; corsets at Berlin; oilcloth at Cairo.