3 April 1912 · Haitian
Knox tells Haiti that the canal requires quiet neighbours
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On 3 April 1912 the armoured cruiser Washington brought Philander C. Knox to Port-au-Prince. He was the first American secretary of state to set foot in Haiti since William Seward, and he carried a message he had already delivered in Cuba, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Santo Domingo. The Panama Canal was about to open. The Caribbean republics were to settle down. Knox told President Cincinnatus Leconte that the success of the American work of cutting a highway for world commerce depended on the peace of the countries around it, and that a state torn by internal quarrel or in default on its foreign obligations was in no position to share the benefits the canal would bring. Read that again for what it takes for granted. The nine countries on Knox's itinerary existed here as approaches to a waterway, and their politics were to be judged by how smoothly they moved American cargo.
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