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First Open Door Note Digital History ID 4068

Author: John Hay Date:1899

Annotation: First Open Door Note.

In 1899, Secretary of State John Hay issued a statement addressing the U.S. policy toward

China. The U.S. sent notes to Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Russia to explain

the Open Door Policy. The policy supported the principle that foreign countries have equal

access to commercial and industrial trade rights in China and requested that no nations create a sphere of influence in China.

The replies from each country were evasive. They skirted the issue by taking the position

that they could not commit themselves unless other nations complied first. Hay concluded

that the evasiveness meant that each was willing to comply with the policy. Economic

tensions were high. Countries continued to compete for railroad and mining rights and foreign trade within China. Subsequent events lead to the failure of the Open Door principle.

Document: John Hay to Andrew D. White

United States Department of State Washington, September 6, 1899

At the time when the Government of the United States was informed by that of Germany

that it had leased from His Majesty the Emperor of China the port of Kiao-chao and the

adjacent territory in the province of Shantung, assurances were given to the ambassador of

the United States at Berlin by the Imperial German minister for foreign affairs that the

rights and privileges insured by treaties with China to citizens of the United States would

not thereby suffer or be in anywise impaired within the area over which Germany had thus obtained control.

More recently, however, the British Government recognized by a formal agreement with

Germany the exclusive right of the latter country to enjoy in said leased area and the

contiguous "sphere of influence or interest" certain privileges, more especially those relating

to railroads and mining enterprises; but as the exact nature and extent of the rights thus

recognized have not been clearly defined, it is possible that serious conflicts of interest may

at any time arise not only between British and German subjects within said area, but that

the interests of our citizens may also be jeopardized thereby.

Earnestly desirous to remove any cause of irritation and to insure at the same time to the

commerce of all nations in China the undoubted benefits which should accrue from a formal

recognition by the various powers claiming "spheres of interest" that they shall enjoy

perfect equality of treatment for their commerce and navigation within such "spheres," the

Government of the United States would be pleased to see His German Majesty's

Government give formal assurances, and lend its cooperation in securing like assurances

from the other interested powers, that each, within its respective sphere of whatever

influence--

First. Will in no way interfere with any treaty port or any vested interest within any so-called "sphere of interest" or leased territory it may have in China.

Second. That the Chinese treaty tariff of the time being shall apply to all merchandise

landed or shipped to all such ports as are within said "sphere of interest" (unless they be

"free ports"), no matter to what nationality it may belong, and that duties so leviable shall be collected by the Chinese Government.

Third. That it will levy no higher harbor dues on vessels of another nationality frequenting

any port in such "sphere" than shall be levied on vessels of its own nationality, and no

higher railroad charges over lines built, controlled, or operated within its "sphere" on

merchandise belonging to citizens or subjects of other nationalities transported through

such "sphere" than shall be levied on similar merchandise belonging to its own nationals transported over equal distances.

The liberal policy pursued by His Imperial German Majesty in declaring Kiao-chao a free port

and in aiding the Chinese Government in the establishment there of a customhouse are so

clearly in line with the proposition which this Government is anxious to see recognized that

it entertains the strongest hope that Germany will give its acceptance and hearty support.

The recent ukase of His Majesty the Emperor of Russia declaring the port of Ta-lien-wan

open during the whole of the lease under which it is held from China to the merchant ships

of all nations, coupled with the categorical assurances made to this Government by His

Imperial Majesty's representative at this capital at the time and since repeated to me by the

present Russian ambassador, seem to insure the support of the Emperor to the proposed

measure. Our ambassador at the Court of St. Petersburg has in consequence, been

instructed to submit it to the Russian Government and to request their early consideration

of it. A copy of my instruction on the subject to Mr. Tower is herewith enclosed for your

confidential information.

The commercial interests of Great Britain and Japan will be so clearly observed by the

desired declaration of intentions, and the views of the Governments of these countries as to

the desirability of the adoption of measures insuring the benefits of equality of treatment of

all foreign trade throughout China are so similar to those entertained by the United States,

that their acceptance of the propositions herein outlined and their cooperation in advocating

their adoption by the other powers can be confidently expected. I enclose herewith copy of the instruction which I have sent to Mr. Choate on the subject.

In view of the present favorable conditions, you are instructed to submit the above

considerations to His Imperial German Majesty's Minister for L Foreign Affairs, and to

request his early consideration of the subject.

[Identical notes, with the necessary changes, were sent on the same day to Germany, Russia, and England. Similar notes were sent later to Japan, Italy, and France.]

Additional information: Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1899, pps. 129-30.

The New Freedom Woodrow Wilson When I look back on the processes of history, when I survey the genesis of America, I see this written over every page: that the nations are renewed from the bottom, not from the top; that the genius which springs up from the ranks of unknown men is the genius which renews the youth and energy of the people. Everything I know about history, every bit of experience and observation that has contributed to my thought, has confirmed me in the conviction that the real wisdom of human life is compounded out of the experiences of ordinary men. The utility, the vitality, the fruitage of life does not come from the top to the bottom; it comes, like the natural growth of a great tree, from the soil, up through the trunk into the branches to the foliage and the fruit. The great struggling unknown masses of the men who are at the base of everything are the dynamic force that is lifting the levels of society. A nation is as great, and only as great, as her rank and file. So the first and chief need of this nation of ours today is to include in the partnership of government all those great bodies of unnamed men who are going to produce our future leaders and renew the future energies of America. And as I confess that, as I confess my belief in the common man, I know what I am saying. The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. The man who is in the melee knows what blows are being struck and what blood is being drawn. The man who is on the make is the judge of what is happening in America, not the man who has made good; not the man who has emerged from the flood; not the man who is standing on the bank looking on, but the man who is struggling for his life and for the lives of those who are dearer to him than himself. That is the man whose judgment will tell you what is going on in America; that is the man by whose judgment I, for one, wish to be guided. We have had the wrong jury; we have had the wrong group,-no, I will not say the wrong group, but too small a group,-in control of the policies of the United States. The average man has not been consulted, and his heart had begun to sink for fear he never would be consulted, and his heart had begun to sink for fear he never would be consulted again. Therefore, we have got to organize a government whose sympathies will be open to the whole body of the people of the United States, a government which will consult as large a proportion of the people of the United States as possible before it acts. Because the great problem of government is to know what the average man is experiencing and is thinking about. Most of us are average men; very few of u s rise, except by fortunate accident, above the general level of the community about us; and therefore the man who thinks common thoughts, the man who has had common experiences is almost always the man who interprets America aright. Isn't that the reason that we are proud of such stories as the story of Abraham Lincoln,-a man who rose out of the ranks and interpreted America better than any man had interpreted it who had risen out of the privileged classes or the educated classes of America? The hope of the United States in the present and in the future is the same that it has always been: it is the hope and confidence that out of unknown homes will come men who will constitute themselves the masters of industry and of politics. The average hopefulness, the average welfare, the average enterprise, the aver- age initiative, of the United States are the only things that make it rich. We are not rich because a few gentlemen direct our industry; we are rich because of our own intelligence and our own industry. America does not consist of men who get their names into the newspapers; America does not consist politically of the men who set themselves up to be political leaders; she does not consist of the men who do most of her talking,-they are important only so far as they speak for that great voiceless multitude of men who constitute the great body and the saving force of the nation. No- body who

cannot speak the common thought, who does not move by the common impulse, is the man to speak for America, or for any of her future purposes. Only he is fit to speak who knows the thoughts of the great body of citizens, the men who go about their business every day, the men who toil from morning till night, the men who go home tired in the evenings, the men who are carrying on the things we are so proud of. You know how it thrills our blood sometimes to think how all the nations of the earth wait to see what America is going to do ' with her power, her physical power, her enormous resources, her enormous wealth. The nations hold their breath to see what this young country will do with her young unspoiled strength; we cannot help but be proud that we are strong. But what has made us strong? The toil of millions of men, the toil of men who do not boast, who are inconspicuous, but who live their lives humbly from day to day; it is the great body of toilers that constitutes the might of America. It is one of the glories of our land that nobody is able to predict from what family, from what region, from what race even, the leaders of the country are going to come. The great leaders of this country have not come very often from the established, “successful" families. I remember speaking at a school not long ago where I understood that almost all the young men were the sons of very rich people, and I told them I looked upon them with a great deal of pity, because, I said: “Most of you fellows are doomed to obscurity. You will not do anything. You will never try to do anything, and with all the great tasks of the country waiting to be done, probably you are the very men who will decline to do them. Some man who has been 'up against it,' some man who has come out of the crowd, somebody who has had the whip of necessity laid on his back, will emerge out of the crowd, will show that he under- stands the crowd, understands the interests of the nation, united and not separated, and will stand up and lead us." If I may speak of my own experience, I have found audiences made up of the 11common people" quicker to take a point, quicker to understand an argument, quicker to discern a tendency and to comprehend a principle, than many a college class that I have lectured to,-not because the college class lacked the intelligence, but because college boys are not in contact with the realities of life, while "common" citizens are in contact with the actual life of day by day; you do not have to explain to them what touches them to the quick. There is one illustration of the value of the constant renewal of society from the bottom that has always interested me profoundly. The only reason why government did not suffer dry rot in the Middle Ages under the aristocratic system which then prevailed was that so many of the men who were efficient instruments of government were drawn from the church,-from that great religious body which was then the only church, that body which we now distinguish from other religious bodies as the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church was then, as it is now, a great democracy. There was no peasant so humble that he might not become a priest, and no priest so obscure that he might not become Pope of Christendom; and every chancellery in Europe, every court in Europe, was ruled by these learned, trained and accomplished men,-the priesthood of that great and dominant body. What kept government alive in the Middle Ages was this constant rise of the sap from the bottom, from the rank and file of the great body of the people through the open channels of the priesthood. That, it seems to me, is one of the most interest- ing and convincing illustrations that could possibly be adduced of the thing that I am talking about. The only way that government is kept pure is by keeping these channels open, so that nobody may deem himself so humble as not to constitute a part of the body politic, so that there will constantly be coming new blood into the veins of the body politic; so that no man is so obscure that he may not break the crust of any class he may belong to, may not spring up to higher levels and be counted among the leaders of the state. Anything that depresses, anything that makes the organization greater than the man, any- thing that blocks, discourages, dismays the humble man, is against all the principles of progress. When I see alliances formed, as they are now being formed by successful men of business with

successful organizers of politics, I know that something has been done that checks the vitality and progress of society. Such an alliance, made at the top, is an alliance made to depress the levels, to hold them where they are, if not to sink them; and, therefore, it is the constant business of good politics to break up such partner- ships, to re-establish and reopen the connections between the great body of the people and the offices of government. To-day, when our government has so far passed into the hands of special interests; to-day, when the doctrine is implicitly avowed that only select classes have the equipment necessary for carrying on government; to-day when the doctrine is implicitly avowed that only select classes have the equipment necessary for carrying on government; to-day, when so many conscientious citizens, smitten with the scene of social wrong and suffering, have fallen victims to the fallacy that benevolent government can be meted out to the people by kind-hearted trustees of prosperity and guardians of the welfare of dutiful employees-to-day, supremely, does it behoove this nation to remember that a people shall be saved by the power that sleeps in it sown deep bosom, or by none; shall be renewed in hope, in conscience, in strength, by waters welling up from its own sweet, perennial springs. Not from above; not by patronage of its aristocrats. The flower does not bear the root, but the root the flower. Everything that blooms in beauty in the air of heaven draws its fairness, its vigor, from its roots. Nothing living can blossom into fruitage unless through nourishing stalks deep-planted in the common soil. The rose is merely the evidence of the vitality of the root; and the real source of its beauty, the very blush that it wears upon its tender cheek, comes from those silent sources of life that lie hidden in the chemistry of the soil. Up from that soil, up from the silent bosom of the earth, rise the currents of life and energy. Up from the common soil, up from the quiet heart of the people, rise joyously to-day streams of hope and determination bound to renew the face of the earth in glory. I tell you, the so-called radicalism of our times is simply the effort of nature to release the generous energies of our people. This great American people is a bottom just, virtuous, and hopeful; the roots of its being are in the soil of what is lovely, pure, and of good report, and the need of the hour is just that radicalism that will clear a way for the realization of the aspirations of a sturdy race. Questions 1. Who is the archetype American? 2. What are the problems of America? 3. How can America help solve these problems?