Today, more than ever before, American capital is seeking investment in foreign countries, and American products are more and more generally seeking foreign markets. As a consequence, in all countries there are American citizens and American interests to be protected, on occasion, by their Government. These movements of men, capital, and of commodities bring peoples and governments close together and so form bonds of peace and mutual dependency, as they must also sometimes make passing points of friction. The resultant situation inevitably imposes upon this Government vastly increased responsibilities. This Administration, through the Department of State and the foreign service, is lending all proper support to legitimate and beneficial American enterprises in foreign countries, the degree of such support being measured by the national advantages to be expected.
William Howard Taft (1857–1930), U.S. president. Message to the two houses of Congress at the second session of the sixty-first Congress, December 7, 1909. Presidential Addresses and State Papers of William Howard Taft, from March 4, 1909, to March 4, 1910, 1: 455, Doubleday, Page & Company (1910).
One of Taft's major objectives was to increase American business interests abroad, but the patronizing and supercilious manner he used to reach his objective soured especially the nations south of the border.