LATIN AMERICA AND THE
UNITED STATES

The collected addresses and state papers of Elihu Root, of which this is one of several volumes, cover the period of his service as Secretary of War, as Secretary of State, and as Senator of the United States, during which time, to use his own expression, his only client was his country.

The many formal and occasional addresses and speeches, which will be found to be of a remarkably wide range, are followed by his state papers, such as the instructions to the American delegates to the Second Hague Peace Conference and other diplomatic notes and documents, prepared by him as Secretary of State in the performance of his duties as an executive officer of the United States. Although the official documents have been kept separate from the other papers, this plan has been slightly modified in the volume devoted to the military and colonial policy of the United States, which includes those portions of his official reports as Secretary of War throwing light upon his public addresses and his general military policy.

The addresses and speeches selected for publication are not arranged chronologically, but are classified in such a way that each volume contains addresses and speeches relating to a general subject and a common purpose. The addresses as president of the American Society of International Law show his treatment of international questions from the theoretical standpoint, and in the light of his experience as Secretary of War and as Secretary of State, unrestrained and uncontrolled by the limitations of official position, whereas his addresses on foreign affairs, delivered while Secretary of State or as United States Senator, discuss these questions under the reserve of official responsibility.

[Pg x]Mr. Root's addresses on government, citizenship, and legal procedure are a masterly exposition of the principles of the Constitution and of the government established by it; of the duty of the citizen to understand the Constitution and to conform his conduct to its requirements; and of the right of the people to reform or to amend the Constitution in order to make representative government more effective and responsive to their present and future needs. The addresses on law and its administration state how legal procedure should be modified and simplified in the interest of justice rather than in the supposed interest of the legal profession.

The addresses delivered during the trip to South America and Mexico in 1906, and in the United States after his return, with their message of good will, proclaim a new doctrine—the Root doctrine—of kindly consideration and of honorable obligation, and make clear the destiny common to the peoples of the Western World.

The addresses and the reports on military and colonial policy made by Mr. Root as Secretary of War explain the reorganization of the army after the Spanish-American War, the creation of the General Staff, and the establishment of the Army War College. They trace the origin of and give the reason for the policy of this country in Cuba, the Philippines, and Porto Rico, devised and inaugurated by him. It is not generally known that the so-called Platt Amendment, defining our relations to Cuba, was drafted by Mr. Root, and that the Organic Act of the Philippines was likewise the work of Mr. Root as Secretary of War.

The argument before The Hague Tribunal in the North Atlantic Fisheries Case is a rare if not the only instance of a statesman appearing as chief counsel in an international arbitration, which, as Secretary of State, he had prepared and submitted.

[Pg xi]The political, educational, historical, and commemorative speeches and addresses should make known to future generations the literary, artistic, and emotional side of a statesman of our time, and the publication of these collected addresses and state papers will, it is believed, enable the American people better to understand the generation in which Mr. Root has been a commanding figure and better to appreciate during his lifetime the services which he has rendered to his country.

Robert Bacon
James Brown Scott

April 15, 1916.

The visit of the Secretary of State to South America in 1906 was not a summer outing. It was not an ordinary event; it was and it was intended to be a matter of international importance. It was the first time that a Secretary of State had visited South America during the tenure of his office, and the visit was designed to show the importance which the United States attaches to the Pan American conferences, and by personal contact to learn the aims and views of our southern friends, and to show also, by personal intercourse, the kindly consideration and the sense of honorable obligation which the Government of the United States cherishes for its neighbors to the south without discriminating among them, and to make clear the destiny common to the peoples of the western world. These were the reasons which prompted Mr. Root to undertake this message of good will and of frank explanation, and these were also the reasons which caused the President of the United States in his message to Congress to dwell upon the visit, its incidents and its consequences. Thus President Roosevelt said in his message of December 3, 1906:

It was part of Secretary Root's mission to dispel this unfounded impression, and there is just cause to believe that he has succeeded. In an address to the Third Conference at Rio on the thirty-first of July—an address of such note that I send it in, together with this message—he said:

These words appear to have been received with acclaim in every part of South America. They have my hearty approval, as I am sure they will have yours, and I cannot be wrong in the conviction that they correctly represent the sentiments of the whole American people. I cannot better characterize the true attitude of the United States in its assertion of the Monroe Doctrine than in the words of the distinguished former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Doctor Drago, in his speech welcoming Mr. Root at Buenos Ayres. He spoke of—

In view of the statements made by Mr. Root himself in his various addresses, and in view of President Roosevelt's statement of them, and of the results of the visit, it does not seem necessary further to detain the reader. It is, however, proper to call attention to the fact that, in addition to the speeches delivered by Mr. Root in South America, which were published by the Government of the United States in an official volume, the reader will find Mr. Root's addresses during a visit to Mexico which he made in 1906, upon his return from South America; Mr. Root's addresses before the Central American Peace Conference, which met in Washington in the fall of 1907; and the various addresses which Mr. Root made in the United States in his official and unofficial capacity, explaining to his countrymen the aims and aspirations of the American peoples to the south of our own Republic, the progress they have made since their emancipation from European tutelage, and the future before them which, like ripening fruits, they need only stretch forth the hand to pluck. The undiscovered land—for to many of us it is unknown—is a land of exquisite beauty, grace and courtesy, which the reader may here visit, if he choose, in company with Mr. Root.

Mr. Root's addresses on his South American trip were all in English. The addresses of welcome and congratulation were in the language of the country in which they were delivered. They appear in translated form in the present volume, and attention is called to the fact that they are translations, in order to relieve the speakers of responsibility for any infelicities of expression in their English form.

Speech of His Excellency Joaquim Nabuco

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from the United States of Brazil to the United States of America, President of the Conference

You do not come here tonight as a stranger to take your place as an honorary president of this conference. You were the first to express a desire that the conference should meet this year; it was you who, in Washington, brought to a [Pg 4]happy conclusion the difficult elaboration of its program and of its rules. Neither can we forget that at one time you expected to be one of us, a plan you abandoned in order that you might divide your time among all the republics that claimed the honor of your visit. The meeting of this conference is thus to a great extent your own work. In nothing else since you came to your high post have you taken a more direct and personal interest. You seem to divine in the spirit that animates you with regard to our continent the mark that your name will leave in history.

I believe that you and the conference understand each other fully. The periodical meeting of this body, exclusively composed of American nations, assuredly means that America forms a political system separate from that of Europe—a constellation with its own distinct orbit.

By aiming, however, at a common civilization and by trying to make of the space we occupy on the globe a vast neutral zone of peace, we are working for the benefit of the whole world. In this way we offer to the population, to the wealth, and to the genius of Europe a much wider and safer field of action in our hemisphere than if we formed a disunited continent, or if we belonged to the belligerent camps into which the Old World may become divided. One point specially will be of great interest for you, who so heartily desire the success of this work. The conference is convinced that its mission is not to force any nation belonging to it to do anything she would not be freely prepared to do upon her own initiative; we all recognize that its sole function is to impart our collective sanction to what has already become unanimous in the opinion of the whole continent.

This is the first time, sir, that an American Secretary of State officially visits a foreign nation, and we all feel happy that the first visit was to Latin America. You will find everywhere the same admiration for your great country, [Pg 5]whose influence in the advance of moral culture, of political liberty, and of international law has begun already to counterbalance that of the rest of the world. Mingled with that admiration you will also find the sentiment that you could not rise without raising with you our whole continent; that in everything you achieve we shall have our share of progress.

There are few rolls of honor so brilliant in history as that of men who have occupied your high position. Among them any distinction on the ground of their merits would be fated to be unjust; a few names, however, that shine more vividly in history, such as those of Jefferson, Monroe, Webster, Clay, Seward, and Blaine—the latter the creator of these conferences—suffice to show abroad that the United States have always been as proud of the perfection of the mould in which their Secretaries of State have been cast and as zealous in this respect as they have been in the case of their Presidents. We fully appreciate the luster added to this conference by the part you take in it tonight. It is with sincere gratification that we welcome you. Here, you may be sure, you are surrounded by the respect of our whole continent for your great nation; for President Roosevelt, who has shown himself during his term of office, and will ever remain, whatever position he may choose to occupy in public life, one of the leaders of mankind; and for yourself, whose sound sense of justice and whose sincere interest in the welfare of all American nations reflect the noblest inspiration that animated the greatest of your predecessors.

This voyage of yours demonstrates practically to the whole world your good faith as a statesman and your broad sympathy as an American; it shows the conscientiousness and the care with which you wish to place before the President and the country the fundamental points of your national external policy.

[Pg 6]You are now exploring political seas never navigated before, lands not yet revealed to the genius of your statesmen and toward which they were attracted, as we are all attracted one to another, by an irresistible continental gravitation. We feel certain, however, that at the end of your long journey you will feel that, in their ideals and in their hearts, the American republics form already a great political unit in the world.

Speech of the Secretary of State

Honorary President of the Conference

I beg you to believe that I highly appreciate and thank you for the honor you do me.

I bring from my country a special greeting to her elder sisters in the civilization of America.

Unlike as we are in many respects, we are alike in this, that we are all engaged under new conditions, and free from the traditional forms and limitations of the Old World in working out the same problem of popular self-government.

It is a difficult and laborious task for each of us. Not in one generation nor in one century can the effective control of a superior sovereign, so long deemed necessary to government, be rejected, and effective self-control by the governed be perfected in its place. The first fruits of democracy are many of them crude and unlovely; its mistakes are many, its partial failures many, its sins not few. Capacity for self-government does not come to man by nature. It is an art to be learned, and it is also an expression of character to be developed among all the thousands of men who exercise popular sovereignty.

To reach the goal toward which we are pressing forward, the governing multitude must first acquire knowledge that comes from universal education; wisdom that follows practical experience; personal independence and self-respect [Pg 7]befitting men who acknowledge no superior; self-control to replace that external control which a democracy rejects; respect for law; obedience to the lawful expressions of the public will; consideration for the opinions and interests of others equally entitled to a voice in the state; loyalty to that abstract conception—one's country—as inspiring as that loyalty to personal sovereigns which has so illumined the pages of history; subordination of personal interests to the public good; love of justice and mercy, of liberty and order. All these we must seek by slow and patient effort; and of how many shortcomings in his own land and among his own people each one of us is conscious!

Yet no student of our times can fail to see that not America alone but the whole civilized world is swinging away from its old governmental moorings and intrusting the fate of its civilization to the capacity of the popular mass to govern. By this pathway mankind is to travel, whithersoever it leads. Upon the success of this our great undertaking the hope of humanity depends.

Nor can we fail to see that the world makes substantial progress toward more perfect popular self-government.

I believe it to be true that, viewed against the background of conditions a century, a generation, a decade ago, government in my own country has advanced, in the intelligent participation of the great mass of the people, in the fidelity and honesty with which they are represented, in respect for law, in obedience to the dictates of a sound morality, and in effectiveness and purity of administration.

Nowhere in the world has this progress been more marked than in Latin America. Out of the wrack of Indian fighting and race conflicts and civil wars, strong and stable governments have arisen. Peaceful succession in accord with the people's will has replaced the forcible seizure of power permitted by the people's indifference. Loyalty to country, its [Pg 8]peace, its dignity, its honor, has risen above partisanship for individual leaders. The rule of law supersedes the rule of man. Property is protected and the fruits of enterprise are secure. Individual liberty is respected. Continuous public policies are followed; national faith is held sacred. Progress has not been equal everywhere, but there has been progress everywhere. The movement in the right direction is general. The right tendency is not exceptional; it is continental. The present affords just cause for satisfaction; the future is bright with hope.

It is not by national isolation that these results have been accomplished, or that this progress can be continued. No nation can live unto itself alone and continue to live. Each nation's growth is a part of the development of the race. There may be leaders and there may be laggards; but no nation can long continue very far in advance of the general progress of mankind, and no nation that is not doomed to extinction can remain very far behind. It is with nations as it is with individual men; intercourse, association, correction of egotism by the influence of others' judgment; broadening of views by the experience and thought of equals; acceptance of the moral standards of a community, the desire for whose good opinion lends a sanction to the rules of right conduct—these are the conditions of growth in civilization. A people whose minds are not open to the lessons of the world's progress, whose spirits are not stirred by the aspirations and the achievements of humanity struggling the world over for liberty and justice, must be left behind by civilization in its steady and beneficent advance.

To promote this mutual interchange and assistance between the American republics, engaged in the same great task, inspired by the same purpose, and professing the same principles, I understand to be the function of the American Conference now in session. There is not one of all our [Pg 9]countries that cannot benefit the others; there is not one that cannot receive benefit from the others; there is not one that will not gain by the prosperity, the peace, the happiness of all.

According to your program, no great and impressive single thing is to be done by you; no political questions are to be discussed; no controversies are to be settled; no judgment is to be passed upon the conduct of any state, but many subjects are to be considered which afford the possibility of removing barriers to intercourse; of ascertaining for the common benefit what advances have been made by each nation in knowledge, in experience, in enterprise, in the solution of difficult questions of government, and in ethical standards; of perfecting our knowledge of each other; and of doing away with the misconceptions, the misunderstandings, and the resultant prejudices that are such fruitful sources of controversy.

And some subjects in the program invite discussion that may lead the American republics toward an agreement upon principles, the general practical application of which can come only in the future through long and patient effort. Some advances at least may be made here toward the complete rule of justice and peace among nations, in lieu of force and war.

The association of so many eminent men from all the republics, leaders of opinion in their own homes; the friendships that will arise among you; the habit of temperate and kindly discussion of matters of common interest; the ascertainment of common sympathies and aims; the dissipation of misunderstandings; the exhibition to all the American peoples of this peaceful and considerate method of conferring upon international questions—this alone, quite irrespective of the resolutions you may adopt and the conventions you may sign, will mark a substantial advance in the direction of international good understanding.

[Pg 10]These beneficent results the Government and the people of the United States of America greatly desire.

We wish for no victories but those of peace; for no territory except our own; for no sovereignty except sovereignty over ourselves. We deem the independence and equal rights of the smallest and weakest member of the family of nations entitled to as much respect as those of the greatest empire; and we deem the observance of that respect the chief guaranty of the weak against the oppression of the strong. We neither claim nor desire any rights or privileges or powers that we do not freely concede to every American republic. We wish to increase our prosperity, to expand our trade, to grow in wealth, in wisdom, and in spirit; but our conception of the true way to accomplish this is not to pull down others and profit by their ruin, but to help all friends to a common prosperity and a common growth, that we may all become greater and stronger together.

Within a few months, for the first time, the recognized possessors of every foot of soil upon the American continents can be and I hope will be represented with the acknowledged rights of equal sovereign states in the great World Congress at The Hague. This will be the world's formal and final acceptance of the declaration that no part of the American continents is to be deemed subject to colonization. Let us pledge ourselves to aid each other in the full performance of the duty to humanity which that accepted declaration implies; so that in time the weakest and most unfortunate of our republics may come to march with equal step by the side of the stronger and more fortunate. Let us help each other to show that for all the races of men the liberty for which we have fought and labored is the twin sister of justice and peace. Let us unite in creating and maintaining and making effective an all-American public opinion, whose power shall influence international conduct and prevent [Pg 11]international wrong, and narrow the causes of war, and forever preserve our free lands from the burden of such armaments as are massed behind the frontiers of Europe, and bring us ever nearer to the perfection of ordered liberty. So shall come security and prosperity, production and trade, wealth, learning, the arts, and happiness for us all.

Not in a single conference, nor by a single effort, can very much be done. You labor more for the future than for the present; but if the right impulse be given, if the right tendency be established, the work you do here will go on among all the millions of people in the American continents long after your final adjournment, long after your lives, with incalculable benefit to all our beloved countries, which may it please God to continue free and independent and happy for ages to come.

Speech of Mr. Mariano Cornejo

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the Republic of Peru to the Kingdom of Spain, Former President of the Chamber of Deputies, Delegate from Peru

The delegation from Peru desires that there may remain a mark of this solemn session, in which all America has saluted as a link of union the eminent statesman who has honored us with his presence, and, in his person, the great American who, for the elevation of his ideas and for the nobleness of his sentiments, is the worthy chief magistrate of the powerful republic which serves as an example, as a stimulus, and a center of gravitation for the political and social systems of America.

[Pg 12]Honorable Minister, your country sheds its light over all the countries of the continent, which in their turn, advancing at different rates of velocity, but in the same direction, along the line of progress, form in the landscape of American history a beautiful perspective of the future, reaching to a horizon where the real and the ideal are mingled, and on whose blue field the great nationality that fills all the present stands out in bold relief.

These congresses, gentlemen, are the symbol of that solidarity which, notwithstanding the ephemeral passions of men, constitutes, by the invincible force of circumstances, the essence of our continental system. They were conceived by the organizing genius of the statesmen of Washington, in order that the American sentiment of patriotism might be therein exalted, freeing it from that national egotism which may be justified in the difficult moments of the formation of states, but which would be today an impediment to the development of the American idea, destined to demonstrate that just as the democratic principle has been to combine liberty and order in the constitution of states, it will likewise combine the self-government of the nations and fraternity in the relations of the peoples.

Honorable Minister, your visit has given impulse to this undertaking. The ideas you have presented have not only defined the interests, but have also stirred in the soul of America all her memories, all her dreams, and all her ideals.

It is as if the centuries had awakened in their tombs to hail the dawn of a hope that fills them with new vigor and light.

It is the wish of Peru that this hope may never be extinguished in the heart of America, and that the illustrious delegates who will sign these minutes may remember that they are entering into a solemn engagement to strive for the cause of American solidarity.

[Pg 13]Speech of Honorable A. J. Montague

Former Governor of Virginia, Delegate from the United States of America

If in disparagement of our modesty, yet in recognition of our gratitude, the delegates from the United States have just requested me to express our profound appreciation of the extraordinary courtesy you have extended to our country in the person of her distinguished and able Secretary of State, whose wise and exalted address we have all heard with delight and satisfaction.

However, the honors you have paid him, and which come so graciously from a polite and hospitable people, convey a deeper meaning, for in them we must see a gratifying evidence of that American solidarity which unites our republics in the common development of popular government, energized by liberty, illumined by intelligence, steadied by order, and sustained by virtue. The liberty of law, and the opportunity for duty, and the dignity of responsibility come to us by the very genius of our institutions. Therefore, in recognition of the fraternity which inspires the greatest tasks which have yet fallen to the lot of so many peoples, working together for a common end, we receive your compliment to our country, and for this purpose I have thus detained you to hear this imperfect expression of our thanks.

Speech of His Excellency Baron do Rio Branco

Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United States of Brazil
Honorary President of the Conference

I have risen merely to make a statement which I am sure will be received with pleasure by this illustrious assembly.

His Excellency the President of the Republic, in remembrance of the visit paid by His Excellency President Roosevelt to this building in St. Louis, and in order to perpetuate the memory of the coming of the distinguished Secretary Elihu Root to this country, has resolved by a decree bearing [Pg 14]today's date to give to this edifice in which the International Pan American Conference is now in session the name of Palacio Monroe.

[The Conference then adjourned.]

Speech of His Excellency Baron do Rio Branco

Minister for Foreign Affairs

Rio de Janeiro, July 28, 1906

The enthusiastic and cordial welcome you have received in Brazil must certainly have convinced you that this country is a true friend of yours.

This friendship is of long standing. It dates from the first days of our independence, which the Government of the United States was the first to recognize, as the Government of Brazil was the first to applaud the terms and spirit of the declarations contained in the famous message of President Monroe. Time has but increased, in the minds and hearts of successive generations of Brazilians, the sympathy and admiration which the founders of our nationality felt for the United States of America.

The manifestations of friendship for the United States which you have witnessed come from all the Brazilian people, and not from the official world alone, and it is our earnest desire that this friendship, which has never been disturbed in the past, may continue forever and grow constantly closer and stronger.

Gentlemen, I drink to the health of the distinguished Secretary of State of the United States of America, Mr. Elihu Root, who has so brilliantly and effectively aided President Roosevelt in the great work of the political rapprochement of the American nations.

[Pg 15]Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you again and still again for the generous hospitality which is making my reception in Brazil so charming.

Coming here as head of the department of foreign affairs of my country and seated at the table of the minister of foreign affairs of the great Republic of Brazil, where I am your guest, I am forcibly reminded of the change which, within the last few years, has taken place in the diplomacy of the world, leading to a modern diplomacy that consists of telling the truth, a result of the government of the people by the people, which is in our days taking the place of personal government by sovereigns. It is the people who make peace or war; their desires, their sentiments, affections, and prejudices are the great and important factors which diplomacy has to consult, which diplomats have to interpret, and which they have to obey. Modern diplomacy is frank, because modern democracies have no secrets; they endeavor not only to know the truth, but also to express it.

And in this way I have come here as your guest; not because the fertile or ingenious mind of some ruler has deemed it judicious or convenient, but because my visit naturally represents the friendship which the eighty million inhabitants of the great Republic of the North have for the twenty million people of Brazil; and it is a just interpretation of that friendship. The depth of sentiment which in me corresponds to your kind reception results from the knowledge I have that the cordiality which I find here represents in reality the friendship that Brazilians entertain for my dear country. Not in my personal name or as representative of an isolated individual, but in the name of all the people of my country and in the spirit of the great declaration mentioned by you, Mr. Minister, the declaration known by the name of Monroe, and which was the bulwark and safeguard of Latin America [Pg 16]from the dawn of its independence, I raise my glass, certain that all present will unite with me in a toast to the progress, prosperity, and happiness of the Brazilian Republic.

Speech of Dr. James Darcy

The same deep and profound emotion which I, as a Brazilian and an American, feel in this hour is undoubtedly felt by all here on the floor—representatives of the nation, and identical with the nation itself. When the Chamber of Deputies sees the Secretary of State of the United States of America in the gallery it cannot go on with its regular work even for a minute longer. So great and extraordinary have been the demonstrations occasioned by the presence in our country of the eminent envoy of the great republic of the United States that it is necessary that the Chamber, in this hour unequaled in the whole life of the American Continent, manifest without delay its feelings of sympathy with the work for the closer rapprochement of the American nations.

In Scandinavia, the land of almost perpetual fogs and mists, there died not long ago an extraordinary man. Ibsen, by some called revolutionary, by others evolutionary, dreamed in all his works of a new day of peace and concord for all mankind. This dream did not exist in the poet's brain alone, for it has imbedded itself in the mind and heart of a great American politician—Elihu Root.

From the moment he set foot on Brazilian soil he has been received with loud acclamations of joy, in which all Brazilians have joined. The demonstration which the student-body of Brazil made a short time ago, which for enthusiasm and spontaneity of feeling has never been equaled, manifested our feeling toward Mr. Root.

In his speech at the third Conference of the American Republics, the statesman, the philosopher, the sociologist, the great humanitarian that Elihu Root is, opened up a new [Pg 17]era for the countries of the continent of such an order that the old standard of morality has fallen to the ground in ruins. On the public buildings, on the fortresses and masts of war vessels, waves the same flag—a white flag, reminding the American people that a new epoch of fraternity has risen for them.

Nothing has ever done so much for peace as this visit of Elihu Root among us. It forms a spectacle that must mark an epoch in our national life. The Chamber of Deputies, interpreting the unanimous sentiment of the nation, from north to south, of old and young alike, has suggested that I offer a motion, which is already approved in advance, and make the request that Mr. Elihu Root be invited to take a seat on the floor of the Chamber, as a mark of homage in return for the honor he has done us in making a visit to this House.

The memory of this visit will live forever in our hearts. He who bestows all favors will undoubtedly reward those who have done so much for American peace and fraternity by setting them up as models for the whole world.

Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you sincerely for the flattering expressions which, through your able and happy spokesmen, you have made regarding myself. I thank you still more deeply for the expressions of friendship for my country. I beg you to permit me in my turn to make acknowledgment to you, the representatives of the people of Brazil—acknowledgment which I can make to the President of the Republic, which I can make personally to your distinguished and most able Secretary for Foreign Affairs, but which I wish to make on this public occasion to the people of Brazil. I wish to thank the Brazilian people for sending to my country a man so able and so successful in interpreting his people to us as my good friend Mr. Nabuco. I wish to thank the people of [Pg 18]Brazil—its legislators, its educated men of literature and of science, its students in their generous and delightful enthusiasm, and its laboring people in their simple and honest appreciation—for the reception which they have given me, overwhelming in its hospitality and friendship; for the courtesy, the careful attention to every detail that could affect the comfort, the convenience, and the pleasure of myself and my family; for the abundant expressions of friendship which I have found in your streets and in your homes; for the bountiful repasts; for the clouds of beautiful flowers with which you have surrounded us; and, more than all, for the deep sense of sincerity in your friendship which has been carried to my heart. I wish to make this acknowledgment directly to you, the direct and immediate representatives of the people.

We, who in official life have our short day, are of little consequence. You and I, Mr. President, Baron Rio Branco, the President of the Republic himself—we are of little consequence. We come and go. We cannot alter the course of nations or the fate of mankind; but the people, the great mass of humanity, are moving up or down. They are marching on, keeping step with civilization and human progress; or they are lapsing back toward barbarism and darkness. The people today make peace and make war—not a sovereign, not the whim of an individual, not the ambition of a single man; but the sentiment, the friendship, the affection, the feelings of this great throbbing mass of humanity, determine peace or war, progress or retrogression. And coming to a self-governing people from a self-governing people, I would interpret my fellow-citizens—the great mass of plain people—to the great mass of the plain people of Brazil. No longer the aristocratic selfishness, which gathers into a few hands all the goods of life, rules mankind. Under our free republics our conception of human duty is to spread the goods of life as widely as possible; to bring the humblest and the weakest up [Pg 19]into a better, a brighter, a happier existence; to lay deep the foundations of government, so that government shall be built up from below, rather than brought down from above. These are the conceptions in which we believe. True, our languages are different; true, we draw from our parent countries many different customs, different ways of acting and of thinking; but, after all, the great, substantial, underlying facts are the same, humanity is the same. We live, we learn, we labor, and we struggle up to a higher life the same—you of Brazil and we of the United States of the North. In the great struggle of humanity our interests are alike, and I hold out to you the hands of the American people, asking your help and offering you ours in this great struggle of humanity for a better, a nobler, and a happier life. You will make mistakes in your council, that is the lot of humanity; no government can be perfect—till the millennium comes; but year by year and generation by generation substantial advance toward more perfect government, more complete order, more exact justice, and more lofty conceptions of human duty will be made.

God be with you in your struggle as He has been with us. May your deliberations ever be ruled by patriotism, by unselfishness, by love of country, and by wisdom for the blessing of your whole people, and may universal prosperity and growth in wisdom and righteousness of all the American republics act and react throughout the continents of America for all time to come.

Speech of Senator Ruy Barbosa

In the Federal Senate of Brazil, at Rio de Janeiro, August 2, 1906

If your excellency will permit me, Mr. President, I will call your attention and that of the Senate to the fact that at this moment this House is honored by the presence of Mr. Elihu Root, Secretary of State of the United States.

[Pg 20]For a week his stay among us has been spreading interest throughout the country and filling the capital with joy, causing excitement among the neighboring nations, and fixing the eyes of Europe on this obscure part of the world. The fact is that we are not only in the presence of an individual of great renown, who is one of the highest personages among contemporaneous statesmen, with a reputation which is dear to the western hemisphere, but we are experiencing an event of the most far-reaching international importance, in the sense in which this word corresponds to the common interests of the human race.

In the organization of the Government of the United States, the portfolio of Secretary of State constitutes a notably characteristic and peculiar feature. The Secretary is not merely a minister for foreign affairs, but is the guardian of the seals of state, the medium through whom the laws are promulgated, the depositary of the government archives, and the first assistant of the Chief Executive. Tradition has conferred upon him a dignity next to that of President, the law making him second in the order of succession to the presidency by vacancy of the office, while it has become the custom for the President to invite him to participate in the performance of his duties rather as a colleague and associate than as an adviser and servant. The triumphant candidate in a presidential election has at times called to this office his vanquished opponent, thus showing the homage paid by party spirit to the value of merit. Being popularly designated as head of the Cabinet, and granted the honors of precedence at diplomatic functions, his high political entity inscribes him, together with the head of the nation, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the chairmen of the two great financial committees of Congress, among the five or six personalities [Pg 21]whose influence usually directs the Government of the United States.

But a true idea of this eminent position cannot be formed without some light on its history; for the line of Secretaries of State sparkles with the almost continuous luster of a long, luminous zone, in which irradiate the dazzling names of Jefferson, one of the patriarchs of independence in the foundation and organization of the United States, the philosopher, the writer, the statesman, the creator of parties, the systematizer of popular education, and the twice-elected successor of Washington; of Randolph, through whose initiative the stain produced by the word "slavery" was effaced from the provisional draft of the American Constitution; of Marshall, the most eminent jurist in the Republic, the oracle of the Constitution and the constructor of the Federal law; of Madison, the emulator of Hamilton in the editing of The Federalist; of Monroe, the asserter of the international doctrine of the independence of this continent; of John Quincy Adams, the pioneer of abolitionism in his radical condemnation of slavery; of Clay, the warm defender of the South American colonies in their struggle for emancipation; of Webster, the Demosthenes of the Union and of American liberty; of Seward, the rival for election of Lincoln, but who, being defeated by the latter, was invited by him to form part of his Cabinet; of Forsyth, Calhoun, Everett, Marcy, Evarts, Blaine, Bayard, and Hay. It is a path of stars, at the termination of which the administration of Mr. Elihu Root does not pale.

The annals of the United States could be traced by the route of this numerous constellation, whose radiant points sparkle around yon apex, to send forth their beams today from yon gallery, illumining the Brazilian Senate, transfiguring the scene of our ordinary deliberations, and realizing, [Pg 22]with the pomp of the evocation of this glorious past, the spectacle of the visit of one nation to the other which the illustrious Secretary of State presented before our eyes when, a few days ago, he said in response to our eminent and worthy Minister for Foreign Relations, that his coming in the official capacity of his office to the land of the Cruzeiro constitutes a natural expression of the friendship which the eighty millions of inhabitants of the great Republic of the North feel toward the twenty million souls of the Republic of Brazil.

It is not, then, a diplomatic representation; it is not an embassy. It is the Government of the United States itself in person, in one of its predominant organs—an organ so exalted that it holds almost as high a position there in the national sentiment as the Presidency itself. For the first time is the North American Union visiting another part of the continent—Latin America. And this direct, personal and most solemn visit of one America to the other has now as its scene the Brazilian Senate, assuming, within the brief dimensions of this chamber, the magnificent proportions of a picture for which our nation constitutes the frame and the attentive circle of the nations the gallery.

For the modest importance of our nation, the event is of incomparable significance. None other can be likened to it in the history of our existence as a republic. After sixteen years of embarrassments, perils, and conflicts, the latter appears to be receiving its final consecration in this solemnity. It is the grand recognition of our democracy, the proclamation of the attainment of our majority as a republic. The stability of the government, its prestige, its honor and its vigor, could not have received a greater attestation before the world. Replying to the doubts, the negations, and the affronts with which our '89 was received, amidst passions at home and prejudices abroad, it signifies the irrevocable triumph of our [Pg 23]revolution, closes forever the era of monarchical reassertions and opens up our future to order, confidence, and labor.

Almost all of us who compose this assembly, Mr. President, belong to that generation who were opening their eyes to public life, or were preparing for it by their higher studies, when the struggle was going on in the United States between slavery and freedom—that campaign of Titans which tore the entrails of America and shook the globe for many years.

Washington, Jefferson, and Madison had died, despairing of the extinction of slavery. This being openly proclaimed as the corner stone of the Confederacy, which gloried in having as its basis and in holding as a supreme truth the subjection by Providence of one race to the other, it looked as if the work of the patriarchs of 1787 was doomed to inevitable destruction against the black rock, thus consummating the Jeffersonian prophecy.

But Christian order prevailed against the chaos of servile interests, showing that the Constitution of the United States was not that "league with death" and that "compact with hell," as was boldly declared by Garrison upon the breaking out of the abolitionist reaction. And when the Union rose again, still clinging to liberty, on the ruins of slavery and dismemberment, we who had heard the earthquake, we who had witnessed the opening of the abyss, we who had seen swallowed up in it a million lives and an incalculable amount of wealth, and knew of the misfortunes and tears it had caused, were surprised by the divine dawn which finally appeared with the consoling victory of justice; and we felt the penetration of its rays here into the depths of the Brazilian conscience, realizing, with a holy horror of the tragedy of which we had just been the witnesses, that we were still a country of slaves.

Very soon, however, the law of September 28, 1874, immediately thereafter Brazilian abolitionism, and shortly [Pg 24]thereafter the brilliant stroke of abolition in 1888, responded to the splendid American lesson by our purification from this stigma.

And if we adopted this lesson in 1889 and 1891, when we embraced the federal system and framed a republican constitution, it was not, as has been said, in obedience to the wishes, caprices, or predilections of theorists. Ever since the beginning of the past century, the liberal spirit among us had become imbued with Americanism through reading The Federalist. The idea of federation carried away the Brazilian Liberals in 1831. The condemnation of the monarchy in Brazil involved fundamentally that of administrative centralization and the single-headed form of government which were embodied in that régime. The United States gave us the first model, and up to that time had furnished us the only example of a republican form of government, extending over a territorial expanse such as only monarchies had previously shown themselves capable of governing. The dilemma was inevitable. We had either to adhere to the European solution, which is a constitutional monarchy, or else establish a republic on the American model.

We are still today as far from the perfect model which the United States present of a federal republic, as we were from a likeness to England under the parliamentary monarchy, although England was the example we followed in that régime, just as the United States is our example in our present government. But just as our backwardness in parliamentary customs was no cause for us to revert from a constitutional to an absolute monarchy, so the insufficiency of our republican customs constitutes no reason for abandoning the federal republic. There are no conditions more favorable for the political education of a nation than those presented by our constitutional mechanism, modeled after the American type; nor could a practical schooling be offered us for such [Pg 25]education equal to that of an intimate approximation between us and our great model, our relations of all kinds with the United States being drawn closer and multiplied.

Between them and us there was interposed the stupid, sullen wall of prejudices and suspicions with which weakness naturally imagines to shelter and protect itself from force. But this wall is cracking, tottering, and beginning to crumble to ruins under the action of the soil and the atmosphere—under the influx of the sentiments awakened by this great movement of friendship on the part of the United States toward the other American nations.

In this attitude, in the transparent clearness of its intentions, in the eloquence of its language, and in the manifest frankness of its promises, there stands forth a broad image of truthfulness, which may be likened to those breezes in the sky on bright and sunny days which clear the horizon, cause the azure of the firmament to pervade our souls, and communicate the energy of life to our lungs. May God sustain the strong spirit of magnanimity, which is as advantageous to themselves as to the weak; and may He illumine the minds of the weak with an understanding of a situation which, mutually comprehended and maintained with firmness and honesty, will be productive of incalculable benefits for both parties!

The United States would already, long ago, have exhausted the admiration of the universe by the constant marvels of their greatness, if they were not continually surpassing themselves.

I do not allude to their wonderful fecundity, which in a hundred years has raised their population from five to eighty millions of souls. I do not speak of the greatness of their expansion, which has almost quintupled their territorial area in one century; I do not refer to the greatness of their military prowess, which has never yet met a conqueror either by [Pg 26]land or sea. Neither am I occupying myself with the greatness of their opulence, which is tending to transfer from London to New York the center of capital and the money market of the world. I am thinking only of their benefits to democracy, to right, and to civilization.

Their fundamental principles as colonies were based on religious freedom. Their first charters embodied the essence of liberty in the British constitution. Their Federal Constitution is considered by the best judges as the highest product of political genius extant among mankind. The five years of their civil war constituted a most tremendous sacrifice, made by the superhuman heroism of a nation in the higher interests of humanity, for the principle of human freedom. Their international influence is frequently exerted in the great causes of Christianity and civilization, first struggling as they did against piracy in the Mediterranean; then opening the doors of Japan to the commerce of the world in the Pacific, or fighting for the Armenians against Ottoman despotism, or intervening in behalf of the Jews against the tyranny of the Muscovite; here sympathizing with South America against Spain, with Greece against Turkey, and with Hungary against Austria; there promoting that memorable peace between the Russians and Japanese at Portsmouth, which terminated one of the most horrible hecatombs of peoples on record in the history of warfare. The methods and rules of their teaching, the inspiration of their inventors, the penetrating nature of their institutions, the reproductive influence of their example, the contagious activity of their doctrines, the active proselytism of their reforms, the irresistible fascination of their originality, the exuberant florescence of their Christianity, all exert a profound influence upon European culture and on the morals, the politics, and the destinies of the world, and guide, improve, and transform the American nations.

[Pg 27]Nothing, however, could be conceived which would more magnificently crown this miraculous career and assure forever to that nation the title, par excellence, of the civilizer among nations, serving the interests of its own prosperity as well as ours by a sincere, effective, and tenacious adherence to the doctrine announced by Mr. Root, namely the doctrine of mutual respect and friendship, of progressive coöperation among the American States, large or small, weak or strong; abandoning foolish race prejudices and admitting the superior power of imitation, science, and modern inventions, which are the moral factors in the development of peoples; and recognizing the natural truth that the growing evolution of the human race must embrace in its orbit of light all the civilized nations on this and the other continents.

Everything in the visit of Mr. Root, everything in his words, in his acts, in the impressions left among us by his person, everything speaks to us with absolute sincerity and resolute mind of devotion to this auspicious program. Our eminent guest has seen how Brazil receives the living message of the people of the United States; and, when he returns, a faithful witness of our civilization, which is so little known, so ill-treated, and so calumniated abroad, he will in all probability carry with him a conviction of having found in this disliked South America, between the Oyapoc and the Plata, the Atlantic and the Andes, a non-indigenous, although new sister of the United States, in which the opinion of public men and popular sentiment have but one ambition in regard to the policy now inaugurated—that it may become rooted for centuries and that it may shelter our future under its branches.

I wished, gentlemen—and all the members of this Senate wished—that Mr. Root might hear from the mouth of the man of experience, authority, and austere demeanor who is to preside over us, the most eloquent and highest of these expressions of good wishes.

[Pg 28]For this purpose I move that the Senate do now resolve itself into a committee of the whole, and that the Secretary of State of the United States be invited to take the post of honor in this assembly. In this manner the proceedings of the Brazilian Senate and its traditions will preserve the memory of this date forever. For it is not one of those dates which flash and vanish into the past like falling meteors, but it is of those which seek the future by luminously furrowing the horizon of posterity like ascending stars.

And if the future is to be a substitution of right in place of might, of arbitration in place of war, of congresses in place of armies, of harmony, coöperation, and solidarity among the American peoples, in place of hostile rivalries, we may, on seeing seated here today at the right of our President, the Secretary of State of the United States, affirm to him, as Henry Clay did on the reception of Lafayette, with a different intention but just as truthfully, that he is seated in the midst of posterity.

Speech of Senator Alfredo Ellis

The Federal Senators, representatives of the Brazilian nation, representing the people of twenty states of the Union and of the Federal District, here congregated to receive you, through me, salute you, and through you, salute President Roosevelt and the whole people of the United States of America. You are truly welcome amongst us, and you are welcome amongst us because we know your history; we know the history of your country; we know the history of your great men, from Washington to Roosevelt. You are truly and sincerely welcome amongst us, because you are the fortunate messenger, the happy harbinger of a coming civilization that is looming already in the not-far-distant future, bringing in your hands the snowy and brilliant credentials of brotherhood and peace. Though you come here, Mr. Root, [Pg 29]amid the cannon's roar, or the din of popular acclamations, the echo in its grand unanimity that these words awaken in the hearts of the Brazilian people throughout all the land, from north to south, from east to west, should convince you that we, the Brazilian people, trust that the great work that is now being done through the delegates of the nineteen American republics assembled here for the Third Conference of the Pan American Congress, will bear fruit—that it will bear fruit just the same as that of which the basis was laid a long time ago in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776, written by Thomas Jefferson and signed by the delegates of nine out of the thirteen colonies that had risen in arms against the mother-country. On that eventful and never-to-be-forgotten day, Pennsylvania's delegate—the great, the wise, the noble Benjamin Franklin—with his heart full of sad misgivings, full of sad forebodings about the final issue of the war, raising himself from the chair on which he had been sitting, observed on its back, embroidered on the tapestry, the figure of a beaming sun with its golden rays. "I do not know," he said, "if this is the image of a rising or a setting sun; please God Almighty that it may be that of a rising sun, enlightening the birth of a free and prosperous people!" And it was—and it was. His wish—his dear wish—was fulfilled; his prophecy was realized. The country you represent, Mr. Root, is now the wonder of the world for its greatness, for its power, for its prosperity.

What we desire—what the Brazilian people desire—what we hope, is that in your case, the same prophecy may be made and the same prophecy may be realized in relation to the results we expect from the Pan American Conference, strengthening with indissoluble bonds of harmonious concord and a very lasting peace, American brotherhood; banishing from the lands of the New World all ambition of conquest and the bloody strife of fratricidal wars.

[Pg 30]To the American people, our brothers, our friends, and our companions, the Brazilian nation, treading the same paths and controlled by the same great desire to attain its destinies in the history of the world, sends through you its most affectionate, its most fraternal, its most hearty salutation.

Speech of Doctor Paula Guimarães

August 2, 1906

The Chamber of Deputies feels itself honored by the presence of Mr. Elihu Root, Secretary of State of the United States of America.

The distinguished member of the Government of our great sister republic, whose coming to this country is a mark of regard and esteem which is very flattering to us and which will never be forgotten, has already had opportunity to ascertain how deep and sincere are the sentiments of sympathy which the people of Brazil feel for the North American republic, in the extraordinary demonstrations of joy and gratitude which have everywhere attended him, and which are an eloquent proof of the sincerity and cordiality of our traditional friendship and disinterested admiration.

The entrance of Brazil into the family of republics of the American Continent has resulted in closer ties of confraternity among the nations of the New World. As a result of the policy of approximation, happily adopted by the Government of Brazil, we have the meeting in this capital of the Pan American Congress, where the distinguished delegates of the sister republics have been given a warm and hearty welcome. From the White House, where President Roosevelt firmly maintains the traditions of great American names, there has come to us on a mission of peace an eminent and highly esteemed statesman, bringing us political ideas of a new mould and the frank diplomacy of modern democracies. [Pg 31]In words of the highest significance, which are unsurpassed for precision and frankness, the far-seeing statesman has revealed to us the ideal of justice and peace to which humanity in the near future is to attain, because the rule of force "is losing ground," and "sentiment, feeling and affection are gathering more and more sway over the affairs of men." The words of the distinguished American are familiar to the whole world, but here they are firmly engraved on our loyal hearts.

Differences disappear before the great historic fact at which it is our good fortune to be present at this moment, the beginning of a new era which is bound to bring great benefits to our country. The students, full of hope and enthusiasm, the orderly working people—all classes of society, in short, unite with public officials in unanimity of approval.

Gentlemen, it is to confirm these sentiments which every Brazilian feels, to proclaim the national aspirations of harmony, conciliation, and union, that I arise to thank, in behalf of the Chamber of Deputies, the representatives of the popular will, Mr. Elihu Root, for his presence among us, and to greet in his person the great and glorious republic of the United States of North America, greater for the example it gives us of liberty, energy, and order than for its extraordinary material strength. Glory to the Stars and Stripes!

Reply of Mr. Root

I beg you to believe in the depth of sensibility with which I have received the honor you do me, and the honor you do my country. The similarity of our institutions is such that I come into the presence of this august body with full appreciation of its dignity and its significance. I feel that I am in the presence of the great lawmaking body to which is intrusted, by its representation of the separate states of Brazil, the preservation of local self-government throughout this vast empire; so that the people of each one of your [Pg 32]twenty states, and each one of the many states to be erected hereafter, as your population increases, may govern itself in its local affairs without the oppression which inevitably results from the absolute rule of a central power, ignorant of the necessities and of the feelings of each locality; and so that also, consistently with that local self-government, the nationality of Brazil shall be preserved and the principle of national power, the dignity and power of the nation that protects all local self-governments in their liberty, shall never be decreased. I feel also that I am in the presence of the body from which must come, not only in the present but in the great future of Brazil, that conservative force which is so essential to regulate the action of a democracy. By your constitution, by the necessities of your existence, it will be your function to prevent rash and ill-considered action, to see that all the expedients of government, all the theories that are suggested, are submitted to the test of practical experience and sound reason.

And so, with the deepest interest in the continued success of the Brazilian experiment in self-government, I am most deeply impressed with the honor you have done me. The encomiums which have been passed here upon my country are such that to know of them must in itself be an incentive to deserve them. I hope that every word which has been spoken here about that dear republic from which I come, may go to the knowledge of every citizen of the United States of America, and may lead him to feel that it is his duty to see that this good opinion of our sister republic is justified.

Senator Ruy Barbosa has justly interpreted the meaning of my visit. I come not merely as the messenger of friendship; I come as that, but not merely as that. When democratic institutions first found their place in the protests of the New World against a colonial government that bound us [Pg 33]all hand and foot; when the plain people undertook to govern themselves without any Heaven-sent superior force to control them, how gloomy were the prognostications, how unfriendly were the wishes, how uncomplimentary were the expressions which, upon the other side of the Atlantic, greeted the new experiment—that we should have rule by the mob, that disorder and anarchy would ensue, that plain men were incapable and always would be incapable, of maintaining an orderly and peaceful government. Lo, how the scene has changed! The conception of man's capacity to govern himself, gaining year by year credit, belief, demonstration, in the new fields of virgin lands, north and south, has been carried back across the Atlantic until the old idea of a necessary sovereign is shaken to the base. No longer is it man's conception of government that it must be by a superior force, pressing down what is bad; but that the pressure shall be from beneath, with all the good impulses and capacities of human nature pressing upward what is good. I come here not only to hold out the right hand of friendship to you from my country, but also to assert in the most positive, the most salient way the solidarity of republican institutions in the New World, the similarity of results, the mutual confidence that is felt by my country in yours, and by yours in mine; to assert before all the world that the great experiment of free self-government is a success north and south, the whole New World over. From the realization of this fact—this certain and indisputable fact—that republican institutions are successful, will come that confidence which underlies wealth, the security of property that is the basis of our civilization, the certainty that the fruits of enterprise will be secure, which is the incentive to activity, the independence of the people from the hard stress of poverty—the independence that comes from ample means of support, and is a condition of growth and enjoyment in life. More than wealth, more [Pg 34]than production, more than trade, more than any material prosperity, there will come with them learning, universal education, literature, arts, the charms and graces of life. I would think but little of my country if it had merely material wealth. I would think but little of my country if the conception of its people was that we were to live like the robber baron of the Middle Ages, who merely gathered into his castle for his own luxury the wealth that he had taken from the surrounding people.

A land of free institutions, in which wealth and prosperity are made the basis upon which to build up the arts, graces, and virtues of life, and in which there is a noble and generous sympathy with every one laboring in the same cause—that, indeed, is a country of which one may be proud; that is a country which is the natural result of free institutions.

So I come to you to say: Let us know each other better; let us aid each other in the great work of advancing civilization; let the United States of North America and the United States of Brazil join hands, not in formal written treaties of alliance, but in the universal sympathy and confidence and esteem of their peoples; join hands to help humanity forward along the paths which we have been so happy as to tread. Let us help each other to grow in wisdom and in spirit, as we have grown in wealth and prosperity.

Mr. Chairman, my poor words are all too ineffective to express the depth of sentiment and height of hope that I experience here. I believe this is not an idle dream; I believe it is not merely the kindly expression or enthusiasm of the moment, but that after this day there will remain among both our peoples a sentiment which will be of incalculable benefit to the great mass of mankind, which shall help these two great nations to preserve and promote the rule of ordered liberty, of peace and justice, and of that spirit, which underlies all our Christian civilization, the spirit of [Pg 35]humanity, higher than the spirit of nationality, more precious than material wealth, indispensable to the true fulfillment of the mission of liberty.

Speech of Theodomiro de Camargo

At a Mass-Meeting of Students of the Law School, in front of the Palacio Chaves, August 4, 1906

The Law School of São Paulo is the tabernacle of our proudest ideals, of our most grateful traditions. Thence departed the first champions of liberty for the holy crusade of the slaves' liberation; there expanded and strengthened the republican ideas that caused the fall of the monarchy; thence have come almost all our rulers and leading men.

It is in the name of that school, sir, that I salute you and give you welcome, not only as the eminent statesman but also and specially as the loyal and dedicated friend of Brazil.

I can assure you that common to all Brazilians are the sentiments of true sympathy and great admiration for the noble country which has in you so worthy a representative. This sympathy and this admiration, common to all Brazilians, are well deserved by the wonderful people which liberated Cuba with the precious blood of her sons; are well deserved by the generous nation which contributed so much in raising in the Orient the banner of peace, putting an end to one of the most sanguinary struggles registered in universal history. The deep joy with which you have been received since you set foot on Brazilian soil is sufficient to assert what I say.

We rejoice to receive your visit because it is a proof that our feelings are reciprocated, and also because it will be a stronger link to bind forever the two great republics that are destined to lead their American sisters through the wide path of progress and civilization.

[Pg 36]President McKinley wisely said: "The wisdom and energy of all the nations are not too great for the world's work"; so our earnest vows are that your voyage coöperates for the true fraternity of the American republics, that they may work together in the pursuit of the highest and noblest endeavor of humanity, which is universal peace.

Speech of Mr. Galaor Nazareth de Arujo, of the Normal School

"Be welcome, distinguished visitor!" This phrase, so often addressed to you during your voyage in Brazil, may now be said again to express the sincerity with which the people of São Paulo receive the visit of one of the greatest statesmen of modern America.

Amongst the institutions of education of this city there is the Normal School, which has always tried to follow the methods and systems in use in your great country.

In the name of this institution and representing my colleagues, I come before you, sir, to repeat, with all my heart, the words you have heard so many times in Brazil: "Welcome, Mr. Root!"

Speech of Mr. Gama, jr., of the Commercial School

A representative of a peaceful people is always welcome to Brazil. You know already our traditional policy. From the beginning of our existence as a nation we have accustomed ourselves to see in your glorious country the nation which, first of all, substituted for military imperialism the beneficent and civilizing policy of free commercial expansion, joining producers and consumers without any link of dependence.

We followed with ardent sympathy your liberal and eminently humane action in the Chinese Empire, at the moment when that monarchy seemed doomed to dismemberment.

[Pg 37]And you, sir, were the first to make understood the need of the maintenance of the administrative and territorial status quo of that empire, to which, as well as to other nationalities of the Far East, you are today the securest guaranty of national integrity.

You come to us, therefore, with the credentials of a peaceful people, and of a people that respects the autonomy of other nations, no matter how weak they may be.

In this quality we open to you our arms, and we heartily meet your wishes in the assurance that we contribute to the development of the ideas of peace and steadiness, without which the evolution of a people can only be accomplished imperfectly and at the cost of many centuries of hard effort.

The United States of Brazil acknowledged the advantages of a perfect communion of views in commercial matters with their great sister of North America. They were aware that essentially opposite points of view regarding commercial interchange separate them from some of the nations of the Old World.

So long as on the other side of the Atlantic an almost invincible barrier of customs duties impedes the entry of our products into markets naturally hostile to South American productions, our country has only two alternatives: either to continue the very irksome commercial relations with those markets, or to look for others with evident loss of a part of the harmony that ought to exist between nations affiliated by origin and for so many years united by the most intimate links of sympathy and intellectual solidarity.

Consequently, we adopted the legitimate defense of protectionism, while remaining faithful to those friendly feelings, and very naturally we turned to the continental nation that better understood the advantages of a free exchange of products; we looked unsuspiciously to the friendly people who conceived the idea of making in America, united and strong, [Pg 38]a large neutral area devoted to peace amidst the possible divergencies that may perchance in time separate in aggressive antagonism a rejuvenated and martial Orient and the nations of the West.

We understood at once the difficult task to be accomplished, in order, by your side and with your aid, to secure the neutralization of America, so desirable and so necessary for the final reconciliation of nations still militarized, and for the establishment of a secure standpoint for the general fraternization of mankind.

All the enthusiastic appreciation of the twenty-one democracies that follow and love your deed, and all the facilities and coöperation that they can offer for its accomplishment, you will find, sir, should you visit them as you now do one of their number, in the corresponding twenty-one Brazilian capitals.

The Commercial School of São Paulo, from which very likely will come later commercial agents of Brazil, sincerely espouses your policy of peace and solidarity on the American continent; and in the person of its eminent chancellor salutes the noble North American nation.

Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you, students of São Paulo, for your greeting and for your generous sympathy.

I am here upon a mission of friendship and of appreciation. I am here in order that my country may know more of the people of Brazil, and in order that the people of Brazil may learn more of my country, believing that the cause of almost all controversy between nations, the most fertile source of weakness and of war, is national misunderstanding and the prejudice that comes from misunderstanding.

I shall go back to my country and tell my people that I have found in this famous city of learning, São Paulo, a great body of young men who are gathering inspiration in the [Pg 39]cause of learning and of human rights from the atmosphere of liberty and independence.

I shall tell them that here, where the independence of Brazil was born, the spirit of that independence still lives in the youth of Brazil.

I shall tell them that here in the birthplace of presidents more young Brazilians are treading the first steps in the pathway of patriotism and greatness, pressing on to take the place, to take up and continue the great work of the men born in São Paulo, who have contributed so mightily to the greatness of Brazil.

Let me say one word, young gentlemen, as to the lessons that you may draw from your country's glorious past.

Noble and inspiring as are the victories Brazil has won in war; remarkable, eloquent, unsurpassed as are the great things done in the past by the Paulistas, greater and nobler victories of peace await the people of Brazil and São Paulo.

You have, as my country had, a vast continent with savage nature to subdue. You have, as my country had, with almost immeasurable forests fit for human habitation, to welcome to your free land the millions of Europe seeking to escape from hard conditions of grinding poverty. You have before you that noblest product of our time, that chief result of our institutions, the open path to progress and success for every youth of Brazil. Because this is a free land, because you are a republic, because you are a self-governing people, there is no limit to what each one of you may accomplish by the exercise of your own knowledge, determination, and ability. It is the free spirit that keeps open the door of that limitless expanse, and that will conquer the wilderness and make Brazil a refuge for the poor of other lands, and a country rich and teeming with people, prosperous, learned, and happy in the years and centuries to come.

[Pg 40]Speech of Mr. Root

On Presenting a Football Trophy, São Paulo, August 4, 1906

The pleasant and honorable duty of presenting to you this prize of success in the fine and rapid and skillful game we have just witnessed has been delegated to me by the kindness and consideration of the President and Government of the state of São Paulo.

It is a fitting act with which to signalize my first visit to this historic and famous city, this ancient center of activity and manly vigor, this state famous for centuries for its great and noble deeds, and known now throughout the world for its successful industry and commerce, known also as the home of great men and great patriots in the history of Brazil.

May the generous emulation of this courteous and gentlemanly game which you have been playing, be a symbol of activity in the commercial, industrial, and social life of the country; above all, may it be a symbol of your lives as patriots, as citizens of Brazil. Let the best man ever win. Let activity and skill and pluck ever have their just rewards. Do for your country always as you have done for your rival teams in this game of football. Do always your best, and do it always with good temper and kindly feeling, whatever be the game.

I congratulate you, sir, and your associates, upon being citizens of a country and of a state—both you of Rio de Janeiro and you Paulistas,—where the rewards of enterprise and activity are secure, and where there is open to every youth the pathway of success by deserving success. May this prize be an incentive to you and your comrades to exercise every manly effort, both for yourselves and for your country.

Speech of Doctor Rezende

At the Commercial Association of Santos, August 7, 1906

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Commercial Association of Santos, I bid you welcome.

The men gathered in this hall to greet you are cosmopolitan in character—Americans, Europeans, and Brazilians—men who have united their best efforts in the great movement of distributing coffee throughout the whole world.

Coffee is our staple product, and for many years to come is bound to be the backbone of our financial system.

The value of this great product is, however, much greater than is shown by the simple figures of statistics.

In order to understand its true value, we must add to it the other articles which are produced with it, and which are unknown to the commercial world.

Coffee also means corn, beans, rice, cattle, etc., which are abundantly raised by our coffee planters; coffee means also all of our infant industries, and those prosperous towns which dot the romantic shores of the Tieté, Paranahyba, and the Mogy-Guasú. For us, sir, coffee means plenty, prosperity, and perhaps greatness.

It is therefore easy to see how deeply we are interested in the growth of American commerce and civilization. The American people need for their trade nearly eleven million bags of coffee per annum, or almost all of an average crop of the state of São Paulo.

It is not necessary to lay special stress on this main fact, production and consumption; one is the complement of the other, and the development of both our activities and interests are so identified that we cannot talk of coffee without thinking of its greatest consumer, the American people.

[Pg 42]Seventeen years ago, in 1889, James G. Blaine, one of your most distinguished statesmen, called together the first Pan American Congress in Washington. It is a long time for us business men to wait. We feel, however, that the ideals of that great statesman have not yet been realized. The great distance which separates us is perhaps somewhat responsible for the want of closer relations between our peoples; and when your visit to our shores was first announced, we Brazilians all felt that your presence in Brazil meant a new departure in American-Brazilian relations.

We are looking forward with eagerness for the results of the sessions of the Pan American Congress in Rio; and this interest has been greatly augmented by the high honor you confer upon us in selecting this opportunity to visit our people and our country, thus strengthening the ties of friendship between Americans and Brazilians; and though we belong to a class accustomed to consider only facts and cold figures, we are deeply touched by this high distinction, and, representing the Santos Board of Trade and the coffee planters of São Paulo—the greatest coffee producers of the world—I offer most hearty greetings to you, and through you to the great American people, the chief consumers of coffee in the world.

Reply of Mr. Root

It is a great pleasure to represent here in this great commercial city the best and largest customer you have. The United States of America bought in the last fiscal year, the statistics of which have been made public, from the United States of Brazil about $99,000,000 worth of goods, and we sold to Brazil about $11,000,000 worth of goods. I should like to see the trade more even; I should like to see the prosperity of Brazil so increase that the purchasing power of Brazil will grow; and I should like to see the activity of [Pg 43]that purchasing power turned towards the markets of the North American republic. I am well aware that the course of trade cannot be controlled by sentiment or by governments. It follows its own immutable laws and is drawn solely in the direction of profit. But there are many ways in which the course of trade can be facilitated, can be stimulated, can be induced and increased. Mutual knowledge leads to trade. All the advertisement in the world which pays is but the means of carrying information, knowledge, and suggestion to the mind that reads the advertisement. Mutual knowledge as between the people of North America and the people of Brazil—knowledge as between the individual people—will increase the trade. Our people will buy more coffee and more sugar and more rubber from the people they know, from the various trading concerns that they know about, than they will from strangers. Mutual knowledge cannot exist without mutual respect. I believe so much in the goodness of humanity that I think no two people can know each other without respecting each other.

There is the friendliest feeling in the United States of America for the people of Brazil, and we believe that there is great friendliness in this country for the people of the United States. We wish to be good friends and ever better friends; to enlarge our mutual trade to the advantage of both; and it is to express that feeling to you from my people with all the kindliness and friendship possible, that I am here in Brazil. It has been a great privilege to see something of your great coffee production—from the coffee plant on its red platform of the peculiar soil of São Paulo to the bags of coffee being carried to the steamer in which it is to be transported to the markets of the world. It is pleasing to me to see that the great commercial port of Santos has by the improvement of its harbor facilities become more and more great, and has done away with the unhealthiness that once existed. I [Pg 44]congratulate you upon the fact that you have made your port and your city so healthy that yellow fever no longer exists.

This is probably the last word I shall utter in public before I leave the coast of Brazil, and as I pass from among you, I shall endeavor to make my last word an expression of grateful appreciation for all the courtesy, the kindliness, and the friendliness which has surrounded me every hour, from the moment I first landed at Pará three weeks ago today. My reception and that of all my family—the attentions that have been paid to us, the kindness that has been exhibited—far exceed anything that I anticipated or had hoped for; and I beg you to believe that we shall never forget it. We shall make it known to our people when we return home. I believe that it will increase the friendship they feel for the people of Brazil; and it is with the greatest satisfaction that I shall feel entitled upon my return to say to the people of the United States that I have found in the republic of Brazil a country to which the laborers of the world may come to make new homes and to rear their families in prosperity and in happiness; that I may say to my people that I have found in the republic of Brazil a country where capital is secure, where the rights of man are held sacred, and the rewards of enterprise may be reaped without hindrance. I shall go from you with the hope that in my weak way I may do what it is possible for one man to do in return for all the friendship that you have shown me throughout Brazil—may give my evidence to aid in turning towards your vast and undeveloped resources that immigration and that capital which have been the means of building up and developing the vast riches of my own country. I hope that the same brilliant and prosperous success that has blessed my own land may for many generations visit the people of Brazil. I hope that for many a year to come the two peoples, so similar in their laws, their institutions, their purposes, and the great task of [Pg 45]development that lies before them, may continue to grow in friendship and in mutual help. And so, gentlemen, I make to you, and through you to the people of Brazil, my grateful and appreciative farewell.

Speech of His Excellency Augusto Montenegro

Governor of the State of Pará

In the City of Pará (Belem), at a Breakfast given by him to Mr. Root July 17, 1906

I will say but a few words in offering the health of Mr. Root, the very illustrious Secretary of State of the United States of North America. I regret exceedingly that Mr. Root should have only a few hours available to remain among us; but I know that his time is limited and that he cannot remain among us without inconvenience; however, I hope that these few hours which His Excellency has devoted to Pará will have been sufficient for him to carry away a good impression of this region. I also fervently hope that Mr. Root's visit may mark the beginning of a new era in the diplomacy of the two Americas, and that, if possible, it may contribute still further to a strengthening of the friendly ties which already bind the two republics together. I hope that Mr. Root will gather the very best impressions of the whole country from his other visits. I am certain that he will be received everywhere with that cordiality, hospitality, and affection which we proudly proclaim as being among the chief characteristics of the Brazilians. I drink to the health of Mr. Root and of the great and noble President of the United States of North America.

Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you most sincerely for your kind expressions and for your gracious hospitality. It is with the greatest pleasure that I have come to the great republic of Brazil, that I might by my presence testify to the high consideration [Pg 46]entertained by the Republic of the North for her sister republic; that I might testify to the strong desire of the United States of America for the continuance of the growth of friendship between her and the United States of Brazil. Both of us—both of our countries,—have of recent years been growing so great and rich that we can afford now to visit our friends, and also to entertain our friends. Let us therefore know each other better. I am sure that the more intimately we know each other the better friends we shall be. I know that because I know the feelings of my countrymen, and I know it because I experience your whole-hearted hospitality.

It has been a delight for me to see your beautiful, bright, and cheerful city, which, with its people happy and giving evidence of well-being and prosperity, with its comfortable homes, with its noble monuments, with its great public buildings and institutions of beneficence, with its beautiful flowers and noble trees, justifies all that I had dreamed of in this august city of the great empire which reaches from the Amazon to the Uruguay.

I thank you for your reference to the President of the United States. His great, strong, human heart beats in unison with everything that is noble in the heart of any nation and with every aspiration of true manhood. Every effort tending to help a people on in civilization and in prosperity finds a reflex and response in his desire for their happiness. He is a true and genuine friend of all Americans, north and south. In his name I thank you for the welcome you have given me, and in his name I propose a toast to the President of the United States of Brazil.

Summary of Speech of His Excellency Sigismundo Gonçalvez

Governor of the State of Pernambuco

At a Breakfast given by him to Mr. Root, in the City of Pernambuco (Recife), July 22, 1906

Reply of Mr. Root

I regret in my turn that I cannot respond to you in the language of the great race which has made the great country of Brazil. I thank you both for myself and in behalf of my country for your generous hospitality and the friendship you have exhibited. It is the sincere desire of the President and of all the people of the United States to maintain with the people of Brazil a firm, sincere, and helpful friendship. Much as we differ, in many respects we are alike. Like yours, our fathers fought for their country against savage Indians. Like yours, our fathers fought to maintain their race in their country against other European races. It is a delight for me on these historic shores to come to this famous place, made glorious by such centuries of heroic, free, and noble patriotism. It is especially delightful for me to be welcomed here, where the cause of human freedom received the powerful and ever-memorable support of a native of Pernambuco, whose name is dear to me, Joaquim Nabuco—a name inherited from a distinguished ancestry by my good friend, your illustrious townsman, the present ambassador of Brazil to the United States. It is the chief function of an ambassador from one country to another to interpret to the people to whom he [Pg 48]goes the people from whom he comes; and Joaquim Nabuco has presented to the people of the United States a conception of Brazilians, and especially of the men of Pernambuco, admirable and worthy of all esteem. He is our friend, and because he is our friend we wish to be your friends. I ask you to join me now in drinking to the health of the President of the republic of Brazil.

Speech of His Excellency Senhor Doctor José Marcelino de Souza

Governor of Bahia

At a Banquet given by him to Mr. Root, at Bahia, July 24, 1906

It is not without reason that the entire world is elated at the grand spectacle exhibited in the New World congregating its free and independent peoples in order to lay the foundations of a lasting peace.

In fact, the Old World looks on with sincere admiration at the complete demolition of the ancient precepts of international law. Ever since the right of the stronger has ceased to supersede the sound principles of justice; ever since the divine philosophy of the Jews taught men brotherly love for one another, the ancient international law underwent profound transformations.

Notwithstanding this, however, for a long time armies and costly navies continued to weigh down our public treasuries and the cannon continued to decide questions arising among nations.

Now, all Europe has its eyes turned towards America, which has noteworthily constituted itself the apostle of peace.

For a long time the American peoples have been settling their difficulties by means of arbitration.

It is this policy that is seen to be manifesting itself since the downfall of the ancient institute of international law [Pg 49]which, instead of causing the people on the other side of the Atlantic fear, ought to fill them with joy, because it tightens the international economic and commercial relations of this planet.

These are the aims and objects of Pan Americanism.

It does not inculcate war. Its gospel is concord. It has seen what a little while ago was nothing more than the dream of poets, the ideal of philosophers, develop into a reality.

Gentlemen, America must grow up, but intrenching itself with peace, and growing not by the augmentation of the sinews of war but by systematizing and utilizing the resources of her economic force.

This is the ideal of American nations. Therefore, although the other continents have long feared this propaganda, it is to be hoped that she will carry out her program of love and of fraternization, because thus America will have established international and economic relations with the entire world upon indestructible foundations.

The Honorable Elihu Root, the herald of the prosperous and powerful North American republic, who brings to Brazil the assurance of his friendship and the most hearty support of the Pan American Congress whose third conference has just been opened at Rio, is the most important missionary of that gospel.

The presence of His Excellency in that noteworthy assemblage is the assurance of reconciliation, of the growth of the free people of America.

Bahia, an important part of the Brazilian Federation, which receives this testimonial of friendship from the great republic of the North, through its Secretary of State, cannot help but feel the greatest joy at foreseeing the great results of that conference and of this auspicious visit, which assumes the proportions of an embassy, of an appeal to the republics of the new continent for the inauguration of inseparable [Pg 50]bonds of mutual solidarity, for the concerted effort to compel the disappearance of the sad note of war.

In the shadow of the solemn inauguration of Pan Americanism, three nations of Central America found themselves in the battlefield in a deplorable spectacle of hatred and bloodshed.

Happily, as is announced by telegraph, thanks to the good offices of the United States and of Mexico, peace has been established among the nations, to the honor of the Christian civilization of our continent.

This policy of concord, therefore, accomplishes good. I repeat, America must prosper. It is necessary that the Monroe Doctrine triumph, not to the exclusion of the civilization of the Old World, but to the benefit of all humanity.

Nature has cut the continent from north to south without regard to its continuity; from north to south is the same political régime; and protecting it with two great nations, nature has not wished to isolate us from the rest of the world, but on the contrary to endow us with sources of wealth and to multiply the means of easy communication with centers of civilization.

Gentlemen, in the name of Bahia, I greet the great ideal of humanity that is treading a victorious path! I greet the republic of North America, the efficient collaborator in this profoundly humane policy, the principal promoter of the Pan American Conference, in the person of its illustrious Secretary of State, Elihu Root!

Reply of Mr. Root

I beg to acknowledge with sincere appreciation your kindly and most flattering expressions regarding myself. I receive with joy the expression of sentiments regarding my country, which I hope may be shared by every citizen of the great republic of Brazil. It is with much sentiment that I find [Pg 51]myself at the gateway of the south, through which the civilization of Europe entered from the Iberian Peninsula the vast regions of South America. I, whose fathers came through the northern gateway, on Massachusetts Bay, thousands of miles away,—where the winters bring ice and snow and where a rugged soil greeted the first adventurers,—find here another people working out for themselves the same problems of self-government, seeking the same goal of individual liberty, of peace, of prosperity, that we have been seeking in the far north for so many years. We are alike in that we have no concern in the primary objects of European diplomacy; we are free from the traditions, from the controversies, which the close neighborhood of centuries on the continent of Europe has created—free, thank Heaven, from necessity for the maintenance of great armies and great navies to guard our frontiers, leaving us to give our minds to the problem of building up governments by the people which shall give prosperity and peace and individual opportunity to every citizen. In this great work, it is my firm belief that we can greatly assist each other, if it be only by sympathy and friendship, by intercourse, exchange of opinions and experience, each giving to the other the benefits of its success, and helping the other to find out the causes of its failures. We can aid each other by the peaceful exchanges of trade. Our trade—yes, our trade is valuable, and may it increase; may it increase to the wealth and prosperity of both nations. But there is something more than trade; there is the aspiration to make life worth living, that uplifts humanity. To accomplish success in this is the goal we seek to attain. There is the happiness of life; and what is trade if it does not bring happiness to life? In this the dissimilarity of our peoples may enable us to aid each other. We of the north are somewhat more sturdy in our efforts, and there are those who claim we work too hard. We are too strenuous in [Pg 52]our lives. I wish that my people could gather some of the charm and grace of living in Bahia. We may give to you some added strength and strenuousness; you may give to us some of the beauty of life. I wish I could make you feel—I wish still more that I could make my countrymen feel—what delight I experience in visiting your city, and in observing the combination of the bright, cheerful colors which adorn your homes and daily life, with the beautiful tones that time has given to the century-old walls and battlements that look down upon your noble bay. The combination has seemed to me, as I have looked upon it today, to be most remarkable; and these varying scenes of beauty have seemed to be suggestive of what nations can do for each other, some giving the beauty and the tender tones; some giving the sturdy and strenuous effort. May the intercourse between the people of the north and the people of Brazil hereafter not be confined to an occasional visitor. May the advance of transportation bring new and swift steamship lines to be established between the coasts of North and South America. May we hope by frequently visiting each other to make our peoples strong in intercourse and friendship. May we be of mutual advantage and help to each other along the pathway of common prosperity, and may my people ever be mindful of the honor which you have done to them, through the gracious and bountiful hospitality with which you have made me happy!

Speech of Senator Ruy Barbosa

After Mr. Root's admirable speech, after such an orator as Mr. Root, and so inspired as he has been, nobody should have the courage to speak. Nevertheless, I do not know how to resist the wishes of our amiable host, our eminent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and of those who surround me here. This is quite an unexpected surprise for me; but it comes in [Pg 53]so imperious a way that I cannot but submit, hoping you will be indulgent.

We have felt in Mr. Root's words the vibration of the American soul in all its intensity, in all its eloquence, in all its power, in all its trustiness. So they could not have a better answer than the applause of so brilliant an audience as has just greeted his remarkable speech. However, since the task of rendering the echo of Mr. Root's words in our hearts devolves upon me, I can only perform it truthfully by thanking him "again and still again," for his beneficent visit to Brazil.

We suppose, Mr. Root, that it does not come only from you. We are sure that you would not take this far-reaching step unless you counted, without a shadow of doubt, upon the sanction of American opinion. And knowing as we do that the United States are, from every standpoint, the most complete and dazzling success among modern nations, admiring them as the honor and pride of our continent, we rejoice, we exult, to open our homes, our bosoms, the arms of our modest and honest hospitality, to the giant of the republics, to the mother of American democracies, in the person of her own Government, one of whose strongest and noblest functions centers in the person of her Secretary of State.

Our life as an independent nation is not yet a long one. We are, as such, only about eighty years old, albeit this may not be a very brief period in these days of ours, when time should not be measured by the number of years, inasmuch as not a great deal more than a century has been enough for the United States to become one of the greatest powers in the world. Short as it is, however, our national existence has not been devoid of noble dates, of fruitful and memorable events.

Amidst them, Mr. Root, this one will stand forever as a blessed landmark, or rather as the gushing-out of a new [Pg 54]political stream, whose waves of peace, of freedom, of morality, shall spread by and by all over the immensity of our continent.

This is our wish, I will not say our dream, but our hope. You must have felt it, and will continue to feel it, at the throbbing of our national arteries, in Recife, in Bahia, now in this capital, and tomorrow in São Paulo.

Do not see in my words the looming of a momentous sensation. No! They do not tell my own impressions as an individual. They convey truthfully the voice of the people through the lips of a man who does not serve other interests. They only anticipate, I believe, what you shall hear from our legislative representation, in the highest demonstration of public feeling possible under a popular government; may the historic scene of Lafayette, the liberal French soldier, the fellow-helper in American independence, being received in the American House of Representatives, find a worthy imitation in the reception of the great American Minister, the daring promoter of union in the American continent, by the two Houses of our National Congress.

So let us raise our cup to the northern colossus, the model of liberal republics, the United States of America, in their living and vigorous personification, in their image visible and cherished among us, Mr. Elihu Root.

Speech of His Excellency José Romeu

Minister for Foreign Affairs

At a Banquet given by him to Mr. Root, August 10, 1906

When, after plowing through the waters of the Caribbean Sea and running along the eastern coast of Brazil the North American cruiser Charleston entered the magnificent bay of Rio de Janeiro, I had the opportunity of sending to the illustrious representative of the United States, who today is our distinguished guest, a telegraphic greeting on the occasion of his arrival in South America and expressing the desire that his arrival might be the beginning of an era of fraternity and intercourse advantageous to all the nations of the American Continent.

The words of the telegram, the significant reply of the Secretary, and the very eloquent words he delivered before the Pan American Congress at Rio de Janeiro, are not a mere act of international courtesy; they are, in my judgment, the expression of the popular sentiment. They constitute the aspiration of all America. They express, at the least, the fervent desires of the Uruguayan people and of its Government, who see in the visit of the illustrious Secretary of State the foreshadowing of progress, of culture, and fraternity, which will bring the peoples closer together, contributing to their prosperity and to their greatness, through which they may figure with honor in the concert of civilized nations.

These sentiments, as is well known, have been increasing with the events that have made a vigorous people of the great northern republic, capable of preponderating in the destinies [Pg 56]of humanity on account of the enterprising genius of all its sons, on account of the irresistible force of its energies and of its abundant riches; and, very especially, on account of its redeeming influence of republican virtues, a characteristic mark of the Puritan and the other elements which organized the Federal Government on the immovable base of liberty, justice, and democracy.

The pages of history show that the ideals of its own Constitution, like every great and generous ideal, passing over the distance from the Potomac to the banks of the River Plata, penetrated immediately to the farthest corner of the American Continent. There soon afterwards arose a new world of free countries where the undertakings of Solís or Pizarro and Cortés will initiate a civilization destined to prosper in the life-giving blast of liberty and in the vigorous impulse which democracy infused into the old organizations of the colonial régime. The example of the United States and its moral assistance animated the patriots.

Put to the proof in the memorable struggle for emancipation, its fortitude and its heroism overturned all obstacles until the desired moment of the consolidation, by its own effort, of the independence of the American Continent. Indeed, the influence of the United States in the diplomatic negotiations which preceded the recognition of the new nationalities, and the chivalrous declaration which President Monroe launched upon the world, contributed efficaciously to assure the stability of the growing republic. Its development and its greatness were, from that instant, intrusted to the patriotism of its sons, to the fraternity of the American peoples, and to the fruitful labor of the coming generations.

In spite of such social upheavals, which bring with them the ready-made collisions of arms, the antagonism of interests, and the struggle of ideas—inherent factors of every movement of emancipation—the nations of the new [Pg 57]continent should not, nor will they, ever forget that from Spanish ground Columbus's three-masted vessel—a Homeric expedition—set forth, founders of numerous peoples and flourishing colonies, leaving in our land mementos, languages, customs, sentiments and traditions, which the evolutions of the human spirit do not easily obliterate. From noble France and its glorious revulsion against the remnants of feudalism arose the declaration of the rights of man and equitable ideas, which are faithfully portrayed in our democratic institutions. Italy, Germany, and Spain send to America a valuable contingent of their emigration. The currents of commerce and progress were at one time, and they are at the present time, largely fomented by the shipping and the capital of Great Britain. From the foreign office of that nation, among all the powers of old Europe, came the first disposition toward the recognition of American independence. All these circumstances are bonds which tie us to the European countries, but which do not hinder, nor can they hinder, our relations with the great northern republic, as with all those of Latin origin, always being cordially maintained, strengthened, and increased toward the ends of highly noble and patriotic progress, developing a world policy of wise foresight, tending to consolidate the destinies of the American countries.

Difficulties, soon to disappear, due to distance and lack of rapid and direct communications, have impeded the active interchange between the United States and this country, barring which no reason exists why their social and commercial relations may not be extended with reciprocal advantages.

In giving welcome to Mr. Root on his arrival in Uruguayan territory, I consider as one of my most pleasing personal gratifications the fact of having initiated the idea of inviting our distinguished guest to visit the River Plata countries.

[Pg 58]If, as I do not doubt, the visit of the distinguished member of the Government of the United States shall make the peoples of the north and the south know one another better; if the era of Pan American fraternity takes the flight to which we should aspire; if these demonstrations of courtesy are to tend, therefore, toward the progress of the nations of the continent and the mutual respect and consideration of their respective governments, the satisfaction of having promoted some of these benefits and the honor of a happy initiative, deferentially received by the illustrious Secretary of State, to whom the oriental people today offer the testimony of their esteem and sympathy, belong, at least in part, to the Uruguayan foreign office.

I drink, ladies and gentlemen, to Pan American fraternity, to the greatness of the United States of North America, to the health of His Excellency President Roosevelt, to the happiness of Mr. Elihu Root and of his distinguished family.

Reply of Mr. Root

I have already thanked you for that welcome message which greeted my first advent in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. I have now to add my thanks, both for the gracious invitation which brings me here and for the surpassing kindness and hospitality with which I and my family have been welcomed to Montevideo. It is most gratifying to hear from the lips of one of the masters of South American diplomacy, one who knows the reality of international politics, so just an estimate of the attitude of my own country toward her South American sisters. The great declaration of Monroe, made in the infancy of Latin American liberty, was an assertion to all the world of the competency of Latin Americans to govern themselves. That assertion my country has always maintained; and my presence here is, in part, for the purpose of giving evidence of her belief that the truth of the assertion [Pg 59]has been demonstrated; that, in the progressive development which attends the course of nations, the peoples of South America have proved that their national tendencies and capacities are, and will be, on and ever on in the path of ordered liberty. I am here to learn more, and also to demonstrate our belief in the substantial similarity of interests and sympathies of the American self-governing republics.

You have justly indicated that there is nothing in the growing friendship between our countries which imperils the interests of those countries in the Old World from which we have drawn our languages, our traditions, and the bases of our customs and our laws.

I think it may be safely said that those nations who planted their feeble colonies on these shores, from which we have spread so widely, have profited far more from the independence of the American republics than they would have profited if their unwise system of colonial government had been continued. In the establishment of these free and independent nations in this continent they have obtained a profitable outlet for their trade, employment for their commerce, food for their people, and refuge for their poor and their surplus population. We have done more than that. We have tried here their experiments in government for them. The reflex action of the American experiments in government has been felt in every country in Europe without exception, and has been far more effective in its influence than any good quality of the old colonial system could have been. And now our prosperity but adds to their prosperity. Intercourse in trade, exchange of thought in learning, in literature, in art—all add to their power and their prosperity, their intellectual activity, and their commercial strength. We still draw from their stores of wealth commercially, spiritually, intellectually, and physically, and we are beginning to return, in rich measure, with interest, what we have got from [Pg 60]them. We have learned that national aggrandizement and national prosperity are to be gained rather by national friendship than by national violence. The friendship for your country that we from the North have is a friendship that imperils no interest of Europe. It is a friendship that springs from a desire to promote the common welfare of mankind by advancing the rule of order, of justice, of humanity, and of the Christianity which makes for the prosperity and happiness of all mankind. It is not as a messenger of strife that I come to you; but I am here as the advocate of universal friendship and peace.

Address of His Excellency José Batlle y Ordóñez

President of Uruguay

At the Banquet given by him at the Government House, August 11, 1906

We celebrate an event new to South America—the presence in the heart of our republics of a member of the Government of the United States of the North. That grand nation has wished thus to manifest the interest her sisters of the South inspire in her and her purpose of strongly drawing together the links that bind her to them.

Born on the same continent and in the same epoch, ruled by the same institutions, animated by the same spirit of liberty and progress, and destined alike to cause republican ideas to prevail on earth, it is natural that the nations of all America should approach nearer and nearer to each other, and unite more and more amongst themselves; and it is natural, also, that the most powerful and the most advanced amongst them should be the one to take the initiative in this union.

Your grand republic, Mr. Secretary of State, is consistent in confiding to you this mission of fraternity and solidarity with the ideas and intentions manifested by her at the dawn of the liberty of our continent. The same sentiment that [Pg 61]inspired the Monroe Doctrine brings you to our shores as the herald of the concord and community of America.

We welcome you most cordially. You find us earnestly laboring to make justice prevail, enamored of progress, confident in the future. Far removed from the European continent, whence emerges the wave of humanity that peoples the American territories and becomes the origin of nations so glorious as yours, the growth and organization of the peoples in these regions have been slow; and public and social order has been frequently upset in our distant and scarcely populated prairies. But in the midst of these disturbances that have likewise afflicted, in their epochs of formation, almost all the present best constituted nations, sound tendencies and true principles of order and liberty prevail, nationalities are constituted in a definite manner, and republican institutions are consecrated.

Your great nation, Mr. Secretary of State, is not new to this work. She has had important participation in it. I do not refer to the Monroe Doctrine that made the elder sister the zealous defender of the younger ones. I speak of the radiant example of your republican virtue, your industrial initiative, your economic development, your scientific advances, your ardent and virile activity that has reënforced our faith in right, in liberty, in justice, in the republic, and has animated us—as a noble and victorious example does animate—in our dark days of disturbance and disaster.

Yes, the epoch of internal convulsions is drawing to its close in this part of America, and the peoples, finding themselves organized and at peace, are dedicating themselves to all those tasks that exalt the human mind and originate, in modern times, the greatness of nations. You tread upon a land that has recently been watered abundantly with blood—upon one in which, nevertheless, the love of liberty, within the limits of order, the love of well-being, and the love of progress [Pg 62]under legal governments is intense; upon one in which we live earnestly dedicated, in all branches of activity, to the labor that dignifies and fortifies, certain that for us has commenced an honorable era of internal peace. You have said it, Mr. Secretary of State: Out of the tumult of wars strong and stable governments have arisen; law prevails over the will of man; right and liberty are respected.

But this progress of public reason must be complemented. It is not sufficient that internal peace should be assured; it is necessary to secure external peace also. It is necessary that the American nations should draw near to each other; should know, should love each other; it is requisite to drive away, to suppress the danger of distrust, of rivalry, and of international conflicts; that the same sentiment that repudiated internal struggles should rise within as against the struggles of people against people, and that these should also be considered as the unfruitful shedding of the blood of brethren; that the calamitous armed peace may never appear in our land, and that the enormous sums used to sustain it on the European and Asiatic continents shall be employed amongst us in the development of industries, commerce, arts, and sciences.

The work may be realized by determination and constancy. The republican institutions that everywhere prevail on our continent are not propitious to the Caesars who make their glory consist in the sinister brilliancy of battles and in the increase of their territorial domains. These same institutions give voice and vote in the direction of public affairs to the multitudes, whose primordial interest is ever peace, the sparing of their own blood, so unfruitfully shed in the great catastrophes of war.

America will be, then, the continent of peace, of a just peace, founded on respect for the rights of all nations, a respect which—as you, Mr. Secretary of State, have said in [Pg 63]tones that have resounded all over the surface of the earth, deeply moving all true hearts—must be as great for the weakest nations as for the most powerful empires. This Pan American public opinion will be created and will be made effective, a public opinion charged to systematize the international conduct of the nations, to suppress injustice, and to establish among them relations ever more and more profoundly cordial.

Your country and your Government fulfill the part, not of the false friend that incites to anarchy and weakens her friends that she may prevail over them and dominate them, but that of the faithful and true friend who exerts herself to unite them; and, that they may become good and strong, concurs with all her moral power in the realization of this work of the Pan American Congresses, destined to become a modern amphictyon to whose decisions all the great American questions will be submitted, already giving prestige thereto by such words as you have spoken to the Congress of Rio de Janeiro, which present to the American world new and grand perspectives of peace and progress.

Mr. Secretary of State, ladies and gentlemen, in the presence of deeds of this magnitude, inspired and filled with enthusiasm by them, let us pour out a libation to the United States of the North, to its vigorous President, to you and to your distinguished family, the herald of continental friendship, and to the American fatherland, from the Bering Straits to Cape Horn.

Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you for the kind reference to myself, and I thank you for the high terms in which you have spoken of my country, from which I am so far away. Do not think, I beg you, sir, if I accept what you have said regarding the country I love, that we, in the north, consider ourselves so perfect as your description of us. We have virtues, we have good [Pg 64]qualities, and we are proud of them; but we ourselves know in our own hearts how many faults we have. We know the mistakes we have made, the failures we have made, the tasks that are still before us to perform. Yet from the experiences of our efforts and our successes, and from the experiences of our faults and our failures, we, the oldest of the organized republics of America, say to you of Uruguay, and to all our sisters, "Be of good cheer and confident hope."

You have said, Mr. President, in your eloquent remarks this evening, that the progress of Uruguay has been slow. Slow as measured by our lives, perhaps, but not slow as measured by the lives of nations. The march of civilization is slow; it moves little during single human lives. Through the centuries and the ages it proceeds with deliberate and certain step. Look to England, whence came the principles embodied in your constitution, and ours, where first were developed the principles of free representative government. Remember through how many generations England fought and bled in her wars of the White and the Red—her blancos and colorados—the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster, before she could win her way to the security of English law.

Look to France, whence came the great declarations of the rights of man and remember—I in my own time can remember—the Tuileries standing in bright and peaceful beauty, and then in a pile of blackened ruins bearing the inscription, "Liberty, equality, and fraternity," doing injustice to liberty, to equality, and to fraternity. These nations have passed through their furnaces. Every nation has had its own hard experience in its progressive development, but a nation is certain to progress if its tendency is right. It is so with Uruguay. You are passing through the phases of steady development. The restless and untiring soul of José Artigas, who made the independence of Uruguay possible, did its work in its time, but its time is past; it is not the day of Artigas now.

[Pg 65]The genius of the two great men, for the love of whom your political parties crystallized upon one side and upon the other, had its day, but that day has passed away. Step by step Uruguay is taking its course, as the elder nations of the earth have been taking theirs, steadily onward and upward, seeking more perfect justice and ordered liberty.

One of the most deeply seated feelings in the human heart is love of approbation. May we not have such relations to each other that the desire for each other's approbation shall sustain us in the right course and warn us away from the wrong, and help us in our development to preserve high ideals, the ideals of justice and humanity necessary to free self-government? It is with that hope that I am here, your guest. It is with that desire that my people send the message of friendship to yours.

In the name of my President, Theodore Roosevelt, I offer you, Mr. President, the most sincere assurance of friendship and confidence.

Speech of Doctor Zorrilla de San Martín

At a Breakfast by the Reception Committee, in the Atheneum at Montevideo August 12, 1906

Before we rise from the table I have the pleasant task of saying to you a few words to reflect and perpetuate the sentiment which has caused us to desire to share with you the bread of Uruguay and to drink in your company the wine which gladdens the heart of man, according to the expression of the Holy Book.

Yes, Mr. Secretary, we are glad and happy to have you among us, and we wish that this repast, at which, as you see, a representative group of the ladies of Montevidean society surrounds and bestows graceful attention upon your most worthy spouse and your daughter, may be a symbol of the intense affection which can be shown to a welcome guest, that of opening to you the door of our home, that of introducing you into the affections of our household.

[Pg 66]Yes, we are glad, sir, not only because we have the honor of knowing you to be a gentleman and an illustrious personage who is a glory among the glories of our America, but because—I must be very frank with you now,—because we are convinced that this visit of yours will redound to the honor as well as the benefit of that which is dearest to us, of that which we love above all else on earth, our good mother-country, Uruguay, this good sovereign mother of ours who is the mistress of our life and whom we cannot help believing, under pain of ceasing to be her sons, to be the greatest, the most beautiful and the most amiable of mothers, just as you think of yours, sir; just as you feel regarding your excellent American land. We, sir, being perhaps carried away by an ingenuous filial illusion, are persuaded that to know our Uruguay is to love her; and for this reason we have desired that you should know her; for this reason we cherish the hope that, when you have returned to your country and recall the sum of reminiscences of your memorable voyage, pleasant and lucid recollections will burst forth of this people which has been the first to shake your hand upon your setting foot on the soil of a republic of sub-tropical America, and which offers you its bread and drinks with you the wine of friendship in a sincere transport of enduring sympathy.

We thought, Mr. Secretary, that we saw you respectfully kiss the brow of our mother when, in a moment which should be considered historical, you defined at the Pan American Congress of Rio de Janeiro the object and character of your visit to the Spanish-American republics, to these favorite daughters who are advancing slowly but surely up the steep mountain at whose summit the ideal of self-government, freedom, and order, and the reign of internal justice and peace awaits them; these are the foundation and real guaranty of the reign of international justice and peace, to which we aspire.

[Pg 67]Yes, Mr. Secretary, you spoke the truth in your memorable speech at Rio de Janeiro, and your words seem like corner stones. Sovereign states are not merely coexisting on the face of the earth, but are members of one great palpitating organism, collective persons who, obeying the same natural law which groups together physical persons into civil and political society, also instinctively group themselves together in order to form the body, the life, and the thought of the international world. Just as social life, far from disparaging the essential attributes of the sacred human person, constitutes the ambient medium necessary to the life, the development, and the attainment of the inalienable destiny of man, so this great commonwealth of nations, whose permanent establishment in America is the earnest desire of the Congress at Rio de Janeiro, should have as its inviolable basis and essential purpose the life, the honor, the prosperity, and the glory of the sovereign states which constitute it.

You have proclaimed democracy, sir, as the most powerful bond which unites the republics of America. But democracy is nothing else than the equality of men before the law, and is consequently above all the triumphant vindication of the right of the weak in their relations with the strong. Therefore, sir, in pronouncing this name of our common mother, you did so only in order to proclaim, as the American ideal in the relations of states, the same noble principle which governs the relations of free men, and which is the essence of our being; you proclaimed, then, a species of international American democracy in the bosom of which all persons should be persons with full self-consciousness, with an individual destiny independent of the destiny of others, with the moral and material means to accomplish this destiny, with freedom, with dignity, and with all the attributes which characterize and ennoble the person and distinguish it from inferior beings.

[Pg 68]To elevate the moral level of this great international democracy which you have proclaimed, and of which our America should be the prototype, there is but one means, namely, to elevate the level of all and every one of the units which compose it, and to stimulate in all and every one of them a consciousness of and pride in their own destiny, an undying love for the abstract idea of country, and a deep conviction that in the sphere of peoples, just as in that of the orbs, there is no star, no matter how powerful, which can perturb the gravitation of the other stars; for over the entire body of the worlds stands the immutable law which governs them, and over this law is the sovereign will of the Supreme Legislator of orbs and of souls.

This was the echo in my mind, Mr. Secretary, of what you said at Rio de Janeiro and are confirming among us. Your words were great and good because they were yours, without any doubt; but they were so, above all, because they were in accord with the ideal of justice in pursuit of which humanity is slowly marching—with that solemn diapason hung between heaven and earth which furnishes the pitch from time to time to men and peoples and worlds, in order that they may not depart from the universal harmony.

Your words have reverberated like a friendly voice in the depths of the soul of this people, which has acclaimed you without reserve because it has understood you, sir. And for this reason, because I have thought that I interpreted all the generous intensity of your attitude and of your speeches, I have not told you at this time, as would have appeared natural, how much we in Uruguay love and admire your wonderful American country, whose stars shine perhaps without precedent in the sky of human history, but rather how much we respect and with what a passion we love our good Uruguayan mother-country, whose sun is also a star; how glad we are to see it honored by your visit, and how we [Pg 69]cherish the hope that you will bear away a remembrance of us as a sincerely friendly people—a people very conscious of its own destinies, of its rights, and of its duties; in a word, a people very much in accord with that grand harmony which exists among sovereign states which respect and love one another, and which you have proclaimed in the name of your country as the supreme ideal of our free America.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us fill our glasses with the most generous wine, with the wine which most gladdens and cheers the heart of man—with the wine of hope—and let us drink to the health of our illustrious guest and messenger who represents here the intelligence and the thought of the heart, and to the health of his wife and daughter, who are the amiable symbol thereof; to the greater brilliancy of the stars of his country, our glorious friend; to the realization, on the American continent and throughout the world, of his exalted ideas of peace, fraternity, and justice.

Reply of Mr. Root

I am deeply sensible of the honor you confer upon me and upon my family by this bounteous, hospitable, and graceful festival. It is a special honor that the banquet to which we are invited should be presided over by a gentleman who has such high esteem in the public life of your own country; that the flattering, the too flattering words which have been addressed to my poor self—words of just and kindly esteem regarding my great and noble country, should be spoken by a poet who breathes in his verses the spirit of Uruguay wherever his own world-known literature is found.

It is a cause of happiness to receive this distinguished consideration here in this temple devoted to science, to literature, to the arts, to those pursuits which dignify, ennoble, and delight mankind, which give the charm and grace to life, which make possible the continuance of mankind in the paths [Pg 70]of civilization. Here in this Atheneum, in this atmosphere of scientific and literary discussion and thought, already exists that world-wide republic which knows no divisions of territorial boundary, of races, or of creed. Upon the platform you have erected here, the men of North and the men of South America can stand in fraternal embrace.

I have been preaching for the past few weeks in many places and before many audiences the gospel of international fraternization. I know there are many incredulous; there are many who think practical considerations alone rule the efforts of men—profit in trade, the almighty dollar, the balance of bookkeeping, or the checks in the counting house. There are many who think that this is all there is to life, and that he is an idle dreamer and an insincere orator who talks of the constancy of international friendship, who talks of love of country rising above the love of material things, who talks of sentiment as controlling the affairs of men. That may be true so far as their own short and narrow lives are concerned; but it is not an idle dream that the world through the course of ages is growing up from material to spiritual, to moral, and to intellectual life. It is not an idle dream that moral influences are gradually, steadily in the course of centuries taking the place of brute force in the control of the affairs of men. Sentiment rules the world today—the feelings of the great masses of mankind; the attractions and repulsions that move the millions rule the world today; and as generation succeeds generation progress is ever from the material to the moral. We cannot see it in a day; we cannot see it in a single lifetime, as we cannot see the movements of the tide. We see the waves, but the tide moves on imperceptibly. The progress, the steady and irresistible progress of civilization is ever onwards.

Mr. Chairman, and you, Señor Zorrilla de San Martín, in your eloquent, your more than eloquent, your poetic words, [Pg 71]do honor to the idea of peace and justice and friendship and the rule of moral qualities in the relations of nations. When you do honor to the representative of that idea you are doing your work in your day and generation to advance the great cause that proceeds through the ages to the better and higher life of mankind. We are nothing; our lives are but as moments; our personal work is inappreciable in this world; but slowly, imperceptibly, we, each individually, add a little to or detract a little from human rights, human liberty, human justice.

I do not know how sufficiently to thank you, to thank the people of Montevideo, for all that you and they have done for me and my family during our brief—our all too brief—visit here. I believe that your kindness, your generous hospitality, will find response in the breasts of my countrymen; I believe that it will be an example to the people of South America and of North America; I believe that it will be evidence to the whole world that the ideas of friendship—of international friendship and courtesy—rule here in Uruguay; that Uruguay is a part of the great brotherhood of man, not selfish, but heart open to the best and brightest influences of humanity, doing her part in her time to advance the cause of civilization. I know that when tomorrow morning we sail away from Montevideo we shall all carry with us the most delightful visions of a fair and bright land, of a white city and a beautiful bay; memories of hospitality and friendship, and memories of the most beautiful women. We can never repay you, for your hospitality has been of the kind that asks for no payment; it has been true hospitality. We can only thank you, and thank you we do now and thank you we shall continue to do as long as we live.

Address of Honorable Emilio Mitre

In Reference to the Visit of Mr. Root, in the Chamber of Deputies July 4, 1906

Within a few weeks, Mr. President, Buenos Ayres will receive the visit of an eminent personality of the United States, Mr. Elihu Root, who is discharging in that country the duties of Secretary of State.

The Executive of the nation, having official knowledge of the visit of Mr. Root, has already taken measures to entertain him and to make his sojourn in the Argentine Republic agreeable; but it has appeared to me, Mr. President, that the Chamber of Deputies should itself spontaneously take an initiative in this manifestation, in view of the personality of the man and the country he represents.

The United States are for us, as is well known, the cradle of our democratic institutions; we are bound to them by those ties of friendship and of interest that are known to all and which it would be superfluous to enumerate; but apart from this, there exists between that country and ours historic bonds that secure our profound sympathies.

It is beneficial from time to time to ascend the currents of history in order to gather the lessons of the past which may serve us as a guide in our constant march into the future. When we study in its annals the action of the Government of the United States in the epoch of Argentine independence, we encounter demonstrations of a solicitude, of an affection, [Pg 74]of a solidarity, of a participation in the struggles of those heroic times, so marked that the Argentine spirit necessarily feels itself impressed with the sentiment of intense gratitude and the necessity of repaying in some way those manifestations now somewhat forgotten.

It is of importance, Mr. President, that our people should know well the other peoples with whom they exchange products, manufactures, and ideas, especially when, in respect to the latter, those that they receive surpass in quantity those they give. And if there is any country that the Argentine people need to know well, any people, in its history, in its methods, in its sentiments, and in its intentions, it is the United States of America, the elder sister, the forerunner, and the model.

In the epoch of our independence, Mr. President, the public life of the United States was constantly interested in the vicissitudes of the struggle that these peoples waged for their independence on both slopes of the Andes and in the regions of Venezuela. If you read the messages of the Presidents of the United States you find in them, year after year, words that prove the interest of that country in the destiny of these countries. At a date as early as 1811, a message of President Madison contained phrases full of sympathy for the great communities which were struggling for their liberty in this part of the world; and the attention of Congress was called to the necessity of being prepared to enter into relations of government to government with them, as soon as their independence should be sanctioned.

From the time in which Monroe, the author of the famous doctrine, assumed the presidency of the republic, in all the messages at the opening of Congress, there is a distinct reference to the struggle of these nations for their independence, and in particular to the conflict that developed in the Rio de la Plata and the victorious progress of the arms of [Pg 75]Buenos Ayres on this and on the other side of the mountains and on the plateau of Bolivia.

In all these documents reference is made to independence as a probable fact, which must necessarily at that time have exerted an influence in favor of the cause of the patriots; and often the declaration was repeated that, the colonies being emancipated, the United States did not seek and would not accept from them any commercial advantage that was not also offered to all other nations.

These manifestations which emanated from the Government and reflected the movement of public opinion, found eloquent exponents in Congress also.

In the records of the American Congress of 1817, one year after the declaration of independence by the Congress of Tucuman, a famous debate is recorded, begun by Henry Clay, the celebrated orator, who pleaded the cause of Argentine independence in the most enthusiastic terms. In this debate a Representative from New York also took a prominent part; this Representative bore the same name as the envoy whom we are to receive from the United States of America, Mr. Root.

Spain had complained of the expeditions that were fitted out in ports of the United States to foment American revolution. The Government was tolerant with these infractions of neutrality; popular sympathy made the condemnation of such conspirators impossible. Spain, with whom the United States had relations of great importance, and with whom they were negotiating the cession of Florida, had protested to the Government against these expeditions of its rebellious subjects. The President, forced to do so, had sent to Congress a message requesting the enactment of a law of neutrality. Clay and Root opposed it; and the latter said that it was worth while to go to war with Spain if a demonstration in favor of the liberty and independence of those countries [Pg 76]could be made. Later, during the administration of John Quincy Adams, these manifestations of the American Government in favor of Argentine independence are met with on every page of the records of Congress. In 1818, the first discussion took place in the American Congress—a concrete discussion on the necessity of recognizing Argentine independence. Henry Clay was, as always, the leader of this discussion, following up the movements which, with extraordinary zeal, he had made at reunions, in the press, and in Congress. He delivered a speech that it is impossible for one to read without feeling his spirit moved on observing the solicitude, the interest, with which at that early date this apostle of democracy expressed himself in regard to the struggle of these peoples to gain their independence.

All, without exception, pronounced themselves in favor of the independence of these peoples, which they recognized in principle. But a parliamentary question of privilege was raised, as to the prerogative of the Executive, it being alleged that the initiative, proposed by Clay, of naming a minister to these countries, encroached upon the functions of the Executive when the latter believed it wise to send simply agents. On this question opinion was divided, but not a single vote was cast that did not express the warmest sympathy with the cause of the patriots.

While such was the attitude of the American Congress, in the press and in popular meetings manifestations of adhesion to the cause of the South American independence appeared at every moment. But above all, the place where traces of this determined action of the Government of the United States in favor of Argentine independence are to be found is in the records of the State Department at Washington, in which reference is made to the activity of its representative in London, at that time the famous statesman, Richard Rush. Rush was the minister of the United States in [Pg 77]London from the end of 1817, when he left the post of Secretary of State. He began negotiations immediately with Lord Castlereagh, Prime Minister of England, to induce the British Foreign Office to enter upon a policy of frank adhesion to the emancipation of these countries from the dominion of Spain. There we see, Mr. President, how united the action of the United States was in this movement, inspired by the most sincere democratic desires, by a true love of liberty.

The Prime Minister of England received Mr. Rush's proposals coldly. England had been appealed to by Spain to mediate between her and the Holy Alliance, in order to obtain the submission of the rebellious provinces; and England had indicated the advisability of acceding to this reintegration of Spanish dominion, on the basis of the return of these countries to a state of dependence, with the condition of a general amnesty.

In the conference between Lord Castlereagh and Minister Rush, the latter positively declared that the United States could never contribute to such retrogression, and that the aims of their Government favored the recognition of the complete independence of America. This was in 1818.

It would occupy much time, Mr. President, but would not be without interest, to review in detail all the negotiations entered into by the North American representative in London, from the time of Lord Castlereagh to that of Canning, who succeeded him.

In February, 1819, Rush notified Castlereagh that the Washington Government considered that the new South American states had established the position obtained by the victory of their arms, and that President Monroe had given an exequatur to a consul from Buenos Ayres, and was resolved at all hazards to recognize Argentine independence. Lord Castlereagh declared himself openly at variance with the views of the Government of the United States, and said that [Pg 78]Great Britain had done all that was possible to terminate the strife between Spain and her colonies, but always on the basis of the restoration of the dominion of the former. In 1819, then, the United States were the only nation that insisted upon asserting the independence of our country.

Thanks to their attitude, all the attempts begun by the Holy Alliance to suppress the movement for emancipation failed.

The death of Lord Castlereagh did not change the situation. Even the acts of Canning, if examined, and if the negotiations of the then American minister are analyzed, leave an impression of opposition, because that great British Minister, who, according to history, clinched as it were the independence of this country with his celebrated declaration, was not always of the same way of thinking; and it was necessary for the minister of the United States to inculcate in him the policy of his country in order that he should decide to adopt a policy openly favorable to South American independence. Such is the finding of the most accurate of Argentine historians.

On March 8, 1882, President Monroe sent to the Congress of the United States his celebrated message proposing the recognition of the Argentine independence. In that message the President renewed his assurances of sympathy for the cause of Buenos Ayres, and confirmed the entire disinterestedness with which his Government espoused the cause of the political integrity of the youthful nation. The House of Representatives voted the recognition of Argentine independence unanimously, except for one vote—that of Representative Garnett, who declared that he did not object to the recognition, but that he considered it unnecessary, and he cited in support of his view an opinion of Rivadavia. The United States was, then, the first country after Portugal (which through motives of special interest had recognized our independence), to make a similar recognition; and [Pg 79]England, which followed the United States, did not do so until three years later, January 1, 1825.

Even after the recognition of Argentine independence by the United States, conferences continued to be held in Europe to establish the régime of the dominion of the mother country over the already independent colonies. Then new conferences took place with Canning, in which the minister of the United States confirmed anew the policy of his country in the matter of the final recognition of the independence of this republic. During that period, a document appeared that emanated from John Quincy Adams, addressed to Rush, in which he declined to enter into the plan for convoking a congress intended to treat of the questions of South America, and stated that the United States would never attend such a congress unless the South American republics were first invited.

To accentuate the attitude of his Government, Mr. Adams adds that if the congress were to take place, with intent hostile to the new republics, the United States would solemnly protest against it and its calamitous consequences.

The systematic and persistent action of the United States ended by determining in Canning a policy favorable to South American independence, and opposed to the intervention of any foreign power in the destinies of the new republics.

Great Britain and the United States once in accord, after negotiations in which Jefferson and Madison united their counsel to that of President Monroe, these two patriots expressing themselves in terms of moving eloquence in favor of the cause of emancipation, the question was settled forever.

Some months afterward, December 2, 1823, President Monroe consummated his action by sending to Congress the message that contains the enunciation of his famous doctrine. "America for the Americans", Mr. President, was a formula that, as I understand it, meant the final consecration of the [Pg 80]independence of the American nations; it was the voice of the most powerful of them all, proclaiming to the world that conquest in the domain of this America was at an end; it was notification to the conquering powers of Europe that they should not extend themselves to these continents because this extensive territory was all occupied by free nations, outside of whose sovereignty not an inch was vacant.

The independence of these republics having been settled on the field of battle by the sole force of the republics, the declaration of the American President was the culminating act of that grand epic. For the United States it is a record of honor; for Europe it is an ultimatum.

The Monroe Doctrine exists today with all the force of a law of nations, and no country of Europe has dared to dispute it.

It is fitting, Mr. President, to appreciate exactly the meaning of this great act, of the splendid attitude, more fertile for the peace of the earth and for its progress than all the conventions that European nations have arranged from time to time in order to determine their quarrels. The American President, in formulating this doctrine, decreed peace between Europe and America, which seemed destined, the former to assault always for conquest, the latter to fight always to defend its frontiers. In short, the Monroe Doctrine has been the veto on war between Europe and America; in its shadow these youthful nations have grown until today they are sufficiently strong to proclaim the same doctrine as the emblem on their shield. And the most glorious characteristic of this doctrine is that it is a dictate of civilization, in the nature of a magnificent hymn of peace, which can be chanted at the same time by the European and the American nations, because it avoided that permanent contention which would have subvened if the system of conquest that Europe has developed in regard to certain nations had been implanted here in the territory of South America.

[Pg 81]Well, Mr. President, he who is coming to visit us is a conspicuous citizen of that nation, and brings, as it is said—and I believe the Foreign Office already is informed in regard thereto—a message of peace and fraternity of utmost interest to our progress. We ought to take advantage of this opportunity to give this envoy a reception worthy of his people and worthy of himself.

I have privately communicated to the Minister for Foreign Affairs the idea of this project, and I have had the pleasure to hear from his lips the most complete adherence to my declaration that in addition to a bill authorizing the expenses, there was the intention of preparing for Mr. Root a manifestation emanating spontaneously from the Argentine Congress. The Minister believes this demonstration to be the necessary complement of the demonstration the national government is preparing for this envoy from the great republic.

The historic facts I have recalled are a brief synthesis of an epoch sufficient to warrant the Argentine people in associating themselves with the Government and lending to the event their warm interest. I am doubly pleased to have recalled this noble history on the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the independence of the great republic of the North.

I believe that for these reasons, gentlemen, you will lend your support to this idea and fulfill the purpose for which it is presented.

Speech of His Excellency Dr. J. Figueroa Alcorta

President of Argentina

At a Banquet given by him, August 14, 1906

The American republics are at this moment tightening their traditional bonds at a congress of fraternity whose importance has been indicated by the presence of our illustrious [Pg 82]guest, who passes across the continent as the herald of the civilization of a great people.

The world's conscience being awakened by the progress of public thought, the members of the family of nations are trying to draw closer together for the development of their activities, without fetters or obstacles, under the olive branch of peace and the guaranty of reciprocal respect for their rights.

International conferences are a happy manifestation of that tendency, because, in the contact of representatives of the various states, hindrances and prejudices are dissipated, and there is shown to exist in the collective mind a common aspiration for the teachings of liberty and justice.

America gives a recurring example of such congresses of peace and law. As each one takes place it is evident that the attributes of sovereignty of the nations which constitute it are displayed more clearly; that free government is taking deeper root, that democratic solidarity is more apparent, and that force is giving way more freely to reason as the fundamental principle of society.

The congress of Rio de Janeiro has that lofty significance. Its material, immediate consequences will be more or less important, but its moral result will be forever of transcendent benefit—a new departure and a step in advance in the development of liberal ideas in this part of the American Continent.

Mr. Secretary of State, your country has taken gigantic strides in the march of progress until it occupies a position in the vanguard. It has set a proud and shining example to its sister nations.

As in the dawn of their emancipation it recognized in them the conqueror's right to stand among the independent states of the earth, so likewise it later stimulated the high aspiration to establish a political system representing the popular [Pg 83]will, now inscribed in indelible characters in the preambles of American legislation.

The Argentine Republic, after rude trials, has completed its constitutional régime, gathering experience and learning from the great republic of the North.

The general lines of our organization followed those of the Philadelphia convention, with the modifications imposed by circumstances, by the irresistible force of tradition, and by the idiosyncrasies peculiar to our race. The forefathers who drafted the Argentine constitution were inspired in their work by those who, to the admiration of the world, created the Constitution of the United States.

Many of our political doctrines are derived from the writings of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay; the spirit of Marshall and Taney are seen in the hearings of our tribunals; and even the children in our schools, where they learn to personify the republican virtues, the love and sacrifice for country, respect for the rights of man, and the prerogatives of the citizen, speak the name of George Washington with that of the foremost Argentines.

Our home institutions being closely united and the shadows on the international horizon having disappeared, the Argentine Republic can occupy itself in fraternizing with other nations; and, like the United States, she aspires to strengthen the ties of friendship sanctioned by history and by the ideal philanthropy common to free institutions.

Your visit will have, in this aspect, great results. We have invited you to visit our territory in order to link the two countries more intimately; and your presence here indicates that this noble object will be realized, inspired as it is by the convenience of mutual interests and the sharing of noble aims.

You are a messenger of the ideals of brotherhood, and as such you are welcome to the Argentine Republic.

[Pg 84]I salute you, in the name of the Government and the people who have received you, as the genuine representative of your country, with that sincere desire for friendship which is loyally rooted in the national sentiment of Argentina.

Gentlemen: To the United States of America; to its illustrious President, Theodore Roosevelt; to the Secretary of State of North America, Honorable Elihu Root!

Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you, sir, for your kind welcome and for your words of appreciation. I thank you for myself; I thank you for that true and noble gentleman who holds in the United States of America the same exalted office which you hold here. I thank you in behalf of the millions of citizens in the United States. When your kind and courteous invitation reached me, I was in doubt whether the long absence from official duties would be justified; but I considered that your expression of friendship imposed upon me something more than an opportunity for personal gratification; it imposed upon me a duty. It afforded an opportunity to say something to the Government and the people of Argentina which would justly represent the sentiments and the feelings of the people of the United States toward you all. We do not know as much as we ought in the United States; we do not know as much as I would like to feel we know; but we have a traditional right to be interested in Argentina. I thought today, when we were all involved in the common misfortune, at the time of my landing, that, after all, the United States and Argentina were not simply fair-weather friends. We inherit the right to be interested in Argentina, and to be proud of Argentina. From the time when Richard Rush was fighting, from the day when James Monroe threw down the gauntlet of a weak republic, as we were then, in defense of your independence and rights—from that day to this the interests and the friendship of [Pg 85]the people of the United States for the Argentine Republic have never changed. We rejoice in your prosperity; we are proud of your achievements; we feel that you are justifying our faith in free government, and self-government; that you are maintaining our great thesis which demands the possession, the enjoyment, and the control of the earth by the people who inhabit it. We have followed the splendid persistency with which you have fought against the obstacles that stood in your path, with the sympathy that has come from similar struggles at home. Like you, we have had to develop the resources of a vast unpeopled land; like you, we have had to fight for a foothold against the savage Indians; like you, we have had conflicts of races for the possession of territory; like you, we have had to suffer war; like you, we have conquered nature; and like you, we have been holding out our hands to the people of all the world, inviting them to come and add to our development and share our riches.

We live under the same constitution in substance; we are maintaining and attempting to perfect ourselves in the application of the same principles of liberty and justice. So how can the people of the United States help feeling a friendship and sympathy for the people of Argentina? I deemed it a duty to come, in response to your kind invitation to say this, to say that there is not a cloud in the sky of good understanding; there are no political questions at issue between Argentina and the United States; there is no thought of grievance by one against the other; there are no old grudges or scores to settle. We can rejoice in each other's prosperity; we can aid in each other's development; we can be proud of each other's successes without hindrance or drawback. And for the development of this sentiment in both countries, nothing is needed but more knowledge—that we shall know each other better; that not only the most educated and thoughtful readers of our two countries shall become familiar [Pg 86]with the history of the other, but that the entire body of the people shall know what are the relations and what are the feelings of the other country. I should be glad if the people of Argentina—not merely you, Mr. President; not merely my friend, the minister of foreign affairs; not merely the gentlemen connected with the Government, but the people of Argentina—might know that the people of the United States are their friends, as I know the people of Argentina are friends of the United States.

I have come to South America with no more specific object than I have stated. Our traditional policy in the United States of America is to make no alliances. It was inculcated by Washington; it has been adhered to by his successors ever since. But, Mr. President, the alliance that comes from unwritten, unsealed instruments, as that from the convention, signed and ratified with all formalities, is of vital consequence. We make no political alliances, but we make an alliance with all our sisters in sentiment and feeling, in the pursuit of liberty and justice, in mutual helpfulness; and in that spirit I beg to return to you and to your Government and the people of this splendid and wonderful country my sincere thanks for the welcome you have given me and my country in my person.

Speech of Mr. Francis B. Purdie

At St. George's Hall, August 16, 1906

Americans resident in Buenos Ayres and in the Argentine Republic are sensible of the honor you have done them by accepting their invitation for this evening, and they appreciate most highly the courtesy of the Argentine Government, whose distinguished guest you are, in allowing them this coveted privilege. As Americans we welcome you to Buenos Ayres, and it is our earnest hope that your visit here will [Pg 87]bind more closely the ties of friendship which unite the great republics of the North and of the South, and that the knowledge you will gain of this great country and of its magnificent resources will lead to more familiar intercourse and to that good understanding which should exist between nations governed by like principles, living under constitutions framed in a like spirit, and having similar national aims.

This gathering is the result of a public meeting called immediately after it was learned that you had accepted the invitation of the Argentine Government to visit this city. It was a meeting typically American, which had no dividing line on the question that our Secretary of State was a man whom we would all delight to honor. The executive committee of the North American Society of the River Plata was intrusted with the arrangements. We believe you should know something of that society. Organized only last November, it embraces in its membership practically every American in Buenos Ayres. For its age, I am not afraid to say that it is the most flourishing social organization that has ever been established in this country. What is the object of the society? Not, I conceive, such as will arouse antagonism or jealousy in the mind of any man. As set forth in the preamble to its constitution, it is: "To keep alive the love of country and foster the spirit of patriotism,... and for such other purposes as will advance the interests of our country, encourage and maintain friendly relations with the country of our residence, and assist in promoting closer commercial union between the United States and the countries of the River Plata."

It is an organization framed in the spirit of our beloved Lincoln, "with malice toward none." The society has no political aim or purpose. It plots for nothing but the well-being of all, and wishes for nothing less than the prosperity of the home land and the land of our residence. Its members [Pg 88]are imbued with that spirit which is the characteristic American attitude toward all nations and peoples, the spirit of "live and let live." Apart from all that your visit may mean in international comity, it means much to us here; for you, Mr. Secretary, are the very living embodiment of the spirit to which I have referred, that broad Americanism which does not seek to advantage itself by intruding on the rights of others. Every speech made by you since leaving home has been an inspiration to us, and has strengthened us in our determination to live up to the principles upon which our society is founded.

But it is not alone the Americans in Buenos Ayres who have come here tonight to greet you, and who have wished to do you honor. Your kinsmen from across the sea are here in their hundreds, for when it became known that such a reception as this was contemplated, the requests for the privilege of joining with us were so great in number that the sincerity of the English-speaking people could not be questioned, and the American society welcomed the opportunity to invite as its guests as many of the representative British and other English-speaking residents of Buenos Ayres as this hall can hold; and there is represented here every important public interest and private enterprise in this republic, and I have the honor, in their name as well as in the name of your countrymen, to assure you that you are in the house of your friends.

I have told you, Mr. Root, what your countrymen feel about your coming here; I have referred to the cordial sympathy shown by the English-speaking residents; and it is with feelings of genuine pleasure that I now make reference to the attitude of the Argentine Government and the Argentine people. This reference will not be my personal view alone; it is the expression of the feelings of representative Americans in this city which has been voiced at every [Pg 89]meeting we have held within the past few weeks. The Argentine people are, and wish to remain, the friends of the United States. Our committees have had the privilege of holding interviews with high officials of the government, with various committees of the leading citizens; and we have been convinced of the genuine nature of the reception prepared for you. This is too proud a nation to pretend that which it does not feel, and the history of Buenos Ayres will convince any student that this city has never been afraid to speak out, to applaud or condemn as its judgment dictated. The government officials have been sincerely cordial, and they have not been content merely to express their wish to give us every friendly help; they have, apart from their own magnificent preparations, given the Americans here material assistance.

The world owes much of its progress to opposing views, and the healthiest nations have the strongest political parties taking differing views upon questions of national policy, and these parties reach the public by means of the newspapers. The Argentine Republic is not an exception, but I doubt if there has ever been a theme upon which the press of this country has been so united as that honor should be shown to you. I speak for Americans when I say that in the Argentine Republic we have found a home where absolute freedom is ours,—freedom in every walk of life; freedom for conscience; freedom to live, move, and have our being as God and our own wills may lead us. There are Argentines here tonight who are not one whit behind us in their enthusiasm for you and for all that you represent, and there is a group here of Argentines who have graduated from American colleges, who wish to say to you that next to their own country they revere the United States of America. You now know, Mr. Root, what friends you have before you, and we all bid you welcome, thrice welcome, to Buenos Ayres.

[Pg 90]Reply of Mr. Root

Mr. Chairman, my countrymen, my countrywomen, my friends from the land whence my fathers came, I need not say that I am glad to meet you. No one far away from his own land needs to be told that the looks, faces, the sound of voice, of one's own countrymen are a joy to the wanderer in strange lands. Yet I do not find this such a strange land. I find here so many things to remind me of home, so many things that are like our own country, that it seems a little like coming home. Such is the similarity in conditions, in spirit, in purpose; such is the impress of the same institutions and the same principles, that I cannot feel altogether a stranger; and when I meet you here at home almost I feel the warmth of my own fireside.

I am glad to meet you because I think that perhaps to many of you who have been long in this distant land I may bring pleasant memories of cities and farms and homes, left behind many a year ago. But I hope that the new home you have found, the new duties you have taken up, have made you happy, prosperous, useful, full of the ambitions, activities, and satisfactions of life. There have been great changes in the United States of America—of North America, perhaps I must call it,—since most of you left your old homes. When you, Mr. President, left us, we were a debtor nation; we were borrowing money from Europe to develop our own resources, to build up our own country. Most of the money was coming from our English friends. That capital built up our railways to make possible the wonderful development that has made the United States what it is. We had no capital, no time, no energy, to devote to anything but the task before us, to conquer our West and to develop our empty lands. In that distant day, when Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams espoused the cause of the infant [Pg 91]republics of South America, we could have no relations with them but those of political sympathy, because we were too concentrated in the work that lay before us at home. Twenty years ago, when that far-seeing and sanguine statesman, Mr. Blaine, inaugurated his South American policy and brought about the first American Conference at Washington, and the establishment of the Bureau of American Republics, we were still a debtor nation, with no surplus capital, and engrossed in doing our work at home. It was still impossible for us to have any relations with South America, except those of political sympathy.

But since Mr. Blaine, times have changed. We have paid our debts; we have become a creditor rather than a debtor nation. We have for the first time within the last ten years begun to accumulate surplus capital, and it has accumulated with a wonderful rapidity,—a surplus capital to enable us to go out and establish new relations with the rest of the world. We now are beginning to be in a position where we can take the same relations towards other countries that England took towards us. We have paid our debts to England; the use of her capital in developing the United States has resulted in great advantage to both of us; and with the payment of the debt there has been left a warm and, I believe, enduring friendship between England and the United States. I should like to see the same kind of friendship between the United States and South America. I should like to see the great surplus capital which we are accumulating in the United States of North America turn southwards, to see it used to develop the vast resources of this country, with mutual advantage to both, so that when the time comes in the future, as it will come, when the people of Argentina, with their resources developed, with their population increased, have accumulated all the capital they need and paid their debts, we shall have had our share both in their [Pg 92]development and in their prosperity, and an enduring friendship may exist between us.

Now it has seemed to me, sir, that possibly the opportunity afforded by the kind and courteous invitation of the Argentine Government to visit this country might enable me to do something to this end, just at this juncture when a change in the attitude of the United States toward the rest of the world is taking place, when the change from the debtor to the creditor nation, is made; from the borrower of money to develop resources, to a country with surplus capital to send out to the world;—it seemed to me possible that I might by this visit help to establish the relations which I should like to see existing. I should like to be able to qualify myself to say in the most public way that this is a land to which the poor of all the world, who have enterprise without money, can come and find homes and prosperity, so that by the thousands, by the millions, they may come from the Old World and build up Argentina as they have built up the United States. I feel able to say that this is a shore to which the emigrants from the Old World may come with a certainty of finding homes, occupations, and opportunities for prosperity; that it is a country to which the capital of the United States may come with the certainty that it will be secure, will be protected, and will find profitable employment. I look forward to the time when the wonderful development that is going on here now—not confined alone to this country, but progressing here with an amazing rapidity,—will be as great a wonder to the world as the advance which has taken the United States of North America, expanding from the feeble fringe of colonists along the Atlantic shore to a great nation of eighty millions, stretching from ocean to ocean. Argentina will take some of our markets from us, but what are they? They will be markets she is entitled to; and with her prosperity, and with the right understanding and relations between the [Pg 93]two countries, our commercial relations with her will more than take the place of the markets she takes away from us. We have nothing to fear in the growing prosperity of Argentina. We have no cause but for rejoicing in her prosperity; no cause but to aid her in every way in our power in her onward progress; and that I believe to be the sincere desire of the whole of the people of the United States.

Mr. President, a heavy responsibility rests upon the citizen of our country who lives in a foreign land. We can misbehave at home and it makes little difference; but every American citizen in a foreign land, every American citizen in the Argentine Republic, is the representative of his country there. He needs no commission; no power can prevent his holding a commission to represent before all the people of Argentina the character of his own countrymen. You represent our beloved land to the people of Argentina. What you are they will believe us to be. As they study your character and conduct their estimate of us rises, and it is with the greatest pleasure that I find here among this people whom I respect so highly, whose good opinion for my country I so greatly desire, a body of Americans, a body of my countrymen, so worthy, so estimable, so high in reputation, so well fitted to maintain the standard of the United States of America, high, pure, unsullied, worthy of all honor.

Speech of Dr. Luis M. Drago

President of the Reception Committee

August 17, 1906

The large gathering here assembled, representative of all that Buenos Ayres has of the most notable in science, letters, industry, and commerce, has conferred on me the signal honor of designating me to offer this banquet to the eminent minister of one of the greatest nations of the earth, a nation [Pg 94]linked to us from the very beginning by many and very real sentiments of moral and political solidarity. This country has not forgotten that in the trying times of the colonial emancipation, our fathers could rely on the sympathy and the warm and disinterested adhesion of the American people, our predecessors and our guides in the paths of liberty. The thrilling utterances of Henry Clay defending our cause when everything appeared to threaten our revolution, have never been surpassed in their noble eloquence; and it was due to the generosity and foresight of their great statesmen that the United States were the first to receive us with open arms as their equals in the community of sovereign nations.

The spiritual affinity thus happily established has gone on strengthening itself almost imperceptibly ever since by the reproduction of institutions and legal customs.

Our charter was inspired by the American Constitution and acts through the operation of similar laws. The great examples of the Union are also our examples; and being sincere lovers of liberty we rejoice in the triumphs (which in a certain sense we consider our own) of the greatest of democratic nations.

George Washington is, for us, one of the great figures of history, the tutelar personality, the supreme model, a prototype of abnegation, honor, and wisdom; and there is an important region in the province of Buenos Ayres bearing the name of Lincoln, as a homage to the austere patriotism of that statesman and martyr. The names of Jefferson, Madison, and Quincy Adams are household words with us; and in our parliamentary debates and popular assemblies mention is frequently made of the statesmen, the orators, and the judges of the great sister republic.

There thus exist, honorable sir, a long-established friendship, an intercommunion of thought and purpose which draw peoples together more closely, intimately, and indissolubly [Pg 95]than can be accomplished by the formulae—often barren—of the foreign offices.

And the moment is certainly propitious for drawing closer the bonds of international amity which your excellency's visit puts in relief, and which have found such eloquent expression in the Pan American Congress of Rio de Janeiro. Enlightened patriotism has understood at last that on this continent, with its immense riches and vast unexplored regions, power and wealth are not to be looked for in conquest and displacements, but in collaboration and solidarity, which will people the wilderness and give the soil to the plow. It has understood, moreover, that America, by reason of the nationalities of which it is composed, of the nature of the representative institutions which they have adopted, by the very character of their people, separated as they have been from the conflicts and complications of European governments, and even by the gravitation of peculiar circumstances and events, has been constituted a separate political factor, a new and vast theater for the development of the human race, which will serve as a counterpoise to the great civilizations of the other hemisphere, and so maintain the equilibrium of the world.

It is consequently our sacred duty to preserve the integrity of America, material and moral, against the menaces and artifices, very real and effective, that unfortunately surround it. It is not long since one of the most eminent of living jurisconsults of Great Britain denounced the possibility of the danger. "The enemies of light and freedom," he said, "are neither dead nor sleeping; they are vigilant, active, militant, and astute." And it was in obedience to that sentiment of common defense that in a critical moment the Argentine Republic proclaimed the impropriety of the forcible collection of public debts by European nations, not as an abstract principle of academic value or as a legal rule of [Pg 96]universal application outside of this continent (which it is not incumbent on us to maintain), but as a principle of American diplomacy which, whilst being founded on equity and justice, has for its exclusive object to spare the peoples of this continent the calamities of conquest, disguised under the mask of financial interventions, in the same way as the traditional policy of the United States, without accentuating superiority or seeking preponderance, condemned the oppression of the nations of this part of the world and the control of their destinies by the great powers of Europe. The dreams and utopias of today are the facts and commonplaces of tomorrow and the principle proclaimed must sooner or later prevail.

The gratitude we owe to the nations of Europe is indeed very great, and much we still have to learn from them. We are the admirers of their secular institutions; more than once we have been moved by their great ideals, and under no circumstances whatsoever should we like to sever or to weaken the links of a long-established friendship. But we want, at the same time, and it is only just and fair, that the genius and tendency of our democratic communities be respected. They are advancing slowly, it is true; struggling at times and occasionally making a pause, but none the less strong and progressive for all that, and already showing the unequivocal signs of success in what may be called the most considerable trial mankind has ever made of the republican system of government.

In the meantime, to reach their ultimate greatness and have an influence in the destinies of the world, these nations only require to come together and have a better knowledge of each other, to break up the old colonial isolation, and realize the contraction of America, as what is called the contraction of the world has always been effected by the annihilation of distance through railways, telegraphs, and the [Pg 97]thousand and one means of communication and interchange at the disposal of modern civilization.

The increase of commerce and the public fortune will be brought about in this way; but such results as concern only material prosperity will appear unimportant when compared with the blessings of a higher order which are sure to follow, when, realizing the inner meaning of things, and stimulated by spiritual communion, these peoples meet each other as rivals only in the sciences and arts, in literature and government, and most of all in the practice of virtues, which are the best ornament of the state and the foundation stone of all enduring grandeur of the human race.

Gentlemen:

To the United States, the noblest and the greatest of democratic nations!

To Mr. Roosevelt, the President of transcendental initiative and strenuous life!

To his illustrious minister, our guest, the highest and most eloquent representative of American solidarity, for whom I have not words sufficiently expressive to convey all the pleasure we feel in receiving him, and how we honor ourselves by having him in our midst.

Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you for the kind and friendly words you have uttered. I thank you, and all of you for your cordiality and bounteous hospitality. As I am soon to leave this city, where I and my family have been welcomed so warmly and have been made so happy, let me take this opportunity to return to you and to the Government and to the people of Buenos Ayres our most sincere and heartfelt thanks for all your kindness and goodness to us. We do appreciate it most deeply, and we shall never forget it, shall never forget you—your [Pg 98]friendly faces, your kind greetings, your beautiful homes, your noble spirit, and all that makes up the great and splendid city of Buenos Ayres.

It is with special pleasure, Mr. Chairman, that I have listened to that part of your speech which relates to the political philosophy of our times, and especially to the political philosophy most interesting to America. Upon the two subjects of special international interest to which you have alluded, I am glad to be able to declare myself in hearty and unreserved sympathy with you. The United States of America has never deemed it to be suitable that she should use her army and navy for the collection of ordinary contract debts of foreign governments to her citizens. For more than a century the State Department, the Department of Foreign Relations of the United States of America, has refused to take such action, and that has become the settled policy of our country. We deem it to be inconsistent with that respect for the sovereignty of weaker powers which is essential to their protection against the aggression of the strong. We deem the use of force for the collection of ordinary contract debts to be an invitation to abuses, in their necessary results far worse, far more baleful to humanity than that the debts contracted by any nation should go unpaid. We consider that the use of the army and navy of a great power to compel a weaker power to answer to a contract with a private individual, is both an invitation to speculation upon the necessities of weak and struggling countries and an infringement upon the sovereignty of those countries, and we are now, as we always have been, opposed to it; and we believe that, perhaps not today nor tomorrow, but through the slow and certain process of the future, the world will come to the same opinion.

It is with special gratification that I have heard from your lips so just an estimate of the character of that traditional [Pg 99]policy of the United States which bears the name of President Monroe. When you say that it was "without accentuating superiority or seeking preponderance," that Monroe's declaration condemned the oppression of the nations of this part of the world and the control of their destinies by the great powers of Europe, you speak the exact historical truth. You do but simple justice to the purposes and the sentiments of Monroe and his compatriots and to the country of Monroe at every hour from that time to this.

I congratulate you upon the wonderful opportunity that lies before you. Happier than those of us who were obliged in earlier days to conquer the wilderness, you men of Argentina have at your hands great, new forces for your use. Changes have come of recent years in the world which affect the working out of your problem. One is that through the comparative infrequency of war, of pestilence, of famine, through the increased sanitation of the world, the decrease of infant mortality by reason of better sanitation, the population of the world is increasing. Those causes which reduced population are being removed and the pressure of population is sending out wave after wave of men for the peopling of the vacant lands of the earth. Another change is, that through the wonderful activity of invention and discovery and organizing capacity during our lifetime, the power of mankind to produce wealth has been immensely increased. One man today, with machinery, with steam, with electricity, with all the myriads of appliances that invention and discovery have created, can produce more wealth, more of the things that mankind desires, than twenty men could have produced years ago; and the result is that vast accumulations of capital are massing in the world, ready to be poured out for the building up of the vacant places of the earth. For the utilization of these two great forces, men and money, you in Argentina have the opportunity of incalculable potential [Pg 100]wealth, and you have the formative power in the spirit and the brain of your people.

I went today to one of your great flour mills and to one of your great refrigerating plants. I viewed the myriad industries that surround the harbor, the forests of masts, the thronged steamers. I was interested and amazed. It far exceeded my imagination and suggested an analogy to an incident in my past life. It was my fortune in the year when the war broke out between Prussia and France, to be travelling in Germany. Immediately upon the announcement of the war, maps of the seat of war were printed and posted in every shop window. The maps were maps of Germany, with a little stretch of France. Within a fortnight the armies had marched off the map. It seems to be so with Argentina. I have read books about Argentina. I have read magazine and newspaper articles; but within the last five years you have marched off the map. The books and magazines are all out of date. What you have done since they were written is much more than had been done before. They are no guide to the country. Nevertheless, with all your vast material activity, it seems to me that the most wonderful and interesting thing to be found here is the laboratory of life, where you are mixing the elements of the future race. Argentine, English, German, Italian, French, and Spanish, and American are all being welded together to make the new type. It was the greatest satisfaction to me to go into the school and see that first and greatest agency, the children of all races in the first and most impressionable period of life, being brought together and acting and reacting on each other, and all tending toward the new type, which will embody the characteristics of all; and to know that the system of schools in which this is being done was, by the wisdom of your great President Sarmiento, brought from my own country through his [Pg 101]friendship with the great leader of education in the United States of America—Horace Mann.

Mr. Chairman, I should have been glad to see all these wonderful things as an inconspicuous observer. It is quite foreign to my habits and to my nature to move through applauding throngs, accompanied by guards of honor; yet perhaps it is well that the idea which I represent should be applauded by crowds and accompanied by guards of honor. The pomp and circumstance of war attract the fancy of the multitude; the armored knight moves across the page of romance and of poetry and kindles the imagination of youth; the shouts of the crowd, the smiles of beauty, the admiration of youth, the gratitude of nations, the plaudits of mankind, follow the hero about whom the glamor of military glory dims the eye to the destruction and death and human misery that follow the path of war. Perhaps it is well that sometimes there should go to the herdsman on his lonely ranch, to the husbandman in his field, to the clerk in the counting-house and the shop, to the student at his books, to the boy in the street, the idea that there is honor to be paid to those qualities of mankind which rest upon justice, upon mercy, upon consideration for the rights of others, upon humanity, upon the patient and kindly spirit, upon all those exercises of the human heart which lead to happy homes, to prosperity, to learning, to art, to religion, to the things that dignify life and ennoble it and give it its charm and grace.

We honor Washington as the leader of his country's forces in the war of independence; but that supreme patience which enabled him to keep the warring elements of his people at peace is a higher claim to the reverence of mankind than his superb military strategy. San Martín was great in his military achievements; his Napoleonic march across the Andes is entitled to be preserved in the history of military [Pg 102]affairs so long as history is written; but the almost superhuman self-abnegation with which he laid aside power and greatness that peace might give its strength to his people, was greater than his military achievements. The triumphant march of the conquering hero is admirable and to be greeted with huzzas, but the conquering march of an idea which makes for humanity is more admirable and more to be applauded. This is not theory; it is practical. It has to do with our affairs today; for we are now in an age of the world when not governors, not presidents, not congresses, but the people determine the issues of peace or war, of controversy or of quiet. I am an advocate of arbitration; I am an advocate of mediation; of all the measures that tend toward bringing reasonable and cool judgment to take the place of war; but let us never forget that arbitration and mediation—all measures of that description—are but the treatment of the symptoms and not the treatment of the cause of disease; and that the real cure for war is to get into the hearts of the people and lead them to a just sense of their rights and other people's rights, lead them to love peace and to hate war, lead them to hold up the hands of their governments in the friendly commerce of diplomacy, rather than to urge them on to strife; and let there go to the herdsman and the husbandman and the merchant and the student and the boy in the street every influence which can tend toward that sweet reasonableness, that kindly sentiment, that breadth of feeling for humanity, that consideration for the rights of others, which lie at the basis of the peace of the world.

Speech of His Excellency Jermán Riesco

President of the Republic

At the Government House, September 1, 1906

I greet you and welcome you in the name of the people and of the Government of Chile, who receive your visit with the liveliest satisfaction.

Your attendance at the congress of fraternity which the American republics have just held; your visit to the neighboring countries, which we have followed with the greatest interest; and your presence amongst us, upon the invitation which we had the honor of extending to you, are eloquent testimony of the high-minded intentions, which will necessarily produce much good for the progress and the development of America.

In these moments we feel a most profound gratitude toward your country, toward your worthy President, and toward yourself for the friendship and sympathy with which you have joined in the sorrow of Chile because of the disaster which has wounded Valparaiso and other cities of the republic.

I wish that your stay in this country may be agreeable to you and your distinguished family.

Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you, Mr. President, for your kind welcome and for your generous expressions, and I thank you for the courteous invitation which led to this visit on my part. After the great calamity which has befallen your country, I should have feared to intrude upon the mourning which is in so many [Pg 104]Chilean homes, but I did not feel that I could pass by without calling upon you—upon the representative of the Chilean people—to express in person the deep sympathy and sorrow which I, and all my people, whom I represent, feel for your country and for the stricken and bereaved ones; and the earnest hope we have for the prompt and cheerful recovery of spirit and of confidence and of prosperity after the great misfortune. We know that the spirit and the strength of the people of Chile are adequate for the recovery, even from so great a disaster. No one in the world, Mr. President, can feel more deeply the misfortune that you have suffered than the people of the United States, because you know that in our country we have recently experienced just such a calamity. I am sure that nowhere in the world will you find so keen a sense of sympathy as is there and as I now express. It may sometimes happen that in adversity stronger friendships arise than in prosperity; and I hope that although I come to bring to you an expression of the friendship of the United States of America for the republic of Chile now while the cloud rests upon you, the effect of the exchange of kind words and kinder feelings in this time may be greater, more permanent, and more lasting than they could have been when all were prosperous and happy.

Speech of His Excellency Antonio Huneeus

Minister for Foreign Affairs

At the Moneda, September 2, 1906

I extend to you the welcome of the people and of the Government. Heartily do I say to you, in the name of all Chileans: Be welcome.

We were preparing to entertain you in magnificent style, but it was the will of Providence to visit us with a bitter trial, so we are now receiving you in a modest manner.

[Pg 105]Come and see, sir, what we have suffered. Morally, we have suffered much; for several thousands of our brothers perished in the catastrophe of August 16. Materially speaking, we lose the greater part of our principal port and of several cities of minor importance, together with the profits which cease in consequence. Behold now, sir, what remains to us and how we are rising. Our productive forces are alive and sound; agriculture, mining, and manufacturing have scarcely suffered, and our saltpeter treasures continue to exist.

Public order remained undisturbed; generally speaking, the reign of the law was maintained; the authorities fulfilled their duty; and the navy, glorious guardian of half our territory, which is the ocean, was saved intact. Therefore, all we sons of Chile are of cheerful heart.

The virility of a country is worth more than the splendor of its monuments. It does not humiliate us, therefore, to have you see houses and towns destroyed, for it was not a civil war or a foreign enemy which razed them to the ground, but a higher hand. It is rather a source of pride to us to have you witness the integrity and unity of the Chileans.

The fortitude of our race and our good sense will cause us to rise again in a short time to a greater prosperity.

You plainly see that Chile is still entire, and that our misfortune was more painful than injurious.

We did not, therefore, think for a moment that you might postpone your visit. On the contrary, we telegraphed to you a few hours after the earthquake: "Our home is demolished; but come, sir, for we are safe, calm, and diligent."

Besides, the plain dignity of your character, which we knew, and the objects of your visit encouraged us to speak to you.

You have come, most excellent sir, to offer your over-production to our consumers, and to ask a larger place for the Americans in the Chilean heart.

[Pg 106]You are going to obtain all that. But, besides this, Mr. Root, please bear to the sons of the United States, and especially to our brothers in misfortune at San Francisco, California, a sacred homage—the intense gratitude of the society and Government of Chile for the generous aid to our sufferers by which the Americans are proving to us that along with greatness of power they have greatness of heart.

We knew of all this greatness. With a territory covering half a continent and nourished by every kind of riches, with a firm and impulsive character, with broad and far-reaching views along every channel which human activity can pursue, and endowed with a clear instinct of what is possible, the Americans have become useful and wealthy.

They understood two essential things, namely, that government is not merely a pleasant and covetable ideal, but a fundamental necessity, and that the greatest value does not consist in traditions or fortune, but in personal merit. They therefore abolished every unjustified distinction of superiority and organized as a democracy.

The result of the combination of such rare and happy moral and material elements has been the springing up of a nation as powerful as the most powerful, and in freedom equaled by none.

And how well the United States know that there is no greatness without liberty!

Since the consciousness of right has become deeper, principles of respect and faith have become implanted in the commonwealth of nations, whatever be the extent of their territory, their population, or their armed forces. The inveterate abuses of force are disappearing. The principle which, being embodied into a law of equality among all the nations, always prevails at present in international relations is that of liberty for the weaker side.

[Pg 107]The American Union—the free country—years ago established its foreign policy on the plan of equality. Its commercial flag waves throughout the world without arrogance or spirit of intervention.

Your natural wisdom tells you, Mr. Root, that you do not need any other than mercantile expansion, and still more that none other would be suited to you.

You have of late repeatedly given practical and unmistakable testimonials that this is your policy.

You have stated so yourself at Rio de Janeiro, and your presence among us is a further proof that your purposes are friendly and frank.

Let us enter into commercial relations with the United States with friendship and confidence. We shall proceed as far as is mutually beneficial to us, and this will be shown us by the natural laws of mercantile transactions.

The Government desires that American goods shall come to Chile in abundance to facilitate living, and it earnestly desires at the same time that Chilean products may be multiplied and that they may endeavor to offset these importations.

Since the sixteenth of August we have been pushing more resolutely than before the work of our restoration. We have all the moral factors, namely, order, will, and an apt and energetic people. We also have incalculable and extremely varied natural resources. There is only one material factor in which we may be short, namely, capital, which is a powerful force if well employed.

Chile will be glad to see American capital come and establish itself in our commercial and industrial circulation. It will blend well with Chilean honor and will prosper under the protection of our laws, which are liberal with the foreigner, and under the shelter of our government, which is unshakable.

[Pg 108]We are certain that Chilean interests will meet the same respect from the government of the Union that we cherish for American interests.

The infinite variety of articles of supply and consumption will certainly enable the interchange of goods between Chile and America to increase without narrowing the horizons of our commerce with friendly markets, which today bring us capital, raw materials, workmen, and manufactures.

The American Union has happily solved its internal and foreign problems, has established its political and economic power on a firm basis, and is, finally, in full enjoyment of its natural greatness and freely exercising all its energies at the present time. We have attentively observed that it desires to promote the progress of the world and to see the other nations of Christendom, especially the American republics, associated in this great work on terms of equality, friendship, and mutual benefit.

We respond, therefore, to its affectionate call by declaring that we are imbued with sincere faith in the friendship of the government and the people of the United States; we utter fervent wishes that our mutual confidence may become strengthened and be free of misgivings; and we prophesy that the rapprochement which the eminent Secretary of State now visiting us has initiated will be of beneficent influence on our international cordiality and bring prosperous results for our development.

Most excellent Mr. Root, His Excellency the President of the Republic requests you to say to the illustrious President Roosevelt and to your fellow-citizens that the Chilean people fraternize cordially with the American people; that our markets are free to them; that we admire your government officials; that your most excellent minister, Mr. Hicks, enjoys our highest esteem and good feeling; and that we have received you and your most worthy family with open hearts.

[Pg 109]Reply of Mr. Root

I beg you to believe in the sincere and high appreciation which I have for all the kindness you have shown me and my family since our arrival in Chile. I believe that the delicacy, the sense of propriety and fitness, that have characterized our reception, both official and personal, have produced in our minds, under the sad circumstances of the great misfortune that hangs over the Chilean people like a cloud, a deeper impression than the most splendid and sumptuous display. I believe that to be able to mourn with you in your loss, to sympathize with you in your misfortune, draws us closer to you than to be with you in the greatest prosperity and happiness upon which the brightest sun has ever shone.

I thank you for your kindly expressions regarding my President, regarding myself, and regarding my country. In the "United States of America," as our Constitution called us many years ago—the "United States of North America," as perhaps we should call ourselves south of the equator—we have been for a long time, and are still trying to reconcile individual liberty with public order, local self-government with a strong central and national control; trying to develop the capacity of the individuals of our people to control themselves, and also the capacity of the people collectively for self-government; trying to adopt sound financial methods, to promote justice—a justice compatible with mercy—and to make progress in all that makes a people happier, more prosperous, better educated, better able to perform their duties as citizens and to do their part in the world to help humanity out of the hard conditions of poverty and ignorance and along the pathway of civilization. We have done what we could. We have committed errors and we acknowledge them and are deeply conscious of them; but we are justly proud of our country for the progress it has [Pg 110]made; and we look on every country that is engaged in that same struggle for liberty and justice with profound sympathy and warm friendship.

I am here to say to the Chilean people that although there have been misunderstandings in the past, they were misunderstandings such as arise between two vigorous, proud peoples that know each other too little. Let us know each other better and we shall have put an end to misunderstandings. The present moment is especially propitious for saying this, because we are upon the threshold of great events in this western world of ours. In my own country the progress of development has reached a point of transition. In the fifty years, from 1850 to 1900, we received on our shores nearly twenty million immigrants from the Old World. We borrowed from the Old World thousands of millions of dollars; and with the strong arm of the immigrants and with the capital from the Old World, we have threaded the country with railroads, we have constructed great public works, we have created the phenomenal prosperity that you all know; and now we have paid our debts to Europe; we have returned the capital with which our country was built up; and in the last half dozen years we have been accumulating an excess of capital that is beginning to seek an outlet in foreign enterprises.

At the same time, there is seen in South America the dawn of a new life which moves its people, as they have never been moved before, with the spirit of industrial and commercial progress.

At a banquet that was given last winter to a great and distinguished man, Lord Grey, Governor-General of Canada, he said: "The nineteenth century was the century of the United States; the twentieth century will be the century of Canada." I should feel surer as a prophet if I were to say: "The twentieth century will be the century of South [Pg 111]America." I believe, with him, in the great development of Canada; but just as the nineteenth century was the century of phenomenal development in North America, I believe that no student can help seeing that the twentieth century will be the century of phenomenal development in South America.

And so our countries will be face to face in a new attitude. We cannot longer remain strangers to each other; our relations must be those of intimacy, and this is the time to say that our relations will be those of friendship.

On the other hand, before long the construction of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama, which will fulfill the dreams of the early navigators, which will accomplish the work projected for centuries, will at last be completed, while the men who are today active in the business of both countries are still on the field of action.

This, therefore, is the moment to safeguard harmony in the relations between the two nations.

I do not believe that any one can say what changes the opening of the Panama Canal will bring in the affairs of the world; but we do know that great changes in the commercial routes of the world have changed the course of history, and no one can doubt that the creation of a waterway that will put the Pacific coast of South America in close touch with the Atlantic coast of North America must be a factor of incalculable importance in determining the affairs of the western hemisphere and promoting our relations of intimacy and friendship.

Now, at this moment, at the beginning of this great commercial and industrial awakening—I say at the beginning, notwithstanding all that you have already done, because I believe you have only begun to realize the great work you have before you—at this moment there falls on you this terrible misfortune, one of those warnings that at times God sends to his people to show them how weak they are in his [Pg 112]hands—a misfortune because of which the entire world mourns with you. But I believe—I know—that the air of these mountains and of these shores, which in another time gave its spirit to the proud and indomitable Arucanian race, has given to the people of Chile the vigor with which to rise up from the ashes of Valparaiso and with which to make out of the misfortune of today the incentive for great deeds tomorrow. And in this era of friendship, when peaceful immigration has replaced armed invasions, when the free exchange of capital and the international ownership of industrial and commercial enterprises, of manufactures, of mines, have replaced rapine and plunder—in this era of commercial conquest and industrial acquisition, of more frequent intercourse among men, of more intimate knowledge and better understanding, there has come to you in this your great misfortune the friendship and the sympathy of the world.

In truth, our friends who sleep the last sleep there in Valparaiso have brought to their country a possession of greater value than was ever won by the soldier on the battlefield.

As I said to you yesterday, Mr. President, I feared that under the present sad circumstances I might be intruding upon you; should I not rather feel that the words of friendship of which I am the bearer are in perfect harmony with the sentiment that your affliction has created in all countries, the universal recognition of the brotherhood of man?

Speech of His Excellency José Pardo y Barreda

President of the Republic

September 10, 1906

With the most sincere good will, I cordially welcome you in the name of my country and of its Government, and I believe I faithfully interpret the sentiments that rule in Peru in telling you of its sincere good will toward the United States, their illustrious President, and toward your own distinguished person. These feelings which unite the two countries began in the dawn of independence, because the founders of the great republic showed our forefathers the way to become free; and they strengthened us from the first days of our independent life by the safeguard which the admirable foresight of another great statesman of your country placed around American soil.

Since then the closest friendship has united the two nations. Peru has received from the United States proofs of a very special deference, and has appreciated the efforts made by your government to establish political relations between the American peoples upon the basis of right and justice. In this most noble aspiration, worthy of the greatness of your country, Peru, on her part, unreservedly acquiesces.

The lofty ideas which you have expressed since your arrival in South America, the frank expressions of cordiality, the concepts of stimulus and aid to induce us, the Americans of the South, to work in the same way as those of the North, with earnestness and unflinching hope in the future, have found in every breast the most pleasing echo, and they direct toward your person the most lively sympathy.

[Pg 114]Closely associated fellow-worker with the illustrious statesman who rules the destinies of your country, to you belongs, in a great measure, the acclamation with which America and the entire world would greet the great nation that has constituted the most perfect democratic society, that has made the most surprising progress in industrial and economic order, and that has placed the prestige of its greatness at the service of peace all over the world.

Gentlemen, I invite you to drink to the United States; to its President, Mr. Roosevelt; and to its Secretary of State, Mr. Root.

Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you sincerely, both in my own behalf and in behalf of my country, for your kind welcome and for the words, full of friendship and of kindly judgment, you have uttered regarding my country and regarding her servants, the President and myself. The distinguished gentleman who represents Peru in the capital of the United States of America, and who shares with you, sir, the inheritance of a name great and honored, not only in Peru but wherever the friends of constitutional freedom are found—in his note of invitation to me, upon which I am now a visitor to your city, used a form of expression that has dwelt in my memory, because it was so true. He spoke of the old, sincere, and cordial friendship of our two countries—that is indeed true of the friendship of the United States of America and the republic of Peru. It is an old friendship, a sincere friendship, and a cordial friendship. I have come here not to make new friends, but to greet old ones; not to announce a new departure in policy, but to follow old and honored lines; and I should have thought that in coming to South America in answer to the invitations of the different countries, all down the east and up the west coast, to have passed by Peru would indeed be to have played [Pg 115]"Hamlet" with Hamlet left out. It is still a more natural and still a stronger impulse to visit Peru at this time, as a part of a mission of friendship and good will, when the relations between the two countries are about to be drawn even closer.

The completion of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama will make us near neighbors as we have never been before, so that we may take our staterooms at the wharf at Callao or at New York, and visit each other without change of quarters during the journey. And no one can tell what the effect of the canal will be. We do know that nothing of the kind was ever done before in human history without producing a most powerful effect upon mankind. The course of civilization, the rise and fall of nations, the development of mankind, have followed the establishment of new trade routes. No one can now tell just what the specific effect of the cutting of the canal across the isthmus may be; but it will be great and momentous in the affairs of the world. Of this we may be certain, that for the nations situated immediately to the south and immediately to the north of the canal, there will be great changes in their relations with the rest of the world; and it is most gratifying to know that this great work which the United States of America is now undertaking—the cost of which she never expects to get back—a work which she is doing not merely for her own benefit, but because she is moved by the belief that great things are worth doing, is going to bring great benefits to the entire world, and to her old and her good friend, the republic of Peru.

I thank you, Mr. President, for your kind reception, and I beg you to permit me to ask the gentlemen here to join me in proposing in behalf of President Roosevelt the health and long life and prosperity of the President of Peru.

Speech of His Excellency Javier Prado y Ugarteche

Minister for Foreign Affairs

At the Union Club, September 11, 1906

With the liveliest feelings of consideration and sympathy I have the honor to offer this manifestation to His Excellency Mr. Elihu Root, Secretary of State of the United States of America.

Yielding to the generous impulses of your American heart, and of your brain of a thinker and of a statesman, you have felt a desire, Mr. Root, to visit these countries, to address to them words of friendship and of interest in their welfare, in the name of the honorable government which you represent, and to shed over this continent the rays of the noble ideal of American fraternity.

Your visit will undoubtedly produce fruitful results on behalf of liberty and of justice, of peace and of progress, of order and of improvement, which you have proclaimed as being the highest principles inspiring the policy of the United States in the special mission for which their peculiar virtues and energy have marked them out in the destiny of humanity.

When those austere founders of American independence laid the foundations of the great republic of the North, and gave it its constitution, they were not inspired by narrow-minded ideas or by selfish and transitory interest, but by a profound conviction of the rights of man and a deep feeling of liberty and of justice, which, in its irresistible consequences, would bring about the social and political transformation which came to pass in the world at the end of the eighteenth century, and was destined to constitute the gospel of liberty and of democracy in our modern régime.

This same people, although still in its youth, did not hesitate, shortly after, all alone, to guarantee the independence of [Pg 117]all the American countries, placing before the great powers of the world the pillars of Hercules of the Monroe Doctrine, forming an impassable gateway to a free and unconquerable America.

Today this same people excites the admiration of the whole world by its grandeur. Its government brings to its level the harmony of humanity; reëstablishes, on the one hand, peace between the empires of Europe and of Asia, and, on the other, between the republics of Central America; patronizes the congress of The Hague, and in it obtains the recognition of the personality of the American nations, thus giving proof of the interest it takes, with equal concern, in the future of the peoples civilized for a century, as well as in that of the countries just commencing their existence. The American Constitution, the Monroe Doctrine, together with the policy of President Roosevelt, and of his Secretary of State, Mr. Root, voice in this manner, through the pages of history, the same language of liberty, of justice, humanity, and Americanism.

How deep is the lesson to be learned from these facts!

The ancient ideas founded right upon force, the régime of the social bodies was that of privilege, and individual efforts were tied by bonds imposed in the name of the authorities. The modern ideas, such as the United States proclaim, found all right upon justice, and the social régime upon liberty and equality. The human being is not an instrument for the display of arbitrary power, but is the whole object of social life, the mission of which is the development of its energies, its moral conscience, the improvement and welfare of individuals and of nations.

According to the ancient ideas, the greatness of the nations was measured by their military power and by the limits of their conquests of force. According to modern ideas, as represented by the United States, the greatness of nations is [Pg 118]measured by the conquests obtained by individual and collective efforts, thereby creating the fruitful and happy reign of truth, of justice, of labor, and of peace.

War was formerly a glory; nowadays it is a calamity. Later on it will be condemned as the sad ancestral remains of barbarism and savagery.

The evolution of ideas is that which now rules the world; and if people do not always comprehend this fact it is because the selfish and personal prejudices, passions, and interests disturb and impair their judgment.

In modern progress, the régime of privilege and of force can no longer create rights nor lend security for the future or the aggrandizement of nations; and nowadays those individuals do not render a service to their native land who, while they sacrifice permanent interests, think they can calculate the meridian of their country by the artificial reflections of a moment, transitory and perishable.

The régime of force or of armed peace consumes the vital forces and the resources of nations; and then from the abyss of inequality, of affliction, and danger produced, bursts forth once more the social and political problem demanding, with threats, the reform of the evil, and laying down the maxim that only the ideal of justice, of liberty, and of human solidarity can possibly stand forth, firm and unshaken, amidst the ruins in which the wild ideas of greatness held by the military powers of the world will remain buried forever.

It is not by means of a régime of force, but by that of liberty, peace, and labor, that the United States of America has been enabled to form a marvelous abode of vitality and human progress; and its government, with a perfect insight into the greatness of that country and of its destiny, today addresses the present and the future of our world, and with special interest explains to America the only paths that will [Pg 119]lead the nations to the attainment of tranquillity and well-being.

Once that existence is obtained, you have said, Mr. Root, that it is necessary to live and advance worthily and honorably,—and that this object cannot be attained by a régime of domestic oppression and of privilege, nor by the external one of isolation or of war, but by that of liberty, order, justice, economical progress, moral improvement, intellectual advance, respect for the rights of others, and a feeling of human solidarity. You have clearly stated:

In the life of nations there must always prevail an ideal and a harmony of right, of liberty, of peace, and fraternity, although this can only be obtained by persevering efforts, by sacrifices, and by a long and distressing march. It is necessary to "labor more for the future than for the present" and unite together all the nations engaged in the same great task, inspired by a like ideal and professing similar principles.

Peru has read your words, Mr. Root, with profound attention. She is proud to say that in the modest sphere she occupies in the concert of nations, she accepts your ideas as her own, and declares that they also constitute her profession of faith as regards her international policy.

With your superior judgment you have exactly comprehended the difficulties, critical moments, and convulsions which the countries of this continent have undergone in order to establish a republican government, together with a [Pg 120]régime of liberty and democracy. They are still in the first period of their development and have yet many problems to solve.

To develop the immense resources and wealth with which nature has so wonderfully endowed these countries; to render their territory accessible to labor and civilization by opening up means of communication, granting all facilities and giving security for the life, health, and welfare of their inhabitants; to obtain the population which their immense territories require: to educate and instruct the people, making them understand their liberty, their duties, and their rights; to develop their faculties and energies, their labor forces, their industrial and commercial capacity and power; to elevate their moral dignity; to consolidate and strengthen the national unity; to insure definitely the government of the people, in justice, in order, and in peace; to attract capital and foreign immigration; to develop and give impulse to commercial relations with other countries; to maintain a frank and true international harmony and solidarity; to respect all mutual and reciprocal rights and settle all disagreements by friendly, just, and honorable means—to perform, in short, the work of human civilization; these are undoubtedly the points which ought to occupy, first of all, the thoughts of the administration of these countries, in order to secure their tranquillity, their welfare, and their aggrandizement, just as the United States have secured theirs by the genius of their people and the power of their ideals.

If the nations of America, instead of living apart from each other and separated by distrust, threats, and quarrels—which unsettle them, rendering their energy and development fruitless, just as they have kept up a state of anarchy, for a long time, in their internal existence—would unite themselves together by the natural ties which the community of their origin, of their civilization, of their necessities, and [Pg 121]their destinies clearly indicate, we should then witness the realization of the ideal you have conceived of a great, prosperous, and happy America; the union of sister republics, free, orderly, laborious, lovers of justice, knowledge, sciences, and arts, coöperating, each one and all of them worthily and effectively, for the realization of the great work of human civilization and culture.

The standard and observance of justice should bring about the definite disappearance of the disagreements which may have caused separation among the South American countries, just as family quarrels are effaced on the exhibition of a just and generous sentiment of sincere brotherhood and harmony which vibrates throughout this continent as an intense aspiration of the American soul, and as a noble ideal of concord and of justice.

It is never too late to recognize what is right and to proceed with rectitude. My memory suggests an important event some few years back in the history of the relations between Peru and the United States, described most correctly by the representative of your government as one of those most worthy of note in the annals of diplomacy. I refer to the serious question which arose in 1852 between our respective countries relative to the Lobos guano islands, when the United States held that they did not belong to the territory and sovereignty of Peru, and that as they had been occupied by American citizens your country would uphold these parties in the work of exploitation; but as soon as the Government of the United States, after a lengthened and lively controversy, became convinced of the right which Peru had on her side, it at once spontaneously put an end to the question by a memorable note of its Secretary of State, recognizing the absolute sovereignty of Peru over those islands and declaring that "he makes this avowal with the greater readiness, in consequence of the unintentional injustice done [Pg 122]to Peru, under a transient want of information as to the facts of the case."[3]

When powerful nations, laying aside the instruments of oppression and violence which they have in their hands, rise to such a height of moral elevation, universal respect and sympathy will form the unfading halo of their grandeur.

And thus it happened with the United States of America; and Peru has now the honor once more to express its thanks for the generous friendship and constant interest with which the United States have always paid attention to everything affecting the welfare and progress of our country.

Peru, which is the depositary of the secrets of wondrous and unknown civilizations; which possesses great historical traditions; which was long ago the metropolis of this continent, and then a Spanish colony; which has an enormous extent of territory, with the most varied and wonderful climates and wealth; after grievous domestic and foreign vicissitudes, has firmly taken in hand the great work of its reorganization; has acquired the knowledge of its public and private duties; has given vigor to its character and to its spirit of enterprise; has founded industries and labor centers; has fostered agriculture, mining, and commerce; is using every effort to foster public instruction, increasing the number of schools throughout the country and giving civic education to its children; constructing railroads and public works of national and future interest; opening the minds and intelligence of its people to the currents of culture and modern progress, and endeavoring to establish a solid and well-directed public administration; her fiscal revenues, her trade, and the general capitalization of fortunes have reached in a few years an extraordinary development which demonstrates the potentiality of the country. Enjoying public peace, she is using every effort to maintain a policy of [Pg 123]frank understanding and friendship with all nations, and sustains the principle of arbitration for the solution of all her international controversies, thus giving evident proof of the rectitude of her sentiments, and that the only settlements which she defends and to which she aspires are the honorable settlements dictated by right.

These ideas are likewise yours, Mr. Root. And I invite you, gentlemen, to unite with us in expressing the hope that the principles proclaimed by our enlightened guest, to whom we today offer the homage of our respect and sympathy, may everlastingly rule in America.

Reply of Mr. Root

I should be insensible, indeed, were I not to feel deeply grateful for your courtesy, your hospitality, and your kindness; nor can I fail to be gratified by the words of praise which you, Mr. Minister, have spoken of my beloved country, and by the hearty and unreserved approval with which you have met my inadequate expression of the sentiments the people of my country feel toward their sister republics of South America. The words which you have quoted, sir, do represent the feelings of the people of the United States. We are very far from living up to the standards which we set for ourselves, and we know our own omissions, our failings, and our errors; we know them, we deplore them, and we are constantly and laboriously seeking to remedy them; but we do have underneath as the firm foundation of constitutional freedom, the sentiments which were expressed in the quotations which you have made.

No government in the United States could maintain itself for a moment if it violated those principles; no act of unjust aggression by the United States against any smaller and weaker power would be forgiven by the people to whom the government is responsible.

[Pg 124]Mr. Minister, my journey in South America is drawing to a close. After many weeks of association with the distinguished men who control the affairs of the South American republics, after much observation of the widely different countries I have visited, it is with the greatest satisfaction that I find, in reviewing the new records of my mind, that the impressions with which I came to South America have been confirmed—the impression that there is a new day dawning, a new day of industry, of enterprise, of prosperity, of wider liberty, of more perfect justice among the people of the southern continent.

I find that the difference between the South America of today and the South America as the records show it to have been a generation ago, is as wide as the difference marked by centuries in the history of Europe. Why is it? You are the same people—not so much better than your fathers. The same fields offered to the hand of the husbandman their bounteous harvests then as now; the same incalculable wealth slept in your mountains then as now; the same streams carried down from your mountain sides the immeasurable power ready to the hand of man for the production of wealth then as now; the same ocean washed your shores ready to bear the commerce of the world then as now. Whence comes the change? The change is not in material things, but in spiritual things. The change has come because in the slow but majestic progress of national development, the peoples of South America have been passing through a period of progress necessary to their development, necessary to the building of their characters, up from a stage of strife and discord, of individual selfishness, of unrestrained ambition, of irresponsible power, and out upon the broad platform of love for country, of national spirit, of devotion to the ideal of justice, of ordered liberty, of respect for the rights of others; because the individual characters of the peoples of the South [Pg 125]American republics have been developed to that self-control, to that respect for justice toward their fellowmen, to that regard for the rights and feelings of others which inhere in true justice. The development of individual character has made the collective character competent for self-government and the maintenance of that justice, that ordered liberty, which gives security to property, security to the fruits of enterprise, security to personal liberty, to the pursuit of happiness, to the home, to all that makes life worth living; and under the fostering care of that character, individual and national, the hidden wealth of the mountains is being poured out to enrich mankind; under the fostering care of that character, individual and national, new life is coming to the fields, to the mines, to the factories, to commerce, to all the material interests of South America.

Mr. Minister, this is but a part of a great world movement on a wider field. It is no idle dream that the world grows better day by day. We cannot mark its progress by days or by years or by generations; but marking the changes by the centuries mankind advances steadily from brute force, from the rule of selfishness and greed toward respect for human rights, toward desire for human happiness, toward the rule of law and the rule of love among men. My own country has become great materially because it has felt the influence of that majestic progress of civilization. South America is becoming great materially because it, too, is feeling the influence that is making humanity more human.

We can do but little in our day. We live our short lives and pass away and are forgotten. All the wealth, prosperity, and luxury with which we can surround ourselves is of but little benefit and little satisfaction; but if we—if you and I—in our offices and each one of us in his influence upon the public affairs of his day, can contribute ever so little, but something, toward the tendency of our countries, the [Pg 126]tendency of our race, away from greed and force and selfishness and wrong, toward the rule of order and love—if we can do something to contribute to that tendency which countless millions are working out, we shall not have lived in vain.

You were kind enough to refer to an incident in the diplomatic history of the United States and Peru, when my own country recognized its error in regard to the Lobos Islands and returned them freely and cheerfully to their rightful owner. I would rather have the record of such acts of justice for my country's fair name than the story of any battle fought and won by her military heroes.

We cannot fail to ask ourselves sometimes the question, What will be the end of our civilization? Will some future generation say of us, in the words of the Persian poet, "The lion and the lizard keep the courts where Jamshýd gloried and drank deep"? Will the palaces we build be the problem of the antiquarians in some future century? Will all that we do come to naught? If not—if our civilization is not to meet the fate of all that have gone before—it will be because we have builded upon a firm foundation, a foundation of the great body of the plain, the common people, and upon a character formed on the principles of justice, of liberty, and of brotherly love. Our one hope for the perpetuity of our civilization is that quality in which it differs from all civilizations that have gone before—its substantial basis. I find that here in Peru you are building upon that firm rock.

I find that here individual character is being developed so that the people of Peru are collectively developing the necessary and essential national character.

I find that the riches of your wonderful land are in the hands of a people who are worthy to enjoy them.

I shall take away with me from Peru not only the kindest feelings of friendship and of gratitude but the highest and [Pg 127]most confident hope of a great and glorious future for the people to whom I wish so well.

Mr. Minister, will you permit me the honor of asking all to join me in drinking to the health of His Excellency the President of Peru?

Speech of Doctor Federico Elguera

Mayor of Lima

September 10, 1906

The citizens of Lima welcome you and are glad to have you amongst them.

You arrive at the capital of Peru, after visiting the leading cities in South America and receiving the greetings so justly due the great American nation and your own personal merits.

You are an ambassador of peace, a messenger of good will, and the herald of doctrines which sustain America's autonomy and strengthen the faith in our future welfare.

The wake left by the vessel which has brought you hither serves as a symbol, indicating union, fraternity, and friendship between the northern and southern states of this continent.

You have been able to form a general opinion as to the present state of the political, economical, and social development of Latin America. You also know now what her resources are and to what conditions the growth and progress of this southern continent are due.

After visiting prosperous countries, whose peaceful labor on behalf of civilization has not been disturbed by the sorrows of war, you reach a land where once flourished the greatest empire which ever arose in America.

You have arrived at the ancient metropolis of Spanish America; you are now at the heart of a nation which attracted the world's attention in former days on account of its greatness and the treasures it possessed—a nation which fought [Pg 128]the final battles for independence; and, more important than all, a country which, having been shaken and convulsed by dissension, has risen once more to a life of well-being through a supreme effort of will and a firm belief in its future.

The Peru you are visiting is not only the country of olden times, which tradition has made known for its fabulous wealth, but it is a modern country, versed in the principles of order, industry, and labor.

Nations which live exclusively on the wealth given them by nature make no effort to become greater, nor do they consider their future welfare, but perish, crushed by those whose envy and greed they excite.

On the other hand, those countries whose prosperity is based on the principles of justice, trade, and peace attain success and incite others to follow, contributing thus to the great work of universal civilization.

Unfortunately, this peace, based on those principles, must be sustained abroad, following the example of the Old World, by the acquisition of elements of warfare only useful for the destruction and ruin of men and progress, wasting the national vitality and prosperity, earned by dint of the labors of the citizens and the products of the resources that nature has given.

To change this system for another which will insure to our nations the tranquil possession of what lawfully belongs to them, allowing them to devote their efforts fearlessly to their own advancement, is the noble work to which the endeavors of the great nation which has risen up in the New World should be directed, just as the sun rises in the celestial dome to give light, heat, and life; to maintain the equilibrium and prevent the collision of lesser stars.

Such ideals of civilization and fraternity have always guided the conduct of Peru, whose influence and predominance in other times enabled her to watch over justice, to [Pg 129]render assistance to the weak, to fight oppression, and to defend the rights of America.

For this reason we heartily sympathize with the doctrines you proclaim; for this reason we extend to you, with sincere regard, the hand of friendship; for this reason we feel satisfaction and pride when we behold the marvelous progress of your country.

When nations succeed in reaching the degree of prosperity at which yours has arrived they do not excite envy, but emulation; they do not inspire fear, but confidence.

Ere long the vigorous arm of your people will tear away the strip of land which still keeps us apart; and in the union of the two oceans surrounding our hemisphere may we hope that the spirits of Washington and Bolívar will watch the maintenance of peace and justice and follow the destinies of the republics they created.

Mr. Root, may the days you are about to spend amongst us be happy and agreeable, and may their memory ever accompany you, as ours will ever retain the grateful impression of your visit.

Reply of Mr. Root

I beg you to believe that I appreciate most highly your kind welcome and the friendly terms with which you have greeted me. I did not feel as though I were coming among strangers when I entered Peru; I do not feel that I am treading on unknown soil when I set foot upon the streets of your famous and historic city. I think no city in the world, certainly no city in the western hemisphere, is better known in the United States of America then the city of Lima. Almost every schoolboy in the United States has read in the books of our own historians the story of the founding of this city. We all know the wonderful and romantic history of your four centuries of life; we all know the charms, the graces, and the lovable qualities of your people.

[Pg 130]We know that you are the metropolis of a people who carry the art of agriculture to the highest degree of efficiency, a people frugal, industrious, and of domestic virtue. We have seen with gratification that you are becoming also the metropolis of a people capable of winning from your mountains the inexhaustible wealth they contain, the metropolis of a great mining people; and within the past few years we have rejoiced to see that you are also on the road to become the metropolis of a great manufacturing people.

We have read, too, the story of your struggles—first for independence, then for liberty, then for justice and order and peace; and with the memory of our own struggles for liberty and justice, with the experience of our own trials and difficulties, rejoicing in our own success and prosperity, Mr. Mayor, the feeling of sympathy and rejoicing in your success in overcoming the obstacles that have stood in your way, in your growth in capacity for self-government, in the continuing strength of all the principles of justice and of order and of peace, is universal in my country and among my people.

So I come to you not to make friends, but as a friend among friends. I thank you with all my heart, both for myself and for my people, for the kindness of your welcome and for what I know to be the sincerity of your friendship.

Speech of Senator Barrios

At an Extraordinary Session, September 13, 1906

The Senate of Peru, honored by your official visit, greets you as the representative of a great democratic people, whose juridical methods, founded on liberty and equality, are a model for all the American parliaments.

I regard your visit to our young republic as one of most important and lasting effect in the history of the continent. [Pg 131]When these peoples have reached the power and development which the United States of America enjoys; when the citizens and the public authorities keep within the bounds imposed by the legitimate demands of liberty and justice and the requirements of order and progress; when all this is obtained by means of social well-being, of economic strength, and the political predominance which passes beyond the native land—then the legitimate and noble influence exercised on the life of other peoples is based, not on narrow schemes of national egotism, but on the broad and humane qualities of civilization.

This your government has understood in sending a full representation to these republics, in harmony with the American idea of union and progress, which the illustrious statesman who today presides over the glorious destinies of the American people—to the admiration and respect of all—expounds and accomplishes by his thoughtful work.

In the dawn of the twentieth century may be seen in this part of the world communities of peoples who, with analogous institutions, must fulfill in history a single and great destiny. This part which the future reserves for us cannot be other than an effective and true realization of democracy at home and of justice in international affairs.

Such is the direction in which Peru is developing her energies, after her past and now remote vicissitudes. Such is the ideal that animates her in pursuing her efforts for reconstruction, because a people without an aim in the struggle are unworthy of victory. "It is no more than a scratch on the ground", using the words of your illustrious President.

As the principal co-worker for the exalted international policy of the present government of the United States, receive, Mr. Root, the assurances of the highest consideration and sympathy of the Peruvian Senate.

[Pg 132]Reply of Mr. Root

I feel most keenly the great honor conferred upon me by this distinguished legislative body. I thank you for your courtesy personally; still more I thank you for the exhibition of friendship and sympathy for my country,—an exhibition which corresponds most perfectly to the spirit and purpose actuating my visit to Peru.

I do not think, sir, that any one long concerned in government can fail to come at last to a feeling of deep solicitude for the welfare of the people whom he serves. He must come to feel toward them somewhat as the lawyer does toward his clients, as the physician feels toward his patients, as the clergyman feels toward his parishioners—the advocate, the friend of the people whose interests are committed to his official action; and, as a member of the government of a friendly republic, I feel toward you that sympathy which comes from a common purpose, from engagement in the same task, from being actuated by the same motive. The work of the legislator is difficult and delicate. Governments cannot make wealth; governments cannot produce enterprise, industry, or prosperity; but wise government can give that security for property, for the fruits of enterprise, for personal liberty, for justice, which opens the door to enterprise, which stimulates industry and commercial activity, which brings capital and immigration to the shores of the country that is but scantily populated; and which makes it worth while for the greatest exertions of the human mind to be applied to the development of the resources of the country. How difficult is the task! As the engineer controlling a great and complicated machine does not himself furnish the motive power or do the work, yet by a wrong turn of the lever may send the machine to ruin; so the legislative body cannot itself do the work that the people must do, yet by ill-advised, [Pg 133]inconsiderate, and unwise legislation, it may produce incalculable misery and ruin. The wisdom that is necessary, the unselfishness that is necessary, the subordination of personal and selfish interests that is necessary, has always seemed to me to consecrate a legislative body seeking to do its duty by its country and make it worthy not only of respect but of reverence.

Mr. President and Senators, in your deliberations and your actions, so fraught with results of happiness or disaster for the people of your beloved country, we of the North, the people of a republic long bound to Peru by ties of real and sincere friendship, follow you with sympathy; with earnest, sincere desire that you may be guided by wisdom; that you may work in simplicity and sincerity of heart for the good of your people; and that your labors may be crowned by those blessings which God gives to those who serve His children faithfully and well.

Speech of Doctor Luis F. Villarán

Rector of the University

The University of San Marcos of Lima heartily shares in the national rejoicing consequent on your visit to us, and greets you as the representative of the great republic which holds so many claims to the high esteem and consideration of the Spanish-American states of this continent.

Your country, indeed, furnished valuable coöperation to the Spanish colonies in the establishment of their independence. With the example of your own emancipation, forming one of the greatest events of history, the longing for liberty deepened in their breasts. It gave them courage in the struggle by frank declarations of friendship and sympathy; [Pg 134]bestowed prestige on their cause by recognizing them as free states at a time when their emancipation was not entirely accomplished; and finally added strength to their victory by declaring before the whole world that the independence and integrity of these republics would be maintained at all costs.

You, the Americans of the North, were the founders and defenders of the international and political liberty of these states. Washington, whose greatness has alone been given worthy expression in the inspired words of Byron—Washington, "the first, the last, the best of men", and the glorious group of illustrious citizens who aided him in his work, were the apostles of democracy and of the republic. The American Constitution is an admirable structure, built on the immovable foundations of justice and the national will, which will never be overthrown by social or political upheavals.

Half a century ago, Laboulaye, the illustrious professor of the College of France, said:

This prophecy has been fulfilled; that half-century has passed by, and the great republic goes on its career of greatness, and no eye can discern the ultimate reach of its magnificence.

Today, with the kind name of sister, it sends to us, through you, its worthy messenger, fresh words of encouragement, and invites us in a gracious manner to exert ourselves to greater efforts in the work of peace, of labor, and of the aggrandizement of the American continent.

[Pg 135]You tell us that—

You add:

The University of Lima, an important factor in our national life, accepts on its part, and in harmony with public thought, your noble invitation.

This University, the distinguished creation of the great Spanish monarchs, proud of its noble lineage of five centuries, jealous of its glories, believes it to be its duty and considers it a special honor to offer you, the illustrious messenger, the deep thinker, and the highest co-worker in the government of Theodore Roosevelt, the peacemaker of the world, a post of honor.

The Faculty of Political and Administrative Sciences, founded thirty years ago by the distinguished President Manuel Pardo, and organized by the eminent public writer Pradier Fodéré—this Faculty, which professes, without limitations, the doctrines of international and political law as proclaimed in your country, is the one which with just right offers you this University emblem, which I am pleased to place in the hands of Your Excellency [addressing the President of Peru, and handing him the medal of the University] that you may kindly deliver it to our illustrious guest.

[Pg 136]Speech of Doctor Ramón Ribeyro

Dean of the Faculty of Political and Administrative Sciences

September 14, 1906

The presence among us of the eminent statesman, the Secretary of State of the United States, is indeed of great significance and surpassing importance in the course of our political life, as a singular and unmistakable token of friendship offered by that powerful republic, and as a generous effort to create between the nations of America a stable régime of true understanding and concord.

This work of peace, which is linked with an unvarying respect for the rights of all without regard to the extent of their power, with the close union of their interests, and with a political unity of purpose which springs from the historical origin of the republics of America and the analogy of their institutions, is outlined in a masterly manner in the address which our illustrious guest recently delivered before the congress of American delegates convened at Rio de Janeiro.

The general idea he has expressed therein of the principles of democratic régime, of its severe trials and accidental mistakes, of the virtues which sustain popular government, and of the public education that must prepare and secure it, reveals to us the secret of the prosperity and welfare of the freest and most flourishing republic that has ever existed, and how it has reached the preponderant rank it now occupies among nations.

The noble purpose of our powerful sister of the North, who with a persevering and ever steadfast persistency presses on, is the endeavor to combine continental interests lacking sufficient cohesion, and to promote their common development, thus seeking to reach "the complete rule of justice and peace among nations in lieu of force and war."

[Pg 137]These words of Mr. Root contain, in their severe simplicity, a complete statement of his mission of friendship and advice. He seeks to stimulate the common aim of harmonizing the several interests on a permanent basis upon which is to be established the uniform rule of our common existence, the rule of justice never subservient to private and selfish convenience; a barrier against the arbitrary and brutal decisions of force, nearly always dissembled under plausible forms and motives of international tradition.

There exists a fundamental sentiment which opposes the cumulus of violence and usurpation, which in a great degree constitutes historic international law and corrects the deductions made from purely speculative theories,—a sentiment we accept without demur, and which is asserted like the axioms that serve as the basis and foundation of all reasoning and as a rule inspiring human actions.

This concept is that of a law of coexistence, an intuition of the universal conscience, which all human society upholds by reason of the sole fact of its existence.

But the completely empiric and egotistical manner in which nations have understood and applied the right of sovereign independence in their outward dealings, has, up to the present time, been the almost insuperable obstacle to the universal establishment of a rule of justice which governs, in a permanent and uniform manner, the concourse of interests; each state following one of its own modeling, in accordance with the power it holds and the ambitions it is thereby enabled to pursue.

This tendency, whether open or covert, hardly restrained by the formalities of modern civilization, which seldom succeeds in masking the painful reality, has created the singular spectacle witnessed at the present time,—that is, the undefined aggravation of a military situation which absorbs the [Pg 138]greater part of the resources of nations, wrung from the labor of humanity.

The constant fear of armed aggression has brought about political alliances of a purely transitory character, which assure nothing and, in truth, mean nothing but the mutual imputation of violence and outrage, unhappily but too well demonstrated as justifiable motives for apprehension, by reason of the ominous antecedents of an international régime founded on the supremacy of power.

This precarious guaranty, the fruit of an unsteady and purely political combination which may undergo the most unexpected alterations, cannot assure a stable situation, because it is not in itself the constitution of a common, strong, and commanding law; but, on the contrary, is the distrust of the efficacy of the latter and a certain traditional disdain for a humane and peaceful solution of international affairs.

When the anxiety of danger or an unforeseen obstacle does not prevent recourse to arms, war breaks out if the motive is simply the securing of an advantage sustained by a military power which the country chosen as the object of aggression cannot forcibly check.

True it is that at the present time wars are less frequent and more humane in the manner they are conducted than heretofore; but their causes are ever the same, and the intervals between them are only due to the increasing number of military powers, and to the fear of consequent complications of political interests which it is hazardous to provoke.

Treaties of peace since the seventeenth century, which recorded the birth of the modern law of nations, have on some occasions passed through real transformation in obedience to the law of evolution of human societies, which favor equilibrium, not as established by frail or artificial alliances, nor by combinations of the powerful, but by its ethnical [Pg 139]factors and the amplitude of the national life based primarily on the progress of its institutions, in the ever-increasing intervention of the people in their own affairs and the reality and soundness of its political and civil liberty.

The definite establishment of an international juridical organ, sufficiently authorized and efficacious in its action, is yet a future event. Law in this respect has not as yet gone beyond the limits of a sphere that is at most one of pure speculation,—a worthy ideal, it is true, but one which in actuality has only succeeded in modifying the forms of violence by recording in the customary code of nations a few rules to lessen the brutality of the action, without eliminating the arbitrariness inherent in the sovereignty of arms.

In the work of common security and prosperity that involves the future of this continent, and once carried into effect, will signalize the most effective advance in the law of nations, a prominent part belongs to the great republic that has staked her power and fortune on peace. In this work we have endeavored to coöperate in good faith and without reserve, and in it, also, the ardent sympathy and the boundless confidence of the Peruvian people will follow.

And since the unmerited honor has fallen to my lot to address myself on this memorable occasion to the distinguished personage, to the high dignitary of the nation which represents the greatest intensity of national life on account of the unrestricted development of the human faculties and the most certain and practical evolution of law among nations, I believe that I interpret the unanimous sentiment of my colleagues and of my country, in furnishing him the complete evidence of our cordial adherence and of our faith in the work intrusted to his talents and to his high character.

[Pg 140]Reply of Mr. Root

I am deeply sensible of the great honor which you confer upon me, an honor coming from this primate of the universities of the New World; an honor which receives me into the company of men learned, devoted to science, the disciples of truth, men eminent in the republic of letters. I am the more appreciative of this emblem because I am myself the son of a college professor, born within the precincts of a learned institution, and all my life closely associated with higher education in the United States of America. But I realize, sir, that my personality plays no considerable part in the ceremony of today. Happy is he who comes, by whatever chance, to stand as the representative of a great cause; as the representative of ideas which conciliate the feelings and arouse the enthusiasm of men; for the cause sheds light upon his person, however small, and the honor of his purpose reflects honor on him.

With the greatest satisfaction I have heard from the lips of the learned rector and professor of this university so just and high an estimate of the contributions made by my country to the cause of ordered liberty and justice in the world. I feel that what has been said here today is of far greater weight than any ordinary compliment, because it comes from men who speak under the grave responsibility of their high station as instructors of their countrymen, and after deliberate study, resulting in definite and certain conclusions.

It is a matter of most interesting reflection that after the nations of the Old World, from which we took our being, had sought for many years to gain wealth and strength and profit by the enforcement of a narrow and mistaken colonial policy, the revolt of the colonies of the New World brought to the mother nations infinitely greater blessings even than they were seeking. The reflex action of the working of the spirit [Pg 141]of freedom on these shores of the new hemisphere upon the welfare of the countless millions of the Old World, has been of a value incalculable and inconceivable to the minds against whose mistaken policy we revolted.

I have always thought, sir, that the chief contribution of the United States of America to political science, was the device of incorporating in written constitutions an expression of the great principles which underlie human freedom and human justice, and putting it in the power of the judicial branch of the government to pass judgment upon the conformity of political action to those principles.

When in the fullness of time the hour had come for the new experiment in government among men, and it was the fate of the young and feeble colonies upon the coast of the North Atlantic to make the experiment, the Old World was full of the most dismal forebodings as to the result. The world was told that the experiment of democratic government meant the rule of the mob; that it might work well today, but that tomorrow the mob which had had but half a breakfast and could expect no dinner, would take control; and that the tyranny of the mob was worse than the tyranny of any individual.

The provisions of our constitutions guard against the tyranny of the mob, for at the time when men can deal in harmony with the principles of justice, when no selfish motive exists, when no excited passions exist, the constitution declares the great principles of justice—that no man shall be deprived of his property without due process of the law; that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation; that a person accused of crime shall be entitled to be informed of the charge against him, and given opportunity to defend himself. These provisions are essential to the preservation of liberty; and in the hands of judicial power rests the prerogative of declaring that [Pg 142]whenever a congress, or a president, or a general, or whatever officer of whatever rank or dignity infringes, by a hair's breadth, upon any one of these great impersonal declarations of human rights, his acts cease to have official effect. The substitution of the divine quality of judgment, of the judicial quality in man, that quality which is bound by all that honor, by all that respect for human rights, by all that self-respect can accomplish, to lay aside all fear or favor and decide justly—the substitution of that quality for the fevered passions of the hour, for political favor and political hope, for political ambition, for personal selfishness and personal greed,—that is the contribution, the great contribution, of the American Constitution to the political science of the world.

If we pass to the field most ably and interestingly discussed in the paper to which we have just listened, to the field of international justice, we find the same principle less fully developed. I had almost said we find the need for the application of the same principle. All international law and international justice depend upon national law and national justice. No assemblage of nations can be expected to establish and maintain any higher standard in their dealings with one another than that which each maintains within its own borders. Just as the standard of justice and civilization in a community depends upon the individual character of the elements of the community, so the standard of justice among nations depends upon the standard established in each individual nation. Now, in the field of international arbitration we find a less fully developed sense of impersonal justice than we find in our municipal jurisprudence. Many years ago the Marquis of Salisbury, in a very able note, pointed out the extreme difficulty which lies in the way of international arbitration, arising from the difficulty of securing arbitrators who will act impartially, the trouble being that the world has not yet passed, in general, out of that stage of development in which [Pg 143]men, even if they be arbitrators, act diplomatically instead of acting judicially. Arbitrations are too apt, therefore, to lead to diplomatic compromises rather than to judicial decisions. The remedy is not in abandoning the principle of arbitration, but it is by pressing on in every country and among all countries the quickened conscience, the higher standard, the judicial idea, the sense of the responsibility for impartial judgment in international affairs, as distinguished from the opportunity for negotiation in international affairs. We are too apt, both those who are despondent about the progress of civilization and those who are cynical about the unselfishness of mankind, to be impatient in our judgment, and to forget how long the life of a nation is, and how slow the processes of civilization are; how long it takes to change character and to educate whole peoples up to different standards of moral law. The principle of arbitration requires not merely declarations by governments, by congresses; it requires that education of the people of all civilized countries up to the same standard which now exists regarding the sacredness of judicial functions exercised in our courts.

It does not follow from this that the declaration of the principle of arbitration is not of value; it does not follow that governments and congresses are not advancing the cause of international justice; a principle recognized and declared always gains fresh strength and force; but for the accomplishment of the results which all of us desire in the substitution of arbitration for war, we must not be content with the declaration of principles; we must carry on an active campaign of universal national and international education, elevating the idea of the sacredness of the exercise of the judicial function in arbitration as well as in litigation between individuals. Still deeper than that goes the duty that rests upon us. Arbitration is but the method of preventing war after nations have been drawn up in opposition [Pg 144]to each other with serious differences and excited feelings. The true, the permanent, and the final method of preventing war, is to educate the people who make war or peace, the people who control parliaments and congresses, to a love for justice and regard for the rights of others. So we come to the duty that rests here—not in the whims or the preference or the policy of a monarch, but here, in this university, in every institution of learning throughout the civilized world, with every teacher—the responsibility of determining the great issues of peace and war through the responsibility of teaching the people of our countries the love of justice, teaching them to seek the victories of peace rather than the glories of war; to regard more highly an act of justice and of generosity than even an act of courage or an act of heroism. In this great work of educating the people of the American republics to peace, there are no political divisions. As there is, and has been since the dawn of civilization, but one republic of science, but one republic of letters, let there be but one republic of the politics of peace, one great university of the professors and instructors of justice, of respect for human rights, of consideration for others, and of the peace of the world.

Speech of His Excellency Ricardo Arias

Secretary of Government and Foreign Relations

In the National Assembly, at Panama, September 21, 1906

You have just visited the wealthiest capitals of South America, real emporiums of its richness; there you have been received with great magnificence. Our outward manifestations of joy on the occasion of your visit may, therefore, appear to you very humble; but you can rest assured that none of them will surpass us in the intensity of sympathetic feeling toward your person and toward the noble American people that you so worthily represent.

We Panamanians always remember with gratitude the interest we inspired in you from the very first days of our national existence, and we bear in mind very specially your timely speech delivered before the Union League Club of Chicago,[4] when our destiny was pending on the scales of a decision of your Senate; and therefore we avail ourselves of this joyful opportunity to receive you with the cordiality due to an old and good friend.

It has been, and it is yet, the vehement desire of your country to bring into closer ties, as far as possible, its political and commercial relations with the Latin American countries. The similarity of traditions and institutions, the vicinity and continuity of their territories, and the vast field of commercial expansion which they offer, fully justify that natural, legitimate desire, which is also mutually beneficial; [Pg 146]but there being between yours and the latter countries essential differences of language, race, disposition, and education, there is bound to exist in them the suspicion which is naturally engendered by the unknown, and thus it is that the first steps taken toward the accomplishment of your desire should have been the removal of that suspicion by means of friendly intercourse and mutual acquaintance.

With the tact brought forth by your vast intelligence and learning, you fully understood that those do not love each other well who are not intimately acquainted; and it is owing to this fact that you decided to come in person to visit and to know the Latin Americans by your own observation and study. No doubt you carry with you a joyful impression of the progress and nobleness of disposition of our southern brothers, together with the assurance that your mission will achieve a new and splendid triumph for that American diplomacy whereof you are the skilled director, and the principal object of which is the accomplishment of the desire of which I have already spoken.

Being desirous to coöperate in the aims you have in view and with the hope of dispelling certain existing misunderstandings concerning the motives and intentions which originated our present pleasant relations, in a statement which I recently addressed to your government through its minister plenipotentiary here, I recounted the historical events which engendered our national existence and those special relations which link us to your country, in order that when the seal of diplomatic silence is removed, and that statement becomes public property, the world may know, through the unimpeachable testimony of history, that only ideals of the highest altruism served as a guide to the foundation of our republic and to the celebration of the treaty concerning the construction of the interoceanic canal for our benefit and pro mundi beneficio.

[Pg 147]Panama offers you a splendid field to promote the wise international policy which animates your mind. We being of similar conditions to our Latin American brothers, being linked to your country by the closest ties that can exist between two independent nations, you having the means of exerting decisive influence upon our future life and we being situated in the constant path of universal transit, shall be an evident, shining example of the benefit which your country can confer upon the countries of our race.

The fruits of your influence are already felt and seen. Peace, which we consider a blessing, is a permanent fact. Under its shelter, and under the assurances given us by your illustrious President in his famous letter of October 18, 1904, addressed to the Secretary of War, Panama has entered with firm step upon the path of material, intellectual, and moral development. Those who knew us a little over two years ago, disheartened and ruined by bad government and civil war, and see today the change that has taken place in such a short time, carry to the north and south the gratifying news of our regeneration and thereby contribute to dispel unfounded suspicions regarding yourselves.

These good results are the forerunners of greater benefits in the future, and of the effect of the coöperation of the agents of your government in the progress of the country in general, of their friendly and timely advice, and of their decided moral support whenever there has been need thereof.

I will profit by this opportunity to convey to you the gratitude of the government and people of Panama for the special consideration which has been extended to them by the government of your country. This has been evidenced principally by the diplomatic staff sent to us, from the very able Honorable William I. Buchanan, your first minister plenipotentiary, to the popular Honorable Charles E. Magoon, who can hardly be replaced, and whose separation from the [Pg 148]post he occupies with general satisfaction has caused great regret in the country; and later you sent us, doing us an unmerited honor, in the first place, by special order of your very noble President, your Secretary of War, Honorable William H. Taft, who established the relations between our two countries on the happy basis of mutual cordiality and justice, on which they are now established; and now, Mr. Secretary, you do us the great honor of coming yourself on a visit, placing us on a level with the powerful Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay; and, furthermore, which appears to be the extreme limit of what is possible, you allow us to look forward to the coming visit of your great President, the most distinguished of existing rulers—a special honor which has not been vouchsafed even to the most powerful nations of the world. Panama, overwhelmed with so many marks of appreciation, will preserve them as an everlasting remembrance of gratitude toward your noble country; and in return, though it be but partial, we will follow your advice, we will coöperate without reserve and with enthusiasm in the great work of the interoceanic canal, which is bound to be the most magnificent monument of the grandeur of your people; and we will likewise support you in the mission of American brotherhood which you have undertaken, founding a nation which shall distinguish itself by its love of work, of honor, of order, and of justice.

Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you for your kind welcome to me and for the friendship to my country expressed in that welcome, and I thank you for the honor conferred upon me by this reception in the legislative body which is charged with the government of this republic. You have truly said, sir, that I am deeply interested in the affairs of the people of Panama. At the time of the events which led to your independence, I studied [Pg 149]your history carefully and thoroughly from original documents, in order to determine in my own mind what the course of my country ought to be. From that study have resulted a keen sense of the manifold injuries and injustices under which the people of Panama have suffered in years past, a strong sympathy with you in your efforts and aspirations toward a better condition, a fervent hope for your prosperity and welfare.

It is with the greatest pleasure that I have heard the expressions of friendship for my country, because of my feeling toward you and because of the special relations which exist between the two countries. We are engaged together in the prosecution of a great, a momentous enterprise—an enterprise which has been the dream not only of the early navigators who first colonized your coasts, but of the most progressive of mankind for four centuries. Its successful accomplishment will make Panama the very center of the world's trade; you will stand upon the greatest highway of commerce; more than the ancient glories of the isthmus will be restored; and there lies before you in the future of this successful enterprise wealth, prosperity, the opportunity for education, for cultivation, and for intercourse with all the world such as has never before been brought to any people. The success of the enterprise will unite the far-separated Atlantic and Pacific coasts in my country; it will give to us the credit of great deeds done, and make the Atlantic and Pacific for us as but one ocean; and the success of this enterprise will give to the world a new highway of commerce and the possibility of a distinct and enormous advance in that communication between nations which is the surest guaranty of peace and civilization.

The achievement of this work is to be accomplished by us jointly. You furnish the country, the place, the soil, the atmosphere, the surrounding population among which the [Pg 150]people who do the work are to live and where the work is to be maintained. We furnish the capital and the trained constructive ability which has grown up in the course of centuries of development of the northern continent. The work is difficult and delicate; the two peoples, the Anglo-American and the Spanish-American, are widely different in their traditions, their laws, their customs, their methods of thinking and speaking and doing business. It often happens that we misunderstand each other; it often happens that we fail to appreciate your good qualities and that you fail to appreciate ours; and that with perfectly good intentions, with the best of purposes and kindliest of feelings, we clash, we fail to understand each other, we get at cross purposes, and misconception and discord are liable to arise. Let us remember this in all our intercourse; let us be patient with each other; let us believe in the sincerity of our mutual good purposes and kindly feelings, and be patient and forbearing each with the other, so that we may go on together in the accomplishment of this great enterprise; together bring it to a successful conclusion; together share in the glory of the great work done and in the prosperity that will come from the result.

Mr. President and gentlemen, let me assure you that in the share which the United States is taking and is to take in this work, there is and can be but one feeling and one desire toward the people of Panama. It is a feeling of friendship sincere and lasting; it is a feeling of strong desire that wisdom may control the deliberations of this assembly; that judgment and prudence and love of country may rule in all your councils and may control all your actions; it is a desire and a firm purpose that so far as in us lies, there shall be preserved for you the precious boon of free self-government. We do not wish to govern you or interfere in your government, because we are larger and stronger; we believe that the principle of liberty and the rights of men are more [Pg 151]important than the size of armies or the number of battleships. Your independence which we recognized first among the nations of the earth, it is our desire to have maintained inviolate. Believe this, be patient with us, as we will be patient with you; and I hope, I believe, that at some future day we shall all be sailing through the canal together, congratulating each other upon our share in that great and beneficent work.

Address of the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
His Excellency Vásquez-Cobo

At a Breakfast given to Mr. Root, September 24, 1906

Upon receiving your excellency within the confines of our heroic and glorious Cartagena, I present to you a cordial greeting of welcome, in the name of Colombia, of his excellency the President of the Republic, and in my own.

You return to your own country to enjoy merited honors and laurels after a long tour, giving a hearty embrace of friendship to our sisters, the republics of the South; and in breaking your journey upon our burning shores we receive you as the herald of peace, of justice, and of concord with which the great republic of the North greets the American continent. I trust to God that these walls, the austere witnesses of our glory, will serve as a monument whereby this visit may be noted in history.

The honorable Minister Barrett, the worthy and estimable representative of your excellency's Government, has just completed a journey through a large part of our vast territory; he, better than any one, will be able to tell your excellency what he has seen in our beautiful and fertile valleys and mountains, in our flourishing cities and fields, and among our five millions of lusty, high-minded, peace-loving, and hard-working inhabitants, who today think only of peace and useful and honest toil.

This is the nation that greets you today and with loyalty and frankness clasps the hand of her sister of the North.

Mr. Secretary, upon thanking you for the honor of this visit, I fervently pray that a happy outcome may crown [Pg 154]your efforts in the great work of American fraternity, and I drink to the prosperity and greatness of the United States, to its President, and especially to your excellency.

Reply of Mr. Root

Believe, I beg you, in the sincerity of my appreciation and my thanks for the courtesy with which you have received me, and for the honor which you have shown me. When the suggestion was made that upon my return from a voyage encircling the continent of South America, I should stop at Cartagena for an interview with you, sir, before returning to my own country, I accepted with alacrity and with pleasure, because it was most grateful to me to testify by my presence upon your shores to my high respect for your great country, the country of Bolívar; to my sincere desire that all questions which exist between the United States of Colombia and the United States of America may be settled peacefully, in the spirit of friendship, of mutual esteem, and with honor to both countries. Especially, also, I was glad to come to Colombia as an evidence of my esteem and regard for that noble and great man whom it is the privilege of Colombia to call her President today—General Reyes. I have had the privilege of personal acquaintance with him, and I look upon his conduct of affairs in the chief magistracy of your republic with the twofold interest of one who loves his fellowmen and desires the prosperity and happiness of the people of Colombia, and of a personal regard and friendship for the President himself.

I have been much gratified during my visit to so many of the republics of South America to find universally the spirit of a new industrial and commercial awakening, to find a new era of enterprise and prosperity dawning in the southern continent.

[Pg 155]Mr. Minister and gentlemen, it will be the cause of sincere happiness to me if through the present friendly relations, based upon personal knowledge acquired here, I may do something toward helping the republic of Colombia forward along the pathway of the new development of South America. With your vast agricultural and mineral wealth, with the incalculable richness of your domain, the wealth and prosperity of Colombia are sure to come some time. Let us hope that they will come while we are yet living, in order that you may transfer to your children not the possibility but the realization of the increased greatness of your country. Let us hope that some advance of this new era of progress may come from the pleasant friendships formed today. While I return my thanks to you for your courtesy, let me assure you that there is nothing that could give greater pleasure to the President and to the people of the United States of America than to feel that they may have some part in promoting the prosperity and the happiness of this sister republic.

I ask you to join me in drinking to the peace, the prosperity, the order, the justice, the liberty of the republic of Colombia, and long life and a prosperous career in office to its President—General Reyes.

Speech of Mr. Root

At a Banquet of the International Club in Honor of Mr. Root and the Mexican Envoys,
September 28, 1907

The Panama Canal is now an unquestionable certainty. Relations between the United States and the different nations which are grouped around the Caribbean Sea, are becoming every day closer. It is impossible to anticipate at present the tonnage which will pass through that waterway, nor can we predict the number of vessels which will be required for its transportation; but we do already know, that never in the world has a new and universal trade route been opened, without bringing about a change in the history of the entire world. And it is for this reason I feel that upon us has fallen the mission of assisting all those nations [Pg 160]which will find themselves involved in the new influence. At present we are doing everything within our power to assist Cuba in establishing self-government. We have endeavored to stretch out our hand to unhappy Santo Domingo, ruined by its civil wars, so that it may rise and also govern itself. We have plunged into a discussion which really has no further object than that of settling the disputes and the differences which have arisen between the United States and the republic of Colombia. And all this we do, not only through the new interest which the prosperity of all those countries develops in ourselves, but principally through a profound comprehension of the truth contained in the principle above enunciated, that a nation only lives as far as it demonstrates its right to existence by its usefulness to humanity. And one of the most conclusive guarantees of the success of this effort is found in the solid and loyal friendship which exists between the United States and Mexico, with which nation, day after day, and year after year, we are working within the limits of a peaceful and humanitarian national policy, which at the same time is wise and intelligent. Our two republics, now so prosperous, harmoniously work to promote a similar prosperity amongst their sister republics to the south; and I sincerely hope that this happy state of affairs may be prolonged for a long time to come, and that success may finally crown our united efforts. In this manner the two republics will fully prove their right to live, and will show the world that their citizens are able and competent to govern themselves without the assistance of either kings or aristocracies, seeing that they can fill the highest mission of man, which consists in the maintenance of law, order, justice, liberty, and peace....

I also desire to say how greatly I appreciate the distinguished courtesy shown to myself and to the Government of the United States, by the long journey which has been [Pg 161]undertaken by the committee charged with the representation of President Díaz and the Mexican Government, crossing the frontier of their country into the state of Texas, in order to give me welcome on the occasion of the visit I am about to make. Indeed, it causes me the greatest satisfaction to be able to declare, without any reserve whatever, that this action is entirely in accordance with the conduct observed by Mexico in all international matters which have arisen between the two countries, since I have taken any part in the government of our own. With an immense boundary line which is only marked by the changeable and capricious currents of the Río Grande; with the constant traffic across our common frontier; with thousands of Americans residing in that country; with the countless number of enterprises in which Americans are interested on the other side of the Río Grande, and with the resources of the two countries, there are always a number of questions to be solved by the representatives of one and the other, and there can be no doubt that they will always be solved with the same good-will and courtesy of which such evident proof has been given by General Rincón Gallardo, by Mr. Limantour and by their travelling companions in coming here tonight.[5]

Speech of Welcome by General Pedro Rincón Gallardo

September 29, 1907

Especially appointed for this purpose by the President, in behalf of the government of the republic, we have the honor to tender to your excellency the most cordial welcome on your happy arrival in Mexico, whose people, of whom we [Pg 162]must consider ourselves the faithful echo, pledge the continued good relations with the people of the United States. The reception is an homage to your well-known merits, and the people are anxious to receive your excellency as their illustrious guest and highly esteemed friend. The people of Mexico, during your excellency's brief sojourn amongst us, will show how true is their esteem for you and how proud they will feel on the occasion of this visit of your excellency, accompanied by Mrs. and Miss Root; an event the memory of which will remain forever engraved on our hearts.

Mr. Root's Reply

I beg you to believe that I am highly appreciative of the cordial and hospitable greeting with which I have been received by you on the threshold of your beautiful and wonderful country. I hope that the visit which now begins will not merely give me personally the opportunity I have long desired, to see this great country and its marvels, to meet its public men, and especially to see its illustrious President. I hope that it will also serve, as it is intended to serve, as evidence of the desire of the government and people of the United States to strengthen and increase the steadfast friendship which they have long felt for the people and government of Mexico.

Speech of Porfirio Díaz

President of the Republic

At a Banquet at the National Palace, October 2, 1907

In the name of the Mexican people and of their government I tender you this banquet, acknowledging thereby those sentiments of sympathy which are felt and which distinguish [Pg 163]one and another, the people of the United States, the great citizen who presides over its high destinies, and the illustrious statesman who honors us with his interesting and very welcome visit. Bonds of sympathy and fellow-feeling, Mr. Secretary, which are not new, but which germinated in the breasts of our fathers at the inception of the independence of our country, our fathers who contemplated with patriotic enthusiasm the daring exploits in war and imitated the political examples set by your heroic liberators; sentiments which we, of subsequent generations, have also cultivated; because, in studying the causes which produce the prodigious national prosperity with which your country has astounded the world, we become accustomed to admire, to magnify perhaps, the indomitable will, energy, labor, and civic and patriotic solidarity which constitute the energetic and abundantly productive type of your countrymen.

The Mexican people, Mr. Secretary, are honored as well as pleased to have you in their midst—honored, because you are the fountain of honor as a noted statesman of our century, and highly pleased because your clear and rapid conception promises us that, seeing with your own eyes the kind and well-merited feelings with which we harbor your countrymen who seek in our land the generous treatment proportionate to their intelligence, perseverance, and indefatigable labor, you may affirm that in Mexico we profess ideas which, carried out in cordial reciprocity, must make happy and loyal friends the two nations which are united by contiguity.

In conclusion, gentlemen, I extend my thanks to the distinguished ladies who have had the kindness to honor and embellish our tables with their presence; and permit me to invite you to drink with them and with me, hoping that the national harmonizing of individual rights and just liberties, which is called the United States of America, may be [Pg 164]perpetuated in its increasing moral and material progress, which has given prestige throughout the world to government by popular representation.

I drink also to the personal happiness of that great friend of universal peace, president of the grand republic, the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, and to the hope that our illustrious guest and his lovable family may find in Mexico a reception as pleasing as their interesting visit is to the Mexican people.

Mr. Root's Reply

I thank you most sincerely for the kind and gracious words which you have used regarding my poor self, regarding my President, from whom I bring to you and to the Mexican people a message of deep and warm friendship and good wishes, and regarding my country, which I believe is fitly represented by this brief visit of friendship, made with the purpose, not of creating, for they are already created, but of increasing and advancing the ideas of amity and mutual helpfulness between two great republics.

I cannot keep my mind from reverting to a former visit by an American Secretary of State to the republic of Mexico. Thirty-eight years ago, Mr. Seward, a really great American Secretary of State, visited your country. How vast the difference between what he found and what I find! Then was a country torn by a civil war, sunk in poverty, in distress. Now I find a country great in its prosperity, in its wealth, in its activity and enterprise, in the moral strength of its just and equal laws, and unalterable purpose to advance its people steadily along the pathway of progress.

Mr. President, the people of the United States feel that the world owes this great change chiefly to you. They are grateful to you for it, for they rejoice in the prosperity and happiness of Mexico. We believe, sir, that we are richer [Pg 165]and happier because you are richer and happier, and we rejoice that you are no longer a poor and struggling nation needing assistance, but that you are strong and vigorous, so that we can go with you side by side in demonstrating to the world that republics are able to govern themselves wisely; side by side in helping to carry to our less fortunate sisters the blessing of peace.

Mr. President, I have said that we need not create, but wish to strengthen, the ties of friendship. It is my hope that through more perfect understanding, through personal intercourse, through the more complete unity of action to be acquired by the individual intercourse of the men of Mexico and the men of the United States, not only may our friendship be increased, but our power for usefulness—for that usefulness which demonstrates the right of nations to be perpetuated—may be enlarged.

For the generous hospitality, for the spirit of friendship with which you and the people of Mexico have welcomed me as a representative of the United States, I thank you and them, and I hope that there may be found in this visit and in this welcome not merely the pleasure of a holiday, but a step along the pathway of two great nations in their service to humanity.

Speech of Governor Guillermo de Landa y Escandón

October 3, 1907

Last year, in accordance with the wishes of your President, you undertook to visit and become acquainted with Latin America, and for that purpose you made an extended voyage which was fruitful in happy results.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century adventurous Spanish and Portuguese navigators sailed from the Atlantic [Pg 166]into the Pacific, effecting important discoveries of which the object was to rescue from darkness populous regions which, since then, have become part of the civilized world. You have sailed over nearly the same route four centuries later, proclaiming a message of peace and concord in all those regions whose inhabitants greeted you with acclamations from the northern ports of Brazil around to those of Colombia and Panama.

You are now crowning your mission by visiting the Mexican Republic, and you arrive at this capital animated by the same aspirations which actuated you when you set foot on the cruiser Charleston in the port of New York on July 4, 1906.

Your aims are so noble and great that they cannot but be sincere. The course you have set before yourself would not be possible for one whose head did not harbor the loftiest ideals, and whose heart did not quicken to the finest sentiments.

Your President is a great man; rectitude and loyalty are the dominant features of his character. A soldier, and a brave one, he knows what war is, and therefore he abhors it with all the force of his large heart; the war which engages his thoughts is war upon war itself.

It would not befit me at this moment, much as I should wish to do so, to extol the character of the supreme magistrate of my country. But I may say that, though a soldier like your own President, he detests war in the same degree, and that the ideals and aims of both these great men are alike directed toward an object sublime and desired of all men—peace.

The nations which both statesmen govern follow their lead in this respect with energetic unanimity; and it is safe to augur the happiest results from a concert so auspicious.

You, sir, second the purposes of both of those leaders with a zeal which nothing can cool; your mind has been formed [Pg 167]at the bar—in the school of justice; and, like our two Presidents, you abominate injustice and insincerity.

You also know what war is, and you share the aversion of the two great American statesmen who are the standard bearers of peace in the new world.

Welcome, excellency, to this ancient capital of the empire of Montezuma. She opens her gates to you and to your family, and offers you the sincerest hospitality, hoping you may preserve of her recollections as lasting as will be her memory of the visit of one whose happy mission it has been to carry everywhere the spirit of peace, good-will, and fraternity.

Mr. Root's Reply

Governor Landa, your welcome now is as it has been from the first instant of my visit, both graceful and grateful. I have been most delighted by the many interesting things I have seen here.

Above all things, I feel impelled to say that the most interesting thing in Mexico, so far as my knowledge goes, is your President. It has seemed to me that of all the men now living, Porfirio Díaz, of Mexico, is best worth seeing. Whether one considers the adventurous, daring, chivalric incidents of his early career; whether one considers the vast work of government which his wisdom and courage and commanding character have accomplished; whether one considers his singularly attractive personality, no one lives today whom I would rather see than President Díaz. If I were a poet, I would write poetry; if I were a musician, I would compose triumphal marches; if I were a Mexican, I should feel that the steadfast loyalty of a lifetime could not be too much in return for the blessings that he had brought to my country. As I am neither poet, musician, nor Mexican, but only an American who loves justice and liberty and hopes to [Pg 168]see their reign among mankind progress and strengthen and become perpetual, I look to Porfirio Díaz, the President of Mexico, as one of the great men to be held up for the hero worship of mankind.

Speech of Licentiate Manuel Calero

President of the Chamber

October 3, 1907

Honorable Secretary of State, welcome; the national representation, the chamber that constitutionally symbolizes that people which in this section of the western hemisphere, is ever striving, ever struggling to attain a higher civilization, to win for itself a respected name among nations, feels pleasure in welcoming you to its midst. You are at the present moment the symbolical representation of a great and friendly people and the personification of its brotherly feelings toward us. You, honored sir, are our guest; and were the traditional chivalry of our people not sufficient justification for our cordiality toward you, the high character of your office, the luster encircling your name, and the mission of peace which brings you to this land, would all move us to open our arms to you, to show you what we are and what we would be, so that, on returning to your country, you may tell the millions of your fellow-citizens who will hang upon your words with rapt attention, that Mexico is not that mythical land, which legends shroud in the mists of the adventurous romance of the old Latin countries, restless, mistrustful, dreamy; nay rather, you will tell them, that it is a sturdy young nation, starting out, aye, already started, on the highroad of civilization and industrialism; that it pursues lofty ideals and strives to attain them, that its heart beats at the thought of universal solidarity, that it sees in the foreigner a friend, that it answers your brotherly message [Pg 169]with a frank and kindly greeting, free from resentment for the past, and trusting in the omens of the future.

Your name is not unknown to us. We have followed the trail of your labors and triumphs for the last decade. We know, too, the people from whom you have come; and setting aside all false modesty, can truly say we know them better than they know us. The last thirty years of free intercourse between this country and yours have seen an overflow of men and money from north to south; we have dashed the mist from our eyes and have endeavored to wring from you, more fortunate and wiser than ourselves, the secrets of your greatness and the causes of your astounding prosperity.

That you once wronged us, that, when burning political, economic, and humane problems beset you, the course of justice was momentarily hampered, we have not forgotten; we have not. But as the years have rolled on you have won back, inch by inch, your place in our affections; the intercourse every day has become closer and closer between your people and ours, stepping over the bounds set by race and tongue, infusing new life into this feeling of mutual good will and friendship, which tends to establish harmony of ideals and close similarity of destiny.

So it is happening and so should it be. Offsprings of the same continent, your institutions point out the path for the development of ours, your mental and moral advance fires the vigor of our spirit, your tireless activity excites us to action; in a word, your progress uplifts our noblest ambitions. We are both marching on to the victories of civilization, although your lot, in the course of history, shall have been that of forerunners.

One of your scholars has said that the American nation has rendered five eminent services to the world's civilization. True are his words. For the American nation has, in the first place, sustained by word and by deed, the principle that [Pg 170]the medium of bringing differences between nations to an end, is arbitration; it has accepted and practised religious toleration as has no other nation; it has known how to raise the dignity of man, by giving to the political vote the development which a true democracy calls for; it has thrown open its doors to all such as seek progress and liberty in your country, and it has taken them in to form part of one and the same great soul; and lastly, it has known, as no other nation has, how to scatter abroad material benefits, the very basis of the moral and mental perfection of the individual. To these factors and to others derived from the conditions of its privileged soil, is due the great importance of the American people as a powerful force in the progress of humanity.

I shall not attempt to analyze in their essence these five glorious victories of civilization. My mind is dazed by the victory of democracy through the true action of the suffrage. This is the germ, the primary origin of your greatness as a people, which makes you the beacon for the eager gaze of all those who, down-trodden by power or by poverty, seek under the shelter of your wise laws, the guarantee of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to quote the sacred formula of your Declaration of Independence; this it is which explains why neither the difference of race and language, nor the morbid influence produced in the mind by secular despotism, nor the infinite diversity of religion, is an obstacle to the hundreds of thousands of helpless beings whom year by year the Old World is casting on your shores, to be transformed into citizens and become identified with the new fatherland, as if the national spirit had breathed into the souls of these new arrivals love for your glorious traditions and your lofty ideals of liberty, justice, and progress. The American fatherland is not hemmed in by battlements; it is the redeemer of all miseries, it is the refuge of all those who, [Pg 171]in their flight from tyranny, like your illustrious Carl Schurz, exclaim: ubi libertas, ibi patria!

We, less blessed by fortune, but no whit less rich in ideals and lofty aspirations, find pleasure in studying your people. We shall endeavor to reap benefits from the lessons of your success, and we shall try to avert the great evils which are born of a prosperity such as yours, and which would undermine the walls of your civilization, did there not arise from out of your midst men of great virtue and indomitable strength of will, armed for the fray against guilt, combating evil, true apostles of right. Theodore Roosevelt is such a man, the most conspicuous of our times, the ardent devotee of justice, who claims for good citizens, for the rich and the poor, the proud and the humble, perfect equality and liberty unrestrained, without which lawful energies may not expand; and demands alike for all equal justice, equal treatment, "a square deal"—to use his own concise and vigorous phrase.

This it is which explains the whole-hearted prestige won by your Chief Executive within the limits of your own country, and which has passed the bounds of your territory and been merged in the international prestige accorded to him by all cultured nations. And, in no small measure, did you with your knowledge, your ceaseless labor and your delicate tact contribute to this happy end. Thus the world has seen how the voice of Theodore Roosevelt, outreaching the roar of the cannons of Mukden, put an end to the war which in shame to human culture heralded the dawn of the twentieth century; it has seen how, in deference to his initiative, the cultured nations of the world hastened to meet at The Hague Conference, and how, as a reward for his constant efforts, united with those of the glorious Chief Executive of this republic, who now receives you with every mark of honor, the disorders in the neighboring republics to the south were [Pg 172]pacified, and these are now making ready for a work of peace and harmony,—the beginning of that longed-for era of prosperity.

The international importance achieved by your government and your country had its beginning when President Monroe gave to the world his famous doctrine, so debated, so misunderstood, and perhaps so dangerous, if—as has sometimes been thought—it might be used as a means of illegitimate preponderance at the expense of the sovereignty of other nations. The Monroe Doctrine embodies, nevertheless, and we should not hesitate to say so, the first principle of international law of a great part of this continent, if not the whole. This it means for us Mexicans, ever since the President of the Republic announced it to Congress in his memorable message of April, 1896, received with general acclamation by the national representatives, and later by the whole country. The integrity of the nations of this continent is of vital interest to all, collectively, and not alone to the country immediately affected. Any attack on this integrity should constitute an offense in the eyes of the other nations of America. Accordingly, one of our great thinkers and statesmen has wisely said: "America for Americans means each country for its own people, to the exclusion of all foreign interference, whether this comes from other countries of this continent or whether it comes from any other nation whatsoever. And we in our trying struggles of the past have given ample proof to the whole world of our homage to independence and our hatred of all foreign intervention"—to use President Díaz's own words.

From among the various formulas adopted by the interpreters of the Monroe Doctrine, we Latin American nations should gather and keep as a precious pledge, that which Theodore Roosevelt embodied in his famous speech delivered on the occasion of the opening of the Buffalo Exposition. [Pg 173]Addressing the republics of the New World, the illustrious statesman, then Vice-President of the United States of America, said:

And you, honored sir, have not been less explicit. Your words, pronounced on a memorable occasion during your recent visit to South America, before all the free peoples of this continent gathered together at the third Pan American Conference, should be disclosed, should reach the ears of my fellow-citizens, for these very words of yours, as President Roosevelt solemnly declared in his last message to the Congress of the United States, have revealed to all who doubted the spirit of complete equality which inspired the Monroe Doctrine, what is the attitude of the United States towards the other American republics, and what its purposes. You declared then:

You spoke words of truth, and know, honored sir, that those are also our aspirations, those our aims; and thither we wend our way, with the constant steadiness which the Mexican people showed in its struggles for liberty and the attainment of the great principles already embodied in our constitution and laws. Deign to believe it, and when you return to the fatherland, pray do not ever forget that, if we have showered on you the hospitality such as is only offered to a friend, it is because your ideals are ours, because we citizens of this land, no less than those of yours, accept as the supreme dogma of our political religion the immortal words of President Lincoln, that "government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Mr. Root's Reply

I am doubly sensible of the high honor which you have conferred upon me by this audience today. I am sensible also of the great mark of friendship to my country involved in the reception of one of her officers in this distinguished manner by the lawmaking—the popular lawmaking—body of this great republic. I sincerely hope, not merely that I personally may never do aught to show myself unworthy of your consideration, but that my country may forever, in its attitude and conduct toward the people of Mexico, justify your kindness.

You will gather from my words, which your president has been good enough to quote in the admirable and graceful address he has just made, that I am one of those who believe [Pg 175]that the old days when nations sought to enrich themselves by taking away the wealth of others by force, ought to pass and are passing. I believe, and I am happy to know that the great mass of my countrymen believe, that it is not only more Christian, not only more honorable, but also more useful and beneficial for all nations, and especially all neighboring nations, to unite in helping each other create more wealth, so that all may be rich and prosperous, rather than to seek to take it away from each other.

I find here in this sanctuary of laws, in this body charged with making the laws, the most interesting, the most important, and the most sacred thing in the republic of Mexico. I am not unmindful of the difficulties which confront you, gentlemen of the Chamber of Deputies, in the task that you perform for your country. The discussion of public questions, the reconciliation of differing opinions, the adjustment of different local interests all over this vast country, the reaching of just conclusions, the compromises necessary so often between different interests, present to the members of a legislative body of a republic difficulties little understood by the people at large and requiring for their solution the highest order of ability, self-denial, and love of country. I beg you to take my testimony, coming from another land long engaged in grappling with the same kind of difficulties; I beg you to take my testimony that the troubles of your body in legislating for your country, and those which you are to encounter in the future, are not peculiar to your country, to your race, to your institutions, to your customs. They inhere in the task before every legislative body representing the vastly differing interests, opinions, sentiments, and desires of a people.

Mr. President and gentlemen of the Chamber of Deputies, it is my sincere desire and the desire of my countrymen, that in the performance of this task for the republic of Mexico [Pg 176]you may be guided in wisdom and in peace. May you possess that self-restraint which is so necessary to the preservation and security for property, for enterprise, and for life, guarding you always from unwise extremes, leading you always to test every question of legislation by sound principles taught by history. May you always, and every one of you, be so inspired by love of country, that you may be able to sink all personal ambitions and interests, to do only that which is for the benefit of your country; so that through your actions and inspired by your example the spirit of nationality which I see growing among the people of Mexico, may continue to increase until it is the living and controlling spirit of all the people from the Gulf to the Pacific. May you have in your deliberations and your action something of the self-sacrificing spirit of the humble priest Hidalgo, which, without ambition on his part, with no other motive but the love of his country, has written his name among the great benefactors of humanity. May you have something of the patriotism and genius of Benito Juárez, which enabled him with his strong hand to take Mexico out of the conditions of warring factions when individual ambition rose above the love of country. May you have something of that constancy and high courage which has made for the soldier and the statesman who now sits in the chair of the chief magistrate of Mexico, a place in history above scores and hundreds of emperors and kings with high-sounding title and no record in life but the desire for personal advancement.

And so, members of the Chamber of Deputies—may I say, my friends—brothers in the work of seeking by law to advance the peace and prosperity of mankind—may you be able to bring in the rule of justice, of ordered liberty, of peace, of happy homes, of opportunity for children to rise, of opportunity for old age to pass its days in peace. My brother workers in the cause of popular government, of [Pg 177]human rights and human happiness, I thank you for the opportunity to say, "God bless you in your labors", which will always have my sympathy and the sympathy of my people.

Speech of General C. H. M. y Agramonte

At the Mexican Country Club, October 4, 1907

As chairman of a committee of the American colony, the pleasant duty devolves upon me to welcome, in behalf of the colony, an illustrious countryman, and a prominent member of the official family of the President of the United States, the Secretary of State.

The opportunity has been afforded us through one of those many acts of exquisite courtesy for which the Government of Mexico is noted in its intercourse with those of us from north of the Río Grande, and to which unfailing courtesy we can all bear witness.

For the kindly spirit that actuated the Mexican Government in breaking in upon the official program for the entertainment of its guest—our countryman—and placing him in our hands for this occasion, we are extremely grateful. For the graceful act of the Mexican Country Club in permitting us the use of this magnificent building in which to entertain our guest there is no lack of appreciation.

As Americans, knowing our own people and our own country as we do, and keenly alive to everything that may obtain for its weal or its woe, our very absence from it making our hearts grow fonder of it, the joy we feel in welcoming one who has held the bright banner of our country full high advanced, is greater than any words of mine can express.

We love our country; we love it as the blessed consummation of human hopes. The world has been full of sorrow. The tearful eyes of humanity have never been dry; but in this [Pg 178]western world, on this new continent, stretching from ocean to ocean, in the maturity of the ages has come forth a nation whose institutions and example shall aid in lifting the nations of the world into the sunlight of God's glorious liberty.

We have no king, no royal family upon which can be centered the loyal emotions of a great people. To us the only representative of the whole people is the glorious banner "thick sprinkled" with stars and striped with vivid red and white.

You, sir, have held aloft that banner. You have added to the glory of our country.

On the sacred field of Gettysburg, ground consecrated by torrents of American blood, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, gave to us a classic which will live while our country exists. You, sir, in your exposition of the attitude of the United States toward other countries, have enunciated a classic that also will live and be a bond of friendship between us and all the nations of this hemisphere.

Gentlemen, I will read to you that classic:

With such dignified sentiments resounding in our ears, have we not reason to be proud of our guest?

And now, sir, in the name of the American colony of Mexico, I bid you welcome. Yes, thrice welcome! May every choice blessing attend upon you and those you hold dear.

[Pg 179]Mr. Root's Reply

It is a long way from the Bowery, but I feel quite at home! It is delightful to feel that my country is represented in this land of beauty by so many handsome and cheerful-looking men; it is delightful to see the evidences of prosperity in every American here, and it is delightful to see that that subtle, indefinable quickening of spirit that comes from separation has given to each of you, exiles in a foreign land, a new significance in every star and stripe and every reference to the old flag and the old home.

Your welcome is very grateful to me; your kind expressions I most heartily reciprocate. I do not wish to return evil for good by preaching, but it occurs to me that you have—I will not say that you have left your country for your country's good—you have not abandoned your opportunities to serve her; you have rather reached the position where you have new opportunities for service as American citizens. One serious fault which formerly existed to a very great extent among Americans, and which has been growing less, was a certain provincial and narrow way of looking at foreigners. There was a good deal of truth underlying the observations and characterizations of Mr. Dickens which made our people so angry sixty or seventy years ago. One of our American humorists refers to the people of a western mining camp as looking upon a newcomer with the idea that he had the defective moral quality of being a foreigner. Now the residuum of that old feeling stands in the way of American trade and American intercourse generally with other nations. No one can do more to hasten the disappearance of that attitude than you who have experienced the friendship and kindliness of the people of this foreign country; you who have learned by your personal experience how many and how noble are the characteristics of this foreign people; you [Pg 180]who have been able to see how much we Americans may well learn from them; you can, each one of you, be a teacher of your countrymen in your continued intercourse with your homes and your home associates in the gospel of courtesy and kindliness toward all mankind.

There is one other thought that comes naturally to my mind. You not only have not abandoned your duties toward your country by coming to this foreign land, but you have acquired new duties toward the community and the nation which has given you welcome and shelter and prosperity. There is underlying all the materialism and the hard practical sense of the American people regulating its own government for its own interests—there is underlying that a certain idealism which carries a conception of a missionary calling to spread through the length and breadth of the world the blessing of justice and liberty and of the institutions which we believe make for human happiness and human progress. That mission is to be fulfilled, not by making speeches and the giving of advice, the writing of books, or even the publication of newspapers; it can best be fulfilled by personal influence and intercourse of men one with another. No American who is in a foreign land can help representing his country; its honor and its good name rest upon each one of us the moment we cross the border. You not only represent your country, but you have a duty to perform toward the country in which you live, giving to her and to her people through your efforts and all your association the best contribution that your training as American citizens, that the traditions of centuries of American life enable you to give, toward the maintenance of law and order, toward the promotion of all ideas that you have been taught in your youth to consider sacred, toward holding up the hands of authority, toward the inculcation of the sentiment of loyalty, toward the perpetuity of the [Pg 181]government which gives you security for your lives and your property in your new home.

I have one prominent thought in meeting you today; it is, while you continue to be good, loyal American citizens, you should be good and loyal Mexican residents. I can no better voice the sentiment of all of my countrymen here I know, and I can no better represent the feelings of our friends who remain at home, than by asking you to rise and join me in drinking to the long continuance of life, strength, and usefulness for the man who, more than any other, or all others, has given you the opportunities that you now enjoy, President Porfirio Díaz.

Speech of Licentiate Luis Méndez

President of the Academy

At the Installation of Mr. Root as an Honorary Member, October 4, 1907

Honored Sir: Because of the office I am temporarily holding, I am given the unexpected honor of placing in your hands the diploma that entitles you to honorary membership in the Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence.

You have come to the country of snowy mountains and flowering valleys which perfume our tropical breezes, preceded by the meritorious fame of having preserved always, unblemished during the course of your fruitful life, the reputation and profession of a lawyer, of having penetrated the secrets of the juridical science and of consecrating today all your energies and abilities to the service of your country.

By a happy coincidence, you will find engraved in this parchment as our motto: "Professional Honor, Science, and Country"—the same great ends that have consecrated your life. Never was the diploma bearing this motto conferred upon a more meritorious or greater man.

[Pg 182]In science, you have not been the selfish investigator nor in the service of your country have you confined yourself to directing from your place in the Cabinet the important matters of the foreign relations of a world-power.

Knowing that the time has passed for studies merely speculative, and that at the present day every scientific truth cannot be such unless it is applicable, you have most happily found time to scatter the treasures of your studies, either when carrying them as the apostle of peace and concord to other countries, or through your invaluable publications.

The Academy could hardly be indifferent to this phase of your labors, as we owe to it the great satisfaction of knowing you intellectually and personally; and we pay you our profound respect.

Therefore, selecting from among your works the last you have published, entitled The Citizen's Part in Government,[6] it was agreed that we should offer you a translation of the same, in the hope that it may please you as it comes from the able and learned pen of an Academician for whom you have shown particular friendship prior to this time, and who feels for you the just admiration expressed in the eloquent words of welcome that we have all seconded.

We find in this illuminating work of yours the double revelation of the genius that pursues the development of a great idea, and of the generous heart that instills it with an ardor that will make it successful.

I will not take the liberty, Mr. Secretary, of commenting on the selection made by the Academy; but I can assure you that the collection of your lectures at Yale University, appear to me worthy, for the clear observation and teaching they contain, to be designated as the text-book [Pg 183]to be read in all schools by youths preparing to exercise the rights of citizenship. Therefore, I beg you, kindly to accept the special copy of this translation presented by the Academy.

Among those who devote themselves to the study of science in general, Mr. Secretary, and more particularly among those who cultivate one special branch, is formed a sort of fraternity of feelings and affections—the fruit of the communion of ideas—and also of respect caused in every really broad man, for the talents and learning of others.

This fraternal feeling has always existed among the jurists of all nations, and in every language there is a word to describe it: compañero, in our Castilian tongue; confrère, in French; and in yours, the most virile and the most expressive, you use the word brother.

As a brother, therefore, this Academy has the honor to receive you in its midst. Foreign though it is by virtue of its by-laws to all matters of militant politics, the Academy hopes and desires that, forgetting for a moment the high official functions with which you are vested and recalling the happy times when you were simply a lawyer, you may come to us to aid with your vast knowledge and generosity of character, in the success of this ideal: "Justice among men and justice among nations."

We hope, sir, that when once more in the calm of your honored home, far from the madding crowd and the cares of business, in the company of the two beings most dear to you, who as a blessing may come to your side to fill your affections and to venerate your white head; when in that tranquillity of the soul you may recall the incidents of your busy life, we hope that the recollection of the brief days you are passing among us may be pleasing, and that in the depths of your heart you may be able to say: "I went to Mexico in search of friends, and I found brothers...."

[Pg 184]Members of the Academy, and Committees of Scientific Societies, and all you who have kindly contributed with your presence to enhance the solemnity of this function in honor of an illustrious lawyer: this is a time when he who gives gains more than those who receive. Let us all greet the reception of the new Academician!

Speech of Licentiate Joaquín D. Casasus

The Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence has intrusted me with the most gratifying task of expressing in its name its good wishes for your safe arrival in our midst, and of voicing the joy it experiences at being afforded the opportunity of publicly testifying to the high respect and esteem in which it holds the great statesman, the eminent jurisconsult, and the illustrious orator who in his position as Secretary of State of the United States of America is now amongst us, the distinguished guest of the Mexican nation.

Had I taken into account solely my own merits, notably deficient, especially when measured by the side of those possessed by the other members composing our academy, I should have refused such a high distinction. I thought, however, I could discern in its resolution the marked purpose that its homage should reach your ears through the echoes of a friend's voice, and so be all the more welcome to you. With this reason, therefore, in mind, I did not hesitate to accept it. Nay, more; this has made me think once and again that the abundant proofs of your good-will—for which I shall ever remain indebted to you—the very base and foundation of our friendship, were those which you earnestly desired to convey to Mexico in the person of him who was then its representative in Washington.

The Mexican people, from the very moment in which you set foot on their soil, and our Government from the time it tendered you the invitation that your visit to Latin America [Pg 185]should have in Mexico its fitting end and crowning point, have proved to you, in abundant measure, by manifestations of every kind, that their earnest desire is that the ties which have for so many years bound us to your country, united by common interests and strengthened by common ideals, should every day grow closer and closer. They have also applauded the constant zeal shown by your Government in fostering relations more and more cordial with the republics of America, so that, inspired by the same spirit and guided by the same policy, they should make this western continent of ours the arena of the peaceful struggle of human effort. Nor do we deny you the enthusiastic and universal praise of which your labor as Secretary of State of the United States of America is deserving, since the program of your international policy, later incorporated by President Roosevelt into his last message to Congress, found a sympathizing echo in every Mexican heart; that program which you made known to the world when, having the Pan American conference for your tribune and the whole of America grouped around you for your audience, we were all welcomed on the hospitable soil of the noble and heroic Brazilian people.

Nevertheless, the Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence, while recognizing your merits as a statesman, has desired to confine itself to honoring the lawyer who has brought fame and glory to the American bar, the jurisconsult who has won the unstinted admiration of all the nations ruled by democratic institutions, and the orator whose eloquence takes us back to the times of the Latins, be his voice resounding in the courts of justice, or heard in the academies and universities, or pealing forth clear and inspired in the popular tribune.

You, honored sir, we regard as the perfect type of the lawyer who has known how to perform the sacred task commended to him by modern society. The lawyer is a priest [Pg 186]whose duty it is, in the bitter battles of life waged by human conflicting interests, to fulfill a mission of peace and harmony. He is indeed, the champion of homes when persecuted by human cruelty; he who strengthens the bonds of love which maintain the family union untainted, when the depravity of customs threatens its downfall. In stretching out a helping hand to the toiler he is ever a master; in carrying out an equitable distribution of fortunes made, an adviser; in proclaiming the respect due to the law, an example and an authority in maintaining its prestige in the social community. His knowledge should be an arsenal from which to arm the weak and a shield with which to protect the powerful; his voice should be beseeching in its pleading for pardon from society for those who by their crimes undermine its foundations, but inexorable in its demand when in the name of society he calls for punishment. To the poor who strive to defend the bread earned for their children, he is a stay; to the rich who worry over productive investment for their fortunes, a guide; and if, in the errors committed by both sides and which ever tend to separate them, he should be equity; then to put an end to the struggles into which they will irreparably be drawn, he must ever be justice itself.

And you have been all this in your exemplary life of lawyer; this is what has won for you the love of the poor, the confidence of the rich, and the respect of the whole of society; which has placed you in the fore rank of the distinguished men of the American bar, from which only the pressing need of serving the greater political interests of your country could draw you.

Your important labors as a statesman and jurisconsult do not call forth our admiration any the less.

The jurisconsult of our days is not only he who in the Roman Forum ex solio tanquam ex tripode solved the conflicts which arose from the applying of the law; because now [Pg 187]the part taken by the people in governmental affairs and the ever-increasing necessities of democratic life have widened his sphere of influence, and he has become to society what the lawyer has been to the individual and the family. The jurisconsult is a mentor of nations; in the midst of our eagerness to achieve greater prosperity and in our constant wrestle as citizens to form part of the public administration, he it is who points out the path of our social and political life, and has to dictate the laws which should conform to our customs as well as those which should be necessary to determine its evolution. He it is who, standing in the prow, with gaze fixed on the distant horizon, steers the ship through the paths which guide nations to the haven of greater prosperity.

And you belong to the assembly of jurisconsults who are the glory and pride of the American continent.

Still fresh in men's minds are the honors you reaped in Yale University with the course of lectures you delivered on the part to be taken by citizens in the government. Your lessons have taught what are the rights to be exercised by citizens in nations ruled by democratic institutions and what their duties in order that governments should be the true representatives of the people's will.

But again, the academy deems it but just to accord all honor to the great orator whose voice all America has been heeding with universal approval for more than a year; heeding, because that voice has ever been the expression of the lofty ideals which America has been pursuing from the earliest days of her freedom and independence.

Nor is your eloquence the fruit of meditation and study; it savors not, like that of Demosthenes, of the midnight oil. It is fresh and spontaneous, such as ought to be at the command of men ever ready to speak to the people of their rights and duties in democracies. It abounds always in that cold [Pg 188]reasoning and that inflexible logic which alone can persuade and convince.

But your eloquence contains, besides, all the warmth, all the majesty, and all the sparkle of the Latin eloquence.

Plutarch relates, in his life of Cicero, that when the great orator thrilled the inhabitants of Rhodes with his speeches, Apollonius Molon, after listening to him one day, showed no sign of admiration, but that when Cicero had finished he said: "Cicero, I, no less than the others, praise and admire thee; but I weep for the fate of Greece, for thou hast taken to Rome the best that was left to Greece—wisdom and eloquence."

We in Latin America, less selfish than Apollonius Molon, do not weep; rather do we cheer and reward the orator from whose lips we have heard resound the accents of the Latin eloquence.

The Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence, on presenting you today with the diploma which confers upon you the degree of honorary member, has desired to make known to the whole country your undoubted merits as lawyer, jurisconsult, and orator, and on this solemn occasion to bestow upon you its highest possible distinction.

Welcome to our midst. May your visit to Mexico be fruitful in good results to both countries; may it be, above all, one more tie to bind the sincere and unshaken friendship which unites them both; and, since it is the end of your triumphal journey to Latin America, may it add, in your great career as a statesman, fresh fame to your labor and glory to your illustrious name.

Mr. Root's Reply

I am highly appreciative of the very great honor which you have now conferred upon me. It is all the more grateful to me that in the ceremony which makes me an associate of this distinguished body, so prominent a part should be taken [Pg 189]by a gentleman who, as the representative of Mexico in the capital of the United States, has not only taught me to admire his rare intellectual ability, but has won from me, by the grace and purity of his character, the warmth of friendship which adds especial pleasure to every new association with him into which I can enter. I feel, sir, that the compliment which you have paid to this little work of mine, produced without any idea that it should receive so distinguished an honor or find its way so far from home, I must ascribe rather to friendship than to any intrinsic merit of the work; but I thank you, and I am most appreciative of the honor that you do me in causing it to be translated into Spanish and making it the subject of your resolution.

Circumstances have not permitted, and do not permit, that I should present to the Academy any thesis or discussion adequate to be associated with the admirable and well-considered papers which have been read by Mr. Casasus and yourself. I wish, however, in addition to expressing my thanks, to indicate in a few words the special significance which this academy and my new association with it seem to me to have. We are passing, undoubtedly, into a new era of international communication. We have turned our backs upon the old days of armed invasion, and the people of every civilized country are constantly engaged in the peaceable invasion of every other civilized country. The sciences, the literature, the customs, the lessons of experience, the skill, the spirit of every country, exercise an influence upon every other. In this peaceful interchange of the products of the intellect, in this constant passing to and fro of the people of different countries of the civilized world, we find in each land a system of law peculiar to the country itself, and answering to what I believe to be a just description of all laws which regulate the relations of individuals to each other, in being a formulation of the custom of the [Pg 190]civil community. These systems of law differ from each other as the conditions, the customs of each people differ from those of every other people. But there has arisen in recent years quite a new and distinct influence, producing legal enactment and furnishing occasion for legal development. That is the entrance into the minds of men of the comparatively new idea of individual freedom and individual equality. The idea that all men are born equal, that every man is entitled to his life, his liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the great declarations of principle designed to give effect to the fundamental ideas of liberty and equality, are not the outcome of the conditions or customs of any particular people, but they are common to all mankind.

Before the jurists and lawyers of the world there lies the task of adapting each special system of municipal law to the enforcement of the general principles which have come into the life of mankind within so recent a time, and which are cosmopolitan and world-wide and belong in no country especially. These principles have to be fitted to your laws in Mexico and our laws in the United States and to the French laws in France and the German laws in Germany; and the task before the jurists and lawyers of the world is to formulate, to elaborate, to secure the enactment and the enforcement of such practical provisions as will weld together in each land the old system of municipal law, which regulates the relations of individuals with each other in accordance with the time-honored traditions and customs of the race and country, and these new principles of universal human freedom.

Now, that task is something that cannot be accomplished except by scientific processes, by the study of comparative jurisprudence, by the application of minds of the highest order in the most painstaking and practical way. In the adaptation of these new ideas common to all free people, the [Pg 191]best minds of every people should assist every other people and receive assistance from every other people. The study of comparative jurisprudence, apparently dry, purely scientific, is as important to the well-being of the citizen in the streets of Mexico or Washington, as those scientific observations and calculations which seem to be purely abstract have proved to be to the mariner on the ocean or the engineer of the great works of construction which are of such practical value; and we ought to promote by the existence of societies of this character in every civilized land and the free intercourse and intercommunication of such societies, the existence of such a spirit of comradeship between them that they can freely give and take the results of their labors, of their experience, and of their skill.

This is of immense practical importance in the administration of government and the progress of ordered liberty in the world; for, after all, the declaration of political principles is of no value unless laws are framed adequate to bring principles down to the practical use of every citizen, and the framing of such laws in every land is the work of the jurists of the land. It is because I may be associated with you in doing what little a lawyer can do toward helping to the accomplishment of this great, beneficent, and necessary work for civilization, that I find the greatest pleasure in accepting your election as a member of this Academy, and find cause for gratification beyond that of mere personal vanity or personal feeling.

Permit me to express the warmest good wishes for the continued activity, prosperity, and usefulness of this distinguished body which has so greatly honored me by this election.

Speech of Ambassador Thompson

October 5, 1907

Probably not before has there been such a gathering of distinguished men as are tonight seated at this table at the foot of the famous Castle of Chapultepec. The honored Secretary of State of the American nation is here, the guest of the great Mexican Republic, with such honors showered upon him as should not and will not soon be forgotten by a friendly and appreciative people, nor by the immediate recipient of Mexico's greeting.

Personally, I feel, I am sure, no less satisfaction than Mr. Root on this occasion, a dinner given by me in honor of chiefs of the Mexican nation and other distinguished Mexicans, for the purpose of demonstrating, as best I can, my regard for them, not only because of the very great honor Mexico is doing my country and my chief, but in part for many kindly and friendly acts of the past. That the chiefs of staff of the Mexican President, and many other high officials of nation and state, have responded to an invitation with their presence on this occasion, thus further honoring my country, Mr. Root, and myself, calls for an expression of good-will that I offer as a toast to Mexico and its illustrious President, General Díaz.

Response of Vice-President Corral

In the name of my colleagues in the Mexican Cabinet and other national functionaries, invited to this banquet, I thank you for this very gracious distinction.

I consider myself very fortunate to address such a distinguished gathering in these memorable moments, when the Mexican public offers its hospitality to the honorable Secretary of State of the United States, Mr. Elihu Root, one [Pg 193]of the most eminent men in the world, both for his wisdom and his political works, as a defender of the rights of nations, and as the courageous knight of American democracy and universal peace.

It is very satisfactory for Mexico to demonstrate her sympathy to a guest of such high merit; and I assure you, Mr. Ambassador, that his visit to this country will create new and stronger bonds of durable friendship between the two sister republics of North America, and will be a new element of the highest value, in the mission of concord you have accomplished with such great ability, and which is a profound cause of satisfaction to us.

I thank you once more for your good wishes for Mexico and the President of our republic; and, in my turn, I have the honor to invite all present to raise their cups to the powerful nation, the United States, and to its great President, Theodore Roosevelt.

Reply of Mr. Root

I appreciate the high honor conferred upon me by the presence of the Vice-President, the members of the Cabinet, and so many representatives of foreign nations, so many of whom are old acquaintances of mine. It is very pleasing to me to find myself among you, as the guest of the official representative of the United States in Mexico.

I beg you to join me in a sentiment which is not personal—the economic coöperation of Mexico and the United States. This is a sentiment which will be concurred in by all those present, as it will redound to the benefit of all civilized countries who are engaged in commercial pursuits. I hope that the development of progress may follow its course to the end that the two countries adjoining each other for thousands of miles, may, by means of mutual commerce, interchange of capital, labor, and the fruits of intelligence and experience, [Pg 194]attain the results reached by the states of the American Union, regardless of the distance between us, because of our mutual coöperation. The signs of the times, as I understand them, show a possibility of an increase in the relations between the two countries, situated so closely on this continent. The whole world has reached a state of progress which renders possible better economic, political, and social relations. A repetition of the war of 1846 between Mexico and the United States would be impossible today;—it would be impossible because the progress of each country, the experience, the prudence of their governments, the knowledge of the business of Mexico would prevent it; general public sentiment in the United States would also be opposed to it.

The European invasion of Mexico, in the year 1861, would be impossible today; no one of the three nations would have any thought of attempting it today. An attempt to establish an empire here neither would nor could be thought of as possible.

The whole world has advanced to a degree when international relations and interchange of courtesies between nations have facilitated the establishment of peaceful correspondence, which would not have been possible before, because of the want of a stability in their relations.

The desire to advance a degree towards the assurance of intimate relations and greater friendship has caused us to accept with pleasure the kindly and gracious invitation of President Díaz to visit Mexico—a visit which shall remain a source of pleasure during all of my life, and during which I have received proofs of friendship and kindness and generous hospitality beyond anything I expected, and for which I beg you, citizens of Mexico, to kindly accept my sincerest gratitude.

[Pg 195]Response of Señor Licenciado Don José Ives Limantour

Minister of Finance

You have come to this country with the assurance, often reiterated and always received with applause, of close and sincere brotherly feeling between our two countries, the permanence of which is guaranteed by our common ideals and our mutual respect.

Your mission challenges our warmest sympathy. Voices more authoritative than mine have informed you of this fact, and the attitude of the Mexican people is its corroboration. You have been the apostle of a grand idea, the most vital, perhaps, of any affecting the international politics of this continent and assuredly the only one capable of harmonizing the interests and the hearts of all the inhabitants of the New World. This idea consists in laying down, as the invariable basis for the relations of the countries of America with one another, the sacred principles of justice, and the territorial integrity of each one of them.

Such being the pledge which we have from your lips, and feeling confident that the immense majority of your countrymen endorse the declaration to that effect made by you during your memorable journey of last year, and during the journey that is now in progress, we welcome you as one welcomes a loyal and disinterested friend, without the mental reservation that one sometimes feels in clasping the hand of the great, and moved by the hope of thus contributing, in the best manner possible, to us, towards the realization of an aim that is commended by a high and enlightened patriotism.

Mexico's course for the future is clearly marked out, at any rate as far as human foresight can safely reach. Her geographical situation and the conditions governing the international politics of America assure her, as long as the views which you have proclaimed with a conviction so sincere, [Pg 196]predominate in your country, the tranquillity in her international relations which she needs in order to devote herself to intellectual culture and to the development of her abundant and varied natural resources, while at the same time offering hospitality to all well-meaning persons who bring here their contingent of industry and civilization. With a program such as this, it has been easy—and will be still more easy in the future—to regulate our conduct towards you, the citizens of the great nation beyond the Río Grande. You will always be welcome, as it is right and proper that useful and agreeable neighbors who give proofs of their desire to be on good terms and to coöperate in all of the works of progress, should be; and I believe that you are quite convinced that both out of interest and good-will, the Mexican people will offer you every facility that may enable you to take an active part in the social and economic development of this republic.

It is far from my thoughts, at the present moment, to extol the virtues and the good qualities of my countrymen. I may be permitted, however, as a minister of finance, to say a few words in regard to one or two economic facts that have an important bearing on business relations.

Mexico, at the present time, as you well know, is not a country exclusively engaged in mining and farming, but also carries on an extensive commerce and possesses fairly prosperous manufacturing industries. There are many lines of activity demanding industry, intelligence, and capital, and there is an ample field for the utilization of all elements of that nature coming to us from abroad. But a point which all persons interested in Mexico's business affairs will do well to realize is the honesty and prudent habits which characterize mercantile transactions in this country. "Booms" and "bluffs" are exotic plants which can with difficulty be [Pg 197]acclimatized here, and speculative combinations rarely enter into the calculations of the merchant.

A single example will suffice to illustrate the characteristics to which I am referring. In that period of stress from 1892 to 1894 when the country, after suffering the loss of several harvests in succession and the ravages of a severe epidemic, was further tried by sudden depreciation of silver, which in the course of a few months cut the gold value of our currency in half, every one thought that the economic constitution of the nation would not be able to withstand shocks so repeated and formidable; and yet we continued to meet our debts with religious punctuality and it was noted with surprise that not a single failure of importance occurred in any part of the republic.

We may be charged with undue timidity, with slender experience, in certain methods that are common elsewhere in the initiation of business undertaking. But these deficiencies and others which no doubt are ours will not debar us, let us hope, from being permitted to join the grand onward march of humanity, and particularly of that portion of the human family inhabiting the New World, towards higher conditions of physical and moral welfare.

Gentlemen, let us raise our glasses to the health and happiness of our distinguished guest and his most estimable family. Let us drink to the hope that his countrymen, taking to heart the gospel which he has proclaimed throughout the length and width of America, may become the firmest guarantors of lasting peace between the two nations, consolidated by warmth of mutual regard and the continued growth of common interests.

Speech of Licentiate Ignacio Mariscal

October 7, 1907

Your presence amongst us as our illustrious guest is an event which will leave a mark in the history of Mexico, for yours is not only the visit of a most distinguished American, but also of the best representative, without the usual credentials, of a great government and a great people. The fact that your visit aims at no diplomatic business, except the tightening of the bonds of friendship between our two countries, has made it the more important and congenial to all Mexicans. Some years ago we had here other prominent and representative Americans, such as General Grant and the Honorable William H. Seward, who came as friendly visitors wanting to know Mexico personally and be known by us. Their flying visits did a great deal of good in promoting official and popular relations, for they tended to a real sisterhood between the two republics of North America. Yours, sir, will complete that most important international work, since your high personality is eminently qualified, especially under the present circumstances, to increase the admiration and respect of all my thinking fellow-citizens for the country of Washington, Lincoln, and Grant.

We know, sir, as the whole world knows, the considerable part you have taken in the peace-promoting, civilizing foreign policy of President Roosevelt, and we fully appreciate your frequent, unequivocal demonstrations of amicable feeling toward our government and our people. For that reason you have been cordially welcomed by us as a friend coming among true friends. May your brief sojourn in this country leave you a souvenir as pleasant as the one it has already engraved in our memory and our hearts.

[Pg 199]Seeking to show you our sincere esteem and regard, I propose a toast to your honor, not as a ceremonious courtesy, but as a really heartfelt sentiment:

"Brindemos, Señores, por nuestro ilustre huésped, el Honorable Señor Elihu Root."

Mr. Root's Reply

It is my happy fortune to reap where others have sown and enter into the fruits of others' labors. When Mr. Seward and General Grant visited Mexico, your people, sir, were little known to the people of the United States. The shadow of a war still recent in the memory of men hung over the relations that existed between the two countries, the shadow of a war which, thank Heaven, would now be impossible. The commanding personality of General Grant made his warm friendship for Mexico the beginning of a new era of feeling and appreciation on the part of the people of the United States; and now I come in response to the kind and hospitable invitation of your distinguished President, not to mark out the pathway to friendship, but as the representative of an existing feeling of friendship on the part of my countrymen.

I have been deeply appreciative of all the delicate courtesy, the warmth of friendship and hospitality which have welcomed me and my family here. But I was not surprised. It is but in conformity with all the relations which have existed between the department of foreign affairs of Mexico and the department of foreign affairs of the United States, since you, sir, have held your present eminent position.

I wish not merely to express grateful appreciation for the kindness I have received here, but to express the same sentiment for all that you have done and all you have been in the relations between the two countries. The unvarying [Pg 200]courtesy, the genuine and sincere desire for the reasonable and friendly disposal of all questions that have arisen between the two countries, which have characterized the office of foreign affairs of Mexico have been a great factor in bringing about the happy relations that now exist. And we may say, with gratification, that there are no questions between Mexico and the United States which can give the slightest apprehension or cause the slightest concern as to their easy and satisfactory adjustment.

Of course, between two countries with so long a common boundary, whose citizens are passing to and fro, whose citizens are investing money, each in the country of the other, questions are continually arising; but the all-important element for the decision of every question, the good understanding, kindly feeling, and the habit of conducting relations upon the basis of reason and friendship, practically disposes in advance of all questions which can arise.

I suppose it is impossible to read the history of any country without feeling that the mistakes in its history have been the result of a shortsighted, narrow view on the part of its statesmen, its rulers, its legislators, under the influence at a particular time of particular local conditions.

We can all of us look back in the history of our own country and of other countries and see how we now, with a broader view and free from the prejudices of the hour, would settle questions and solve difficulties in a far more satisfactory way.

I suppose that the true object which should be held before every statesman is so to deal with the questions of the present that the spirit in which they are solved will commend itself to the generations of the future.

I think, sir, that the government of Mexico has attained that high standard of statesmanship to an extraordinary degree. It certainly has done so in its relations with the government of the United States; and as a result of the [Pg 201]reasonable and kindly way in which we have been treating each other for these past years we behold not merely the fact that of your $240,000,000 of foreign trade, two-thirds of your exports are purchased by the United States and two-thirds of your imports are purchased from the United States; not merely that of your vast exports to the United States, notwithstanding our high protective policy, nine-tenths are free from all duty; not merely that $700,000,000 of capital of the United States has been invested in your thriving and progressive enterprises, so that, while for three centuries and a half the people of Mexico were hiding their wealth under the ground to keep it from being taken away from them, now for a quarter of a century you have been taking out from under the ground a wealth far surpassing any dreams of avarice in the days of old. But more than all that, there has grown up and is continually developing between the people of the two countries a knowledge of each other, an appreciation of each other, a kindly feeling toward each other, which make for the perpetuity of good government in both countries and for the development of all the finer and better qualities of citizenship in both countries; which will help both of us to advance along the pathway of progress; which will make every school in Mexico in which the future government and rulers of this vast land are being trained a better school, and make every school in the United States a better school; which will make every officer conscious of being one of a community of nations, conscious of having in his charge the good name of the country which is known to the people of the whole continent, a better officer than he would be if he were responsible only to his narrow community. As the result of these kindly relations we see two happy, progressive, prosperous nations; and, sir, it is my sincere hope that following the footsteps of the great Americans you have named, through your kindness and hospitality I may be able to add my little contribution [Pg 202]toward this great work of national benefit and of international advancement in the cause of liberty, justice, and humanity.

Speech of Mr. Root

October 7, 1907

This is the last opportunity I shall have in the City of Mexico to express to you my gratitude and keen appreciation for all your very great kindness to us during our visit to Mexico.

I came here with my mind filled by the idea of two countries, the United States of America and the United Mexican States, rather an abstract and cold conception. Gradually there has emerged from the sea of faces that I looked upon on entering Mexico, one by one, a group of lovely women and of fine and noble gentlemen, and beside the conception of two countries becoming more and more friendly to each other, there has come a realization that I have gained new friends—a most grateful and most delightful thing. I shall never forget you, my friends; I shall never forget your courtesy and your kindness, and I know I can say the same for Mrs. Root, and I beg to offer a toast to the personnel of the administration of President Díaz, a personnel which is more delightful and will be met with more pleasure than it was possible for me to conceive before coming here, and as I leave you I shall feel that with my limited Spanish, which consists of not more than a half a dozen words, I have, however, the most valuable words in the language in being able to say: "Hasta luego."

[Pg 203]Response of Señor Corral

Since you have set foot on our soil we have had occasion to observe the high and well-merited opinion which you entertain of our president, General Porfirio Díaz, and of his splendid and statesmanlike achievements, and if to this be added your own well-known merits, your lofty character, and the sagacious, yet kindly notice you have taken of all that you have seen, no wonder that you have won, not our admiration, not our respect, not our good-will, for all these were yours already, but something more intimate, something that dwells deeper in the recesses of the heart—our affection.

Henceforth, sir, in addition to your high claims as an illustrious statesman and wise administrator, you have from us the endearing title of friend, a friend who appreciates us with fairness, who will rejoice at our future triumphs in the arena of progress, who will lament our misfortunes, who will applaud our victories and will encourage us in our discomfitures.

For some time past, especially since you undertook the noble task of proclaiming justice and righteousness as the basis for the relations of the republics of America with one another, we have followed with the liveliest interest your glorious career, of which the goal is the promotion of ideals of human fraternity. We have admired you, we have applauded you as one applauds the eloquence of wise and good men. But henceforth a current of profound sympathy will flow between you and us, and our admiration and applause will reach you, quickened by the vibrations of our enthusiasm.

Soon you will return to your own country, that splendid country where everything is great from the cataclysms of [Pg 204]nature to the manifestations of freedom. Our most fervent desire is that you may take away an impression of Mexico and of her people as agreeable and affectionate as that which you leave behind, and that, in justice toward us, you will tell those among your countrymen who do not yet know us, that ours is a civilized nation, working out its greater welfare, educating itself intellectually, living and desiring to remain in peace with itself and in peace with all who respect its rights,—in a word, living up to its mission as a free and honorable community. Tell your President that in Mexico we appreciate and applaud his great and noble efforts in behalf of his country and in behalf of the peace of other nations, and that when his name is pronounced by us, it is pronounced with expressions of respect and homage for his good qualities.

Receive, sir, these words, which are the expression of sentiments that are sincere, as a new demonstration to yourself and to your distinguished family of our feelings of esteem and our desire for your happiness.

Speech of General Mucio P. Martínez

Governor of Puebla

At a Banquet at the Municipal Palace, October 9, 1907

A poetic tradition of our aborigines has been kept, and still lives—transmitted from generation to generation of the races that people our wooded mountains and smiling plains; this tradition teaches us that to illustrious guests, above all to those who come like you as messengers of peace on earth and good-will to men, should be offered as an emblem of sincere and respectful affection, the richest of fruits, the handsomest of flowers, and the most delicious of dishes.

A reception such as the one now being given to your excellency and those nearest and dearest to your heart, must be, [Pg 205]no doubt, inferior in magnificence to the welcome tendered to such illustrious guests in other countries; but believe me, none has ever surpassed our sincerity, because Mexico, as it is the first to admire brilliant careers in politics, in science, in art, in industry, and in commerce, takes pleasure in offering you its most cordial attentions with no other desire than to make your stay in this republic as pleasing as possible and to show you that this country is an ardent admirer of yours and takes pleasure in calling itself a sister of the United States not only because of geographical contiguity, but also because of the liberty and freedom of its institutions.

I therefore pray that your excellency accept this humble repast as a token of the most affectionate hospitality tendered you by me in the name of the people of Puebla, and I beg you to convey to the illustrious President of the American Union the brotherly regard we all have for him.

Reply of Mr. Root

I am greatly pleased by this delicate hospitality which is like the traditional hospitality of the Mexican nation. I shall personally convey to President Roosevelt the message of cordial welcome and good-will shown by this city, and it will undoubtedly contribute to further the good work undertaken by President Roosevelt to uphold justice and protect the rights of humanity. I shall also bring to President Roosevelt's attention the assurances of this country to protect the happiness and prosperity of the people. I cannot help remembering that when foreigners came to Puebla in hostile manner they were shown that Puebla knows how to defend its rights. It is also pleasing to me to see the ability of the Mexican people to govern themselves: nations like Mexico and the United States which have given proof of this ability may well boast that they belong to those which form the vanguard of modern civilization.

Speech of Señor D. Teodoro A. Dehesa

Governor of the State of Vera Cruz

At a Luncheon at the Cocolopan Factory, October 10, 1907

In your honor, and as a testimony to your personal worth and sterling character, as a representative of the great American people, I take particular pleasure in tendering to you this lunch. The occasion gives rise to the thought that your Washington and our Hidalgo were the instruments chosen for planting the sacred tree of national independence now so deeply rooted in our respective countries, and which has brought forth the fruit of liberty to nourish the people of the United States and Mexico.

Here in Orizaba you have seen, Mr. Secretary, some evidences of the material advances made by our country, which to a man of your broad views and lofty ideals I must believe are pleasing. These are blessings that we owe to peace. Those two great statesmen and lovers of peace—Roosevelt and Díaz—are one in desire and endeavor to preserve peace, not only to secure its benefits for their own people, but to extend its beneficent sway over the whole American continent.

Such a purpose commands the respect and admiration of the world. I invite all present to join me in drinking to our illustrious and most welcome guest, whom we all so much admire for his many distinguished qualities—extending to him and to his charming family our best wishes for health and happiness.

Reply of Mr. Root

This cordial welcome has not been a surprise to me, as I already knew of the qualities of the Governor of Vera Cruz. By this time, I have become accustomed to the hospitable character of the Mexicans; but notwithstanding this, it has [Pg 207]been very pleasing and gratifying to me to receive these demonstrations from the people of Vera Cruz whose frankness of disposition is well known. I appreciate your words very highly, Mr. Governor, and I thank you for them as I do the residents of Orizaba.

It is but right for you Mexicans to remember Washington, as it is for us Americans to remember Hidalgo and the other heroes of Mexican history together with our own. I firmly believe that Mexico has passed beyond the state in which civil dissensions devastated this fortunate country, and that in the future there will be no door open to internal strife, thanks to the wise administration and foresight of the great statesman Porfirio Díaz.

How true it is that the beautiful and the useful can be combined: here in Orizaba I find the proof of this truth, as in the midst of the natural beauty of the scenery offered by the exuberant vegetation and the lovely peak crowned with snow—the proud sentinel of the state of Vera Cruz—stand as signs of progress the important factories we have just visited.

Mr. Governor, I feel grateful for the frank reception of which I have been the object, and I hope that Mexico will continue to progress and develop as well as the United States, and that both nations will render mutual assistance to each other and avail themselves of the prosperous or unprosperous occurrences adopting the one or the other as lessons of experience for humanity in order to demonstrate to natives and foreigners the excellences of the republican form of government.

Speech of Governor Ahumada

October 14, 1907

Although our president, General Porfirio Díaz, with the high international representation awarded him by our institutions, and by the personal adherence of all federal and state authorities, as well as by the love of the Mexican people in general, has already given a cordial welcome in the name of all of us, allow me, in the name of the state which I govern, to express to you the kind feelings of sympathy which exist in all hearts beating within this important section of our country. Jalisco, Mr. Secretary, has always been a land that loves all that is great and useful for the country, and as during the time when we fought for independence and liberty it did not spare its sons, in the same way we want to join our voice to the voice of the people that from the bravo to the usumacinta praise and bless you, to take our share in the work for peace which you initiated during the Third Pan American Conference in Rio de Janeiro, which you continued by your visit to the main republics of South America, and which you are carrying to an end now by tokens of friendship you are giving to Mexico and the people of the state of Jalisco. The people of this state believe that the best way to take part in this labor is to tell you through me: "Welcome be the noble emissary who, like the dove of the ark, brings the symbolic olive branch which announces that clouds have been dissipated and the sun of friendship is rising between the peoples of the new continent."

We should have been pleased to have you among us a longer time, to give you better tokens of our esteem and to show you the high appreciation we feel for the people of the United States and her great ruler, President Roosevelt. But inasmuch as this is impossible, owing to your important and [Pg 209]urgent labors at home, allow me, Mr. Secretary, to state that if our demonstrations of friendship are short, they are made in the land of traditional frankness and true friendship.

Let us drink, ladies and gentlemen, to the health of his excellency, Mr. Root, his distinguished wife, and his "simpatica" daughter, and wishing for all of them all kinds of happiness, let us prove that we have shaken their hands in the spirit that sons of Jalisco always shake hands—our heart is our hand.

Mr. Root's Reply

I thank you very heartily for your kind words, for your flattering description of myself, and for the spirit of friendship for my country which you exhibit. I am highly appreciative of all the hospitality, the warm welcome, and the graceful and most agreeable entertainment which you and your people of Guadalajara and of the state of Jalisco have given to my family and to myself.

I think it is perhaps fitting that I should make the last extended visit of all I have been making in Mexico, to the city of Guadalajara. The most striking feature of Mexican life to a stranger is that rare combination of history and progress which one finds. The two eras of history, the Spanish, and before that the Indian civilization, which has to so great an extent passed away, and beside that the modern development, the spirit of modern enterprise, the active progress of mining and agriculture and manufactures, the stimulus of sound finance, and the general determination of the people to take rank with the great productive nations of the earth,—nowhere have I found that combination more marked and distinct than I find it here in Guadalajara. As I said to you a short time ago, your excellency, the things that impressed me most on entering this city were, first, that it was clean; secondly, that there were many fine-looking people; [Pg 210]thirdly, that it was cheerful; and, fourthly, that it had many beautiful buildings. I can add to that a fifth, that it is bright with the rainbow of hope for the fruits of its many enterprises.

This may be the last time I rise to speak to any audience in Mexico before my departure for my own country, and there are two things that I wish to say; one is, that nothing could have been more generous, more tactful, and more grateful to us than the hospitality and friendship which my family and I have received during the entire time since we crossed the border at Laredo. We are grateful for it, we are deeply appreciative of it. The other thing that I wish to say is that I have all the time since I came to Mexico been thinking about the question of the permanence of your new prosperity. I go back to my home encouraged and cheered by having found, as I believe, evidence, substantial evidence, that the new prosperity of Mexico is not evanescent and temporary, but is permanent. I do not believe that Mexico will ever again return to the disorder of the condition which characterized the first sixty years of her independence. I believe that during this long period of peace and order which has been secured for your people by your great, wise, strong President Díaz, there has grown up a new spirit among Mexicans and a new appreciation of individual duty to civilization in the maintenance of peace and order.

So I go back, not only charmed with the beauty of your country, not only delighted with the opportunity to see the wonderful historic monuments you possess, not only delighted with the hospitality of your homes and charmed with the character of your people, but I go back with the feeling that the Mexican people have joined forever the ranks of the great, orderly, self-controlled, self-governing republics of the world.

Usage devolves upon me as the head of the Foreign Office of the country in which you are assembled to call this meeting together; to call it to order and to preside during the formation of your organization. I wish to express to you, at the outset, the high appreciation of the Government of the United States of the compliment you pay to us in selecting the city of Washington as the field of your labors in behalf of the rule of peace and order and brotherhood among the peoples of Central America. It is most gratifying to the people of the United States that you should feel that you will find here an atmosphere favorable to the development of the ideas of peace and unity, of progress and mutual helpfulness, in place of war and revolution and the retardation of the principles of liberty and justice.

So far as a sincere and friendly desire for success in your labors may furnish a favorable atmosphere, you certainly will have it here. The people of the United States are sincere believers in the principles that you are seeking to apply to the conduct of your international affairs in Central America. They sincerely desire the triumph and the control of the principles of liberty and order everywhere in the world. They especially desire that the blessings which follow the control of those principles may be enjoyed by all the people of our sister republics on the western hemisphere, and we further believe that it will be, from the most selfish point of [Pg 215]view, for our interests to have peaceful, prosperous, and progressive republics in Central America.

The people of the United Mexican States and of the United States of America are now enjoying great benefits from the mutual interchange of commerce and friendly intercourse between the two countries of Mexico and the United States. Prosperity, the increase of wealth, the success of enterprise—all the results that come from the intelligent use of wealth—are being enjoyed by the people of both countries, through the friendly intercourse that utilizes for the people of each country the prosperity of the other. We in the United States should be most happy if the states of Central America might move with greater rapidity along the pathway of such prosperity, of such progress; to the end that we may share, through commerce and friendly intercourse, in your new prosperity, and aid you by our prosperity.

We cannot fail, gentlemen, to be admonished by the many failures which have been made by the people of Central America to establish agreement among themselves which would be lasting, that the task you have before you is no easy one. The trial has often been made and the agreements which have been elaborated, signed, ratified, seem to have been written in water. Yet I cannot resist the impression that we have at last come to the threshold of a happier day for Central America. Time is necessary to political development. I have great confidence in the judgment that in the long course of time, through successive steps of failure, through the accompanying education of your people, through the encouraging examples which now, more than ever before, surround you, success will be attained in securing unity and progress in other countries of the new hemisphere. Through the combination of all these, you are at a point in your history where it is possible for you to take a forward step that will remain.

[Pg 216]It would ill become me to attempt to propose or suggest the steps which you should take; but I will venture to observe that the all-important thing for you to accomplish is that while you enter into agreements which will, I am sure, be framed in consonance with the most peaceful aspirations and the most rigid sense of justice, you shall devise also some practical methods under which it will be possible to secure the performance of those agreements. The mere declaration of general principles, the mere agreement upon lines of policy and of conduct, are of little value unless there be practical and definite methods provided by which the responsibility for failing to keep the agreement may be fixed upon some definite person, and the public sentiment of Central America brought to bear to prevent the violation. The declaration that a man is entitled to his liberty would be of little value with us in this country, were it not for the writ of habeas corpus that makes it the duty of a specific judge, when applied to, to inquire into the cause of a man's detention, and set him at liberty if he is unjustly detained. The provision which declares that a man should not be deprived of his property without due process of law would be of little value were it not for the practical provision which imposes on specific officers the duty of nullifying every attempt to take away a man's property without due process of law.

To find practical definite methods by which you shall make it somebody's duty to see that the great principles you declare are not violated, by which if an attempt be made to violate them the responsibility may be fixed upon the guilty individual—those, in my judgment, are the problems to which you should specifically and most earnestly address yourselves.

I have confidence in your success because I have confidence in your sincerity of purpose, and because I believe that your people have developed to the point where they are ready to [Pg 217]receive and to utilize such results as you may work out. Why should you not live in peace and harmony? You are one people in fact; your citizenship is interchangeable—your race, your religion, your customs, your laws, your lineage, your consanguinity and relations, your social connections, your sympathies, your aspirations, and your hopes for the future are the same.

It can be nothing but the ambition of individuals who care more for their selfish purposes than for the good of their country, that can prevent the people of the Central American states from living together in peace and unity.

It is my most earnest hope, it is the hope of the American Government and people, that from this conference may come the specific and practical measures which will enable the people of Central America to march on with equal step abreast of the most progressive nations of modern civilization; to fulfill their great destinies in that brotherhood which nature has intended them to preserve; to exile forever from that land of beauty and of wealth incalculable the fraternal strife which has hitherto held you back in the development of your civilization.

I beg you, gentlemen, to accept my hearty and sincere congratulations. The people of Central America, withdrawn to a great distance from the scene of your labors, may not know, but I wish that my voice might reach each one of them to tell them that during the month that has passed their loyal representatives have been doing for them in sincerity and in the discharge of patriotic duty a service which stands upon the highest level of the achievements of the most advanced modern civilization. You have each one of you been faithful to the protection of the interests of your several countries; [Pg 218]you have each one of you exhibited patience, kindly consideration, regard for the rights and feelings of others, and a willingness to meet with open mind the opinions and wishes of your fellow-countrymen; you have pursued the true method by which law, order, peace, and justice are substituted for the unrestrained dominion of the strong over the weak, and you have reached conclusions which I believe are wise and are well adapted to advance the progress of each and all of the Central American republics toward that much-to-be-desired consummation in the future of one great, strong, and happy Central American republic.

May the poor husbandman who cultivates the fields of your five republics, may the miner who is wearing out his weary life in the hard labors of your mines, may the mothers who are caring for the infant children who are to make the peoples of Central America in the future, may the millions whose prosperity and happiness you have sought to advance here, may the unborn generations of the future in your beloved countries, have reason to look back to this day with blessings upon the self-devotion and the self-restraint with which you have endeavored to serve their interests and to secure their prosperity and peace.

With this hope the entire body of my countrymen will join, and with the expression of this hope I declare the Peace Conference of the Republics of Central America, convened in the city of Washington in this year nineteen hundred and seven, to be now adjourned.

The Brazilian Ambassador, His Excellency Mr. Nabuco

This is the second time that I have the honor and the good fortune of meeting in this room the representatives of the American nations in Washington, including the Secretary of State of the United States. These are the great Pan American festivals of the Brazilian Embassy. But what a great stride our common cause has made since we met here last year! All of that progress is principally due to Mr. Root's devotion to the cause that he made his own and which I have no doubt he will make also a national one.

I drink to the progress of the Pan American cause in the person of its great leader, the Secretary of State.

Mr. Root

I thank you, Mr. Ambassador, for the too flattering expression with which you have characterized the efforts that, by the accident of position, I have been enabled to make in the interpretation of that spirit which in the fullness of time has ripened, developed and become ready for universal expression and influence.

It is a great pleasure for me to look again into the tropical forests of Brazil; to come under the magic influence of your part of the solar spectrum; and to be introduced again to the delightful influences of your language through the words of the representative of King Carlos of Portugal.

[Pg 220]I think any one who is trying to do something is at times—perhaps most of the time—inclined to become despondent, because any single man can do so little. But if the little that one man can do happens to be in the line of national or world tendencies, he may count himself happy in helping forward the great work.

How many thousands of men, born out of time, give their lives to causes which are not ripe for action! I think that we, my friends, are doing our little; happy in contributing to a cause that has fully ripened. I confess that in passing from the courts to diplomacy; from the argument of causes, the conclusion of which would be enforced by the power of the marshal or the sheriff, having behind him the irresistible power of the nation—passing from such arguments to the discussion that proceeds between the foreign offices of independent powers, I found myself groping about to find some sanction for the rules of right conduct which we endeavor to assert and maintain.

It has long been a widely accepted theory that the only sanction for the right conduct of nations, for those rules of conduct which nations seek to enforce upon each other, is the exercise of force; that behind their diplomatic argument rests, as the ultimate argument, the possibility of war. But I think there has been developing in the later years of progress in civilization that other sanction, of the constraining effect of the public opinion of mankind, which rests upon the desire for the approval of one's fellowmen. The progress of which you have spoken, Mr. Ambassador, in American international relations, is a progress along the pathway that leads from the rule of force as the ultimate sanction of argument to the rule of public opinion, which enforces its decrees by an appeal to the desire for approbation among men.

That progress is towards the independence, the freedom, the dignity, the happiness of every small and weak nation. [Pg 221]It tends to realize the theory of international law, the real national equality. The process is one of attrition. Isolation among nations leaves no appeal for the enforcement of rules of right conduct, but the appeal to force. Communication, intercourse, friendship, the desire for good opinion, the exercise of all the qualities that adorn, that elevate, that refine human nature, bring to the defense of the smaller nation the appeal to the other sanction, the sanction of public opinion.

What we are doing now, because the time has come for it to be done, is to help in our day and generation in the creation of a public opinion in America which shall approve all that is good in national character and national conduct and punish all that is wrong with that most terrible penalty, the disapproval of all America. As that process approaches its perfection, the work of our friends, of the armies and navies of America, will have been accomplished.

It is not a work of selfishness; it is a work for universal civilization. It is a work by which we will repay to France and Portugal and to Sweden—to all our mother lands across the Atlantic—all the gifts of civilization, of literature, of art, of the results of their long struggles upward from barbarism to light, with which they have endowed us. For in the vast fields of incalculable wealth that the American continents offer to the enterprise and the cultivation of the world, the older nations of Europe will find their wealth, and opportunity for the exercise of their powers in peace and with equality.

It was a great pleasure to me—it was a cause of pride to me—to hear so distinguished an English scholar as the Ambassador from France speak the beautiful language of France so perfectly tonight. It is a great pleasure for me to find that throughout the United States the young men are in constantly increasing numbers learning to speak not only French, but Spanish and Portuguese. It was a great pleasure [Pg 222]to find throughout South America last summer so many, not merely of the most distinguished and highly cultivated men, speaking English, but so large a number of the people in the cities that I visited.

It all makes for that attrition, that practical intercourse, which is the process of civilization; and in destroying the isolation, the separation of American states from each other, in building up an American public opinion, we are preparing ourselves the more perfectly to unite with our friends of Europe in a world public opinion, which shall establish the reign of justice and liberty and humanity throughout the world by slow, practical, untiring processes of intercourse and friendship in place of the rules of brutal force.

There has been, especially in recent years, a very strong feeling that the points which the American republics have in common greatly exceed their differences and that stated conferences of the American republics would not only tend to accentuate the points in common but would enable them to take common action in matters of common interest, remove unwarranted suspicions which often exist between and among peoples which do not come into contact, and tend to lessen the very differences.

In 1881, the Honorable James G. Blaine, then secretary of state of the United States, stated that in the opinion of the President of the United States "the time is ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the good-will and active coöperation of all the states of the western hemisphere, both north and south, in the interest of humanity and for the common weal of nations."[7] Mr. Blaine proposed on behalf of the President, that a congress meet in the city of Washington. The congress or conference actually took place in that city in 1889-1890, during the secretaryship of state of Mr. Blaine. This is commonly called the International American Conference. All of the American countries, with the exception of Santo Domingo, were represented, and they agreed upon "the establishment of an American International Bureau for the collection, tabulation, and publication, in the English, Spanish, and Portuguese languages, of information as to the productions and commerce, and as to the customs laws and regulations of their respective countries; such bureau to be maintained in one of the countries for the common benefit and at the common expense, and to furnish to all the other countries such commercial statistics and other useful information as may be contributed to it by any of the American republics."[8]

This was the origin of the International Bureau of the American Republics, out of which has grown the Pan American Union, "a voluntary organization of the twenty-one American republics, including the United States, maintained by their annual contributions, controlled by a governing board composed of the diplomatic representatives in Washington of the other twenty governments and the secretary of state of the United States, who is chairman ex officio, and devoted to the development and conservation of peace, friendship, and commerce between them all."[9]

Modestly housed at first, the success of the Union required larger quarters for the performance of its work. Advantage was taken of this need to erect the building which was to be the visible and worthy symbol of Pan Americanism. Mr. Andrew Carnegie, a delegate on behalf of the United States to the first Pan American Conference in Washington, contributed $950,000 towards the construction of this building, the United States contributed the land, and the other American republics their respective quotas.

[Pg 224]The circumstances under which the funds for the erection of this building were obtained appear in the records of the Governing Board of the Pan American Union, from which the following resolutions and correspondence have been obtained:

Resolution of the Third International Conference at Rio de Janeiro,
adopted August 13, 1906

The undersigned, Delegates of the Republics represented in the Third International American Conference, duly authorized by their Governments, have approved the following Resolution:

The Third International American Conference Resolves:

1. To express its gratification that the project to establish a permanent centre of information and of interchange of ideas among the Republics of this Continent, as well as the erection of a building suitable for the Library in memory of Columbus has been realized.

2. To express the hope that, before the meeting of the next International American Conference the International Bureau of American Republics will be housed in such a way as to permit it to properly fulfil the important functions assigned to it by this Conference.

Made and signed in the City of Rio de Janeiro, on the thirteenth day of the month of August, nineteen hundred and six, in English, Portuguese and Spanish, and deposited in the Department of Foreign Relations of the Government of the United States of Brazil, in order that certified copies thereof be made, and forwarded through diplomatic channels to each one of the Signatory States.

For Ecuador.—Emilio Arévalo, Olmedo Alfaro.

For Paraguay.—Manoel Gondra, Arsenio López Decoud, Gualberto Cardús y Huerta.

For Bolivia.—Alberto Gutiérrez, Carlos V. Romero.

For Colombia.—Rafael Urìbe Urìbe, Guillermo Valencia.

For Honduras.—Fausto Dávila.

For Panama.—José Domingo de Obaldía.

For Cuba.—Gonzalo de Quesada, Rafael Montoro, Antonio González Lanuza.

For the Dominican Republic.—Emilio C. Joubert.

For Peru.—Eugenio Larabure y Unánue, Antonio Miró Quesada, Mariano Cornejo.

For El Salvador.—Francisco A. Reyes.

For Costa Rica.—Ascensión Esquivel.

For the United States of Mexico.—Francisco León de La Barra, Ricardo Molina-Hübbe, Ricardo García Granados.

For Guatemala.—Antonio Batres Jáuregui.

For Uruguay.—Luis Melian Lafinur, Antonio María Rodríguez, Gonzalo Ramírez.

For the Argentine Republic.—J. V. González, José A. Terry, Eduardo L. Bidau.

For Nicaragua.—Luis F. Corea.

For the United States of Brazil.—Joaquim Aurelio Nabuco de Araujo, Joaquim Francisco de Assis Brasil, Gastão de Cunha, Alfredo de Moraes Gomes Ferreira, [Pg 225]João Pandiá Calogeras, Amaro Cavalcanti, Joaquim Xavier da Silveira, José P. da Graça Aranha, Antonio da Fontoura Xavier.

For the United States of America.—William I. Buchanan, L. S. Rowe, A. J. Montague, Tulio Larrinaga, Paul S. Reinsch, Van Leer Polk.

For Chile.—Anselmo Hevia Riquelme, Joaquín Walker Martínez, Luis Antonio Vergara, Adolfo Guerrero.

Resolution of the Governing Board and letter of the Secretary of State, Mr. Elihu Root,
to Mr. Andrew Carnegie, approved at the meeting of
December 19, 1906

Whereas, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the International Bureau of the American Republics has laid before this, the said Board, the following letter sent by him as chairman to Mr. Andrew Carnegie and has asked for the approval thereof by the Board—that is to say:

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the action of the Secretary of State, as Chairman of this Board, in sending the aforesaid letter be, and it hereby is, approved.

Mr. Carnegie to Mr. Root.

New York, January 1, 1907.

Hon. Elihu Root.

Secretary of State and ex officio Chairman of the Governing Board of the Bureau of South American Republics, Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir: I am greatly pleased that you and your colleagues of the South American Republics have done me the honor to suggest that I might furnish a suitable home in Washington for the Bureau of American Republics.

The approval of your application by the Governing Board of the International Bureau and President Roosevelt's hearty expressions of satisfaction are most gratifying.

You very kindly mention my membership of the first Pan American Conference and advocacy of the Pan American Railway, the gaps of which are being slowly filled. The importance of this enterprise impresses itself more and more upon me, and I hope to see it accomplished.

I am happy, therefore, in stating that it will be one of the pleasures of my life to furnish to the Union of all the Republics of this hemisphere the necessary funds [Pg 227]($750,000) from time to time as may be needed for the construction of an international home in Washington.

The coöperation of our own Republic is seen in the appropriation of funds by Congress for the purchase of the site, and in the agreement between the Republics for the maintenance of the Bureau we have additional evidence of coöperation, so that the forthcoming American Temple of Peace will be the joint work of all of the Republics. Every generation should see them drawing closer together.

It is a cheering thought that all these are for the first time to be represented at the forthcoming Hague Conference. Henceforth they are members of that body, whose aim is the settlement of international disputes by that "High Court of Nations" or other similar tribunal.

I beg to express to each and all of them my heartfelt thanks for being permitted to make such a New Year's gift as this. I have never felt more keenly than I do this New Year's morning how much more blessed it is to give than to receive, and I consider myself highly honored by being considered worthy to provide the forthcoming union home, where the accredited representatives of all the Republics are to meet and, I trust, to bind together their respective nations in the bonds of unbroken peace.

Very truly, yours,
Andrew Carnegie.

Resolutions approved by the Governing Board of the International Bureau of the
American Republics, January 30, 1907.

Resolved, That the letter of Mr. Andrew Carnegie to the Chairman of the Board, dated January 1, 1907, be received and filed and spread upon the minutes of the Board.

Resolved, That the Governing Board of the Bureau of American Republics express to Mr. Andrew Carnegie its acceptance and grateful appreciation of his generous and public-spirited engagement to supply the funds for the proposed new building for the Union of American Republics. The Board shares with Mr. Carnegie the hope that the institution whose work will thus be promoted may further the cause of peace and justice among nations and the sincere and helpful friendship of all the American Republics for each other.

Resolved, That the Chairman of the Board communicate a copy of the foregoing resolutions to Mr. Carnegie.

The Governing Board of the International Bureau of the American Republics further resolves:

1. That the letter of the Honorable the Secretary of State, Mr. Elihu Root, to Mr. Andrew Carnegie; the answer of this distinguished philanthropist, and the resolution of the Governing Board accepting this splendid gift be kept on file with the important documents of the Bureau; and

2. That the text of these letters and the resolutions thereon be artistically engrossed under the title of "Carnegie's Gift to the International Bureau of the American Republics," and, properly framed, to form a part of the exhibit of the Bureau at the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition.

[Pg 228]On May 11, 1908, Mr. Root, then secretary of state, whose forethought and personal efforts had made its construction possible, delivered the address at the laying of the corner stone, and later, on April 26, 1910, when he was no longer secretary of state but senator of the United States and friend of the Americas, he delivered the principal address at the dedication of the building. These two addresses follow:

ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE OF
THE BUILDING FOR THE PAN AMERICAN UNION
WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 11, 1908

We are here to lay the corner stone of the building which is to be the home of the International Union of American Republics.[10]

The wise liberality of the Congress of the United States has provided the means for the purchase of this tract of land—five acres in extent—near the White House and the great executive departments, bounded on every side by public streets and facing to the east and south upon public parks which it will always be the care of the National Government to render continually more beautiful, in execution of its design to make the national capital an object of national pride and a source of that pleasure which comes to rich and poor alike from the education of taste.

The public spirit and enthusiasm for the good of humanity, which have inspired an American citizen, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, in his administration of a great fortune, have led him to devote the adequate and ample sum of three-quarters of a million dollars to the construction of the building.[11]

Into the appropriate adornment and fitting of the edifice will go the contributions of every American republic, already pledged and, in a great measure, already paid into the fund of the Union.

The International Union for which the building is erected is a voluntary association, the members of which are all the [Pg 229]American nations from Cape Horn to the Great Lakes. It had its origin in the first Pan American conference held at Washington in 1889, and it has been developed and improved in efficiency under the resolutions of the succeeding conferences in Mexico and Brazil. Its primary object is to break down the barriers of mutual ignorance between the nations of America by collecting and making accessible, furnishing and spreading, information about every country among the people of every other country in the Union, to facilitate and stimulate intercourse, trade, acquaintance, good understanding, fellowship, and sympathy. For this purpose it has established in Washington a bureau or office under the direction of a governing board composed of the official representatives in Washington of all the republics, and having a director and secretary, with a force of assistants and translators and clerks.

The bureau has established a rapidly increasing library of history, travel, description, statistics, and literature of the American nations. It publishes a Monthly Bulletin of current public events and existing conditions in all the united countries, which is circulated in every country. It carries on an enormous correspondence with every part of both continents, answering the questions of seekers for information about the laws, customs, conditions, opportunities, and personnel of the different countries; and it has become a medium of introduction and guidance for international intercourse.

The governing board is also a permanent committee charged with the duty of seeing that the resolutions of each Pan American conference are carried out and that suitable preparation is made for the next succeeding conference.

The increasing work of the bureau has greatly outgrown the facilities of its cramped quarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, and now at the close of its second decade and under the influence of the great movement of awakened sympathy [Pg 230]between the American republics, the Union stands upon the threshold of more ample opportunity for the prosecution of its beneficent activity.

Many noble and beautiful public buildings record the achievements and illustrate the impulses of modern civilization. Temples of religion, of patriotism, of learning, of art, of justice, abound; but this structure will stand alone, the first of its kind—a temple dedicated to international friendship. It will be devoted to the diffusion of that international knowledge which dispels national prejudice and liberalizes national judgment. Here will be fostered the growth of that sympathy born of similarity in good impulses and noble purposes, which draws men of different races and countries together into a community of nations, and counteracts the tendency of selfish instincts to array nations against each other as enemies. From this source shall spring mutual helpfulness between all the American republics, so that the best knowledge and experience and courage and hope of every republic shall lend moral power to sustain and strengthen every other in its struggle to work out its problems and to advance the standard of liberty and peace with justice within itself, and so that no people in all these continents, however oppressed and discouraged, however impoverished and torn by disorder, shall fail to feel that they are not alone in the world, or shall fail to see that for them a better day may dawn, as for others the sun has already arisen.

It is too much to expect that there will not be controversies between American nations to whose desire for harmony we now bear witness; but to every controversy will apply the truth that there are no international controversies so serious that they cannot be settled peaceably if both parties really desire peaceable settlement, while there are few causes of dispute so trifling that they cannot be made the occasion of [Pg 231]war if either party really desires war. The matters in dispute between nations are nothing; the spirit which deals with them is everything.

The graceful courtesy of the twenty republics who have agreed upon the capital of the United States for the home of this International Union, the deep appreciation of that courtesy shown by the American Government and this representative American citizen, and the work to be done within the walls that are to rise on this site, cannot fail to be powerful influences towards the creation of a spirit that will solve all disputed questions of the future and preserve the peace of the Western World.

May the structure now begun stand for many generations to come as the visible evidence of mutual respect, esteem, appreciation, and kindly feeling between the peoples of all the republics; may pleasant memories of hospitality and friendship gather about it, and may all the Americas come to feel that for them this place is home, for it is theirs, the product of a common effort and the instrument of a common purpose.

ADDRESS AT THE DEDICATION OF THE BUILDING OF THE
PAN AMERICAN UNION, WASHINGTON, D. C.
APRIL 26, 1910

I am sure that this beautiful building must produce a lively sense of grateful appreciation in all who care for the growth of friendship among Americans; to Mr. Carnegie, not merely for his generous gift but for the large sympathy and far vision that prompted it; and to the associate architects, Mr. Albert Kelsey and Mr. Paul Cret, who, not content with making this structure express their sense of artistic form and proportion, have entered with the devotion and self-absorption of true art into the spirit of the design for which their bricks and marble are to stand. They have brought into happy companionship architectural [Pg 232]suggestions of the North and of the South; and have wrought into construction and ornament in a hundred ways the art, the symbolism, the traditions, and the history of all the American republics; and they have made the building a true expression of Pan Americanism, of open mind and open heart for all that is true and noble and worthy of respect from whatever race or religion or language or custom in the western continents.

Nor should we forget the fine enthusiasm and understanding with which Mr. Borglum and Mr. Conti and Mrs. Farnham and Mrs. Whitney have brought sculpture to aid the architects' expression; nor the honest and faithful work of Mr. Norcross, the builder; nor the kind help of Mr. William Smith, of the Botanical Garden, who has filled the patio with tropical plants rare and strange to northern eyes, but familiar friends to the Latin American; nor the energy and unwearying labors of Mr. Barrett, the director of the bureau.

The active interest of President Taft and Secretary Knox is evidence that the policy of Pan American friendship, re-inaugurated by the sympathetic genius of Secretary Blaine, is continuous and permanent in the United States; and the harmony in which the members of the governing board have worked to this end is a good omen for the future.

This building is to be, in its most manifest utilitarian service, a convenient instrument for association and growth of mutual knowledge among the people of the different republics. The library maintained here, the books and journals accessible here, the useful and interesting publications of the bureau, the enormous correspondence carried on with seekers for knowledge about American countries, the opportunities now afforded for further growth in all these activities, justify the pains and the expense.

The building is more important, however, as the symbol, the ever-present reminder, the perpetual assertion, of unity, [Pg 233]of common interest and purpose and hope among all the republics. This building is a confession of faith, a covenant of fraternal duty, a declaration of allegiance to an ideal. The members of The Hague conference of 1907 described the conference in the preamble of its great arbitration convention as:

That is the meaning of this building for the republics of America. That sentiment which all the best in modern civilization is trying to live up to, we have written here in marble for the people of the American continents.

The process of civilization is by association. In isolation, men, communities, nations, tend back towards savagery. Repellent differences and dislikes separate them from mankind. In association, similarities and attractions are felt and differences are forgotten. There is so much more good than evil in men that liking comes by knowing. We have here the product of mutual knowledge, coöperation, harmony, friendship. Here is an evidence of what these can accomplish. Here is an earnest of what may be done in the future. From these windows the governing board of the International Union will look down upon the noble river that flows by the home of Washington. They will sit beneath the shadow of the simple and majestic monument which illustrates our conception of his character, the character that, beyond all others in human history, rises above jealousy and envy and ignoble strife. All the nations acknowledge his preëminent influence. He belongs to them all. No man lives in [Pg 234]freedom anywhere on earth who is not his debtor and his follower. We dedicate this place to the service of the political faith in which he lived and wrought. Long may this structure stand, while within its walls and under the influence of the benign purpose from which it sprang, the habit and the power of self-control, of mutual consideration and kindly judgment, more and more exclude the narrowness and selfishness and prejudice of ignorance and the hasty impulses of super-sensitive amour propre. May men hereafter come to see that here is set a milestone in the path of American civilization towards the reign of that universal public opinion which shall condemn all who through contentious spirit or greed or selfish ambition or lust for power disturb the public peace, as enemies of the general good of the American republics.

One voice that should have spoken here today is silent, but many of us cannot forget or cease to mourn and to honor our dear and noble friend, Joaquim Nabuco. Ambassador from Brazil, dean of the American Diplomatic Corps, respected, admired, trusted, loved, and followed by all of us, he was a commanding figure in the international movement of which the erection of this building is a part. The breadth of his political philosophy, the nobility of his idealism, the prophetic vision of his poetic imagination, were joined to wisdom, to the practical sagacity of statesmanship, to a sympathetic knowledge of men, and to a heart as sensitive and tender as a woman's. He followed the design and construction of this building with the deepest interest. His beneficent influence impressed itself upon all of our actions. No benison can be pronounced upon this great institution so rich in promise for its future as the wish that his ennobling memory may endure and his civilizing spirit may control, in the councils of the International Union of American Republics.

It is my pleasant privilege to respond to a toast to an offspring of old Spain, a direct lineal descendant, an inheritor of her blood, her faith and her language.

It is only a young republic, only an American republic. No historic centuries invest her with romance or with interest; but she is great in glorious promise of the future, and great in manifest power to fulfill the promise.

Far away to the southward, beyond the great empire of the Amazon, beyond the equatorial heats, there stretches a vast land, from the latitude of Cuba on the north to the latitude of Hudson Bay on the south, and from the Andes to the Eastern Sea. In this land mighty rivers flow through vast forests, and immeasurable plains stretch from ocean to mountains, with a soil of inexhaustible fertility, under every variety of healthful and invigorating climate.

All this we know; but we must not forget, and we cannot forget tonight, that this great land, capable of supporting in plenty all the teeming millions of Europe, is possessed by the people of a free constitutional republic, of all the sisterhood of nations, in form, in feature and in character, the most like to ourselves.

For forty years the Argentine Republic has lived and governed itself under a constitution in all material respects the exact counterpart of the Constitution of the United States. Its constitution was avowedly modelled after ours. For [Pg 236]forty years, in fourteen separate states like our own, the people of Argentina have preserved the sacred right of local self-government. For forty years they have maintained at the same time the sovereignty of their nation; and by the constancy of their past they have given a high and ever-increasing credit to their promise that for the future, under Southern Cross as under Northern Star, government by the people, of the people, and for the people, shall endure.

Under this constitutional system they have framed for themselves wise and liberal laws. They have constructed extensive works of internal improvement; and waterways, and railroads, and telegraph lines, all invite to the development of their vast natural wealth. They have established universal religious toleration. They have protected the rights of private property and of personal liberty. They have created and maintained a great system of public education. In more than three thousand public common schools over a quarter of a million children are today learning how to be good citizens. Grading up from these common schools through lyceums in every state and two great universities, the pathway of higher education is open to all the people of the republic.

Under such a constitution and such laws, Argentina has made greater material progress and greater advance in the art of self-government, during our generation, than any people upon the western hemisphere, unless it be, perhaps, our own.

We remember, too, that the people of Argentina, like our own fathers, won their liberty by struggle and by sacrifice. They made their fight for independence at a time when Europe was exhausted by the Napoleonic wars. They attracted but little attention and less aid from the Old World. No Byron enshrined their heroism in deathless verse; no Rousseau with the philosophy of humanity awoke for [Pg 237]them generous and effective enthusiasm in the breasts of a Lafayette or a Rochambeau, a Von Steuben or a Kosciusko.

Alone and unaided they fought their fight. Dependent upon themselves, on the ninth of July, seventy-seven years ago, they made their own declaration of independence, commemorated in the name of that thing of beauty and of power which today floats upon the bosom of the Hudson, a peer among the embattled navies of the world. They made good that declaration against all odds, through hardship, through suffering, through seas of blood, with desperate valor and lofty heroism, worthy the plaudits of the world.

And then they conquered themselves; learned the hard lesson of subordinating personal ambition to law, to order, to the public weal.

And today more people than followed Washington with their hopes and prayers enjoy the blessings of liberty and peace, and the security of established and equal laws, won for them by the patriots who gave their lives for their country on the plains of Argentina.

These people have not only done all this for themselves, but they also have opened their arms to all the people of the earth, and have welcomed to their shores the poor, the humble, the downcast of all lands. So that scores of thousands of French, of Italians, of Germans, of English, of Spaniards, coming not as their fathers came, in mailed forms to conquer savage foes—but under peaceful flags—a million and a half of men from all civilized lands of Europe, have come to share the peace, the plenty and the freedom of the young republic; and to contribute to her prosperity and wealth. Every guest at our board tonight may feel his pulses beat in unison with the sentiment of health and prosperity to the new land where his own kindred have found new homes and hopes.

[Pg 238]If there be truth in the philosophy of history—if the crossing of stocks, the blending of races, makes the strong new race, with capacity and power to press forward and upward the standard of civilization, the future is to find the people of Argentina in the forefront of human progress.

And so, from the Hudson to the La Plata, from the plains to the Pampas, from the Rockies to the Andes, from the old American republic to the young American republic, from sister to sister, with the same convictions and hopes and aspirations, we send sincere and hearty greeting, congratulation and God-speed.

When in the various pathways that one treads in a long life one has made friends, has garnered the wealth of friendship, that is more the happiness of age than wealth of money or possession, I know of nothing more delightful than to help bring together distant and separated friends and complete that circuit of magnetic intercourse which, after all, above all sordid motives, above all selfish interests, above all things material, makes up the true value of life.

I cannot express the satisfaction that I feel in having you, my friends, the Chamber of Commerce, unite in taking the hand, and coming into personal contact with, my old friend and host of the southern republic. I feel that you are all paying my debt of gratitude, paying it as friends should pay it for friends.

Dr. Müller, you have come to see a people widely known throughout the world for their great material achievements, a people whose influence has been very great in the development of civilization and in the advancement of those standards of living and of action which we believe make our times better than the times that have gone before; and you see here about you at these tables, and in the portraits upon [Pg 240]these walls, the men who, for nearly a century and a half have played a great, aye, the greatest part in the amazing material developments and in the spiritual life of this republic. Those who are living today under the inspiration and the spirit of the great citizens who have gone before are gathered to do you honor and do your country honor. What has been done in the United States of America, has been done, not by the power of money; it has been done, not under the influence of selfish motives; it has been done under the influence of noble ideals, of great minds, and of great hearts directing and guiding and leading the mighty affairs of a great people. And here are representatives, not all, but many, of the foremost representatives of that American spirit which has accomplished everything which you have seen in your journey here.

My friends of the Chamber of Commerce, some years ago when it fell to my lot to visit South America, for the purpose of carrying to the minds of our southern sisters a true message of the real feeling of our people towards them, for the purpose of getting a hearing among the peoples of South America, which could not be gained through the newspapers, which could not be gained in any other way than by direct personal contact and by the influence of one personality meeting another, for the purpose of doing away with the false and distorted ideas that our great country was possessed by ambition and the lust of conquest and the desire for dominion over other lands, I met in Brazil the most noble and generous hospitality. No nation of men could have exhibited in a higher degree all those qualities which make men love each other than the people of Brazil exhibited to me on my visit there. The noble traditions of their race, all the great-heartedness of the grandees of the Iberian Peninsula, all those sentiments which have made them par excellence the gentlemen of civilization were exhibited in the [Pg 241]welcome they gave to you, to our people, through me as their representative.

In that land of surpassing beauty, in that scene upon the Bay of Rio, with its shining waters and its blue mountains, in that city which has all the romance of fair Ionian cities, I found a depth and warmth of friendship, a depth of patriotism and love for their own country, a response to the message of humanity, and a warm acceptance of the tender of friendship which made the people of Brazil ever to me a group of dearly loved and always to be remembered friends. And among the first of them all was our guest of this evening. His personal hospitality I shall never forget. He knew not the words inconvenience or trouble. One would have thought he had no other duties to perform but to make the stranger who came from the distant republic of the north at home and happy, and he did it as the men of his country know how to do it. Even then he held a great place in the government of his country; and it is a matter of the utmost satisfaction to me that his people have continued their confidence in him and have led him along step by step to higher and higher office, so that today he stands in the forefront of the statesmen who are making Brazil one of the great world powers of our modern civilization.

It is not, my friends, a mere gathering of courtesy tonight. We are not merely performing a duty of hospitality to the representative of a foreign state, when we exhibit our sincere friendship and our kindly feelings toward Dr. Müller and his country; we are doing for ourselves something of inestimable value, and we are doing something of inestimable value for the people of our country.

Of late the electors of America, the unofficial people of America, are demanding, asserting and laying hold upon more and more direct relation to the powers of government; but a democracy when it undertakes to govern directly, [Pg 242]needs to remember that there are no rights without a duty, there is no duty without a right; and if a democracy is to govern itself well it must realize its responsibilities. We have been so isolated, we have been so free from wars and rumors of wars, so little inconvenienced by interference on the part of other nations in our vast domain, so busy with our internal affairs, that the people of the United States know but little, think but little, and care but little regarding foreign affairs. If the people of the United States are themselves to direct their foreign affairs they must come to a realizing sense of their responsibilities in foreign affairs; and first among those responsibilities is the duty of courtesy, the duty of kindly consideration, the duty to subordinate selfish interests to the broader interests of the nations of the world; the duty to treat every other nation with that judicial sense of others' rights which differentiates all diplomacy from the controversies of courts or the clashing of business interests.

Our people, if their voice is to be heard in foreign affairs, must learn that we cannot continue a policy of peace with insult; we must learn civility, we must learn that when we speak, when an American sovereign speaks of the affairs of other nations, he speaks under responsibility, and he must observe those rules of courtesy and of friendly relations by which alone can the peace of the world be maintained.

Today we hear much of peace and persuasion for peace. Let me tell you that the great peace agencies of the world today are the governments of the world. Hitherto, in Dr. Müller's visit, he has been in the main entertained by the American Government and the people connected with the American Government; but the responsibility for international friendship and international peace today rests not with governments that are always for peace, but with the people. It is the people from whom the danger of war comes today; it is the people, so far as they are unwilling to [Pg 243]exercise self-restraint and all the qualities which go to make for agreeable and kindly and friendly relations with other people.

So, to my mind your meeting here to extend the right hand of fellowship to Dr. Müller, to express to him the feeling of kindliness towards his country, in its representation of the people of the United States and as one of the multitude of incidents exercising an influence over the people, is of greater value and greater importance than anything that the official Government of the United States can do.

We have had for now ninety years a special political relation to the southern republics. Since the time when Monroe announced the doctrine which carries the necessary implication that every foot of soil upon the two American continents is under a government competent to govern, no longer open to colonization as the waste places of the earth are open,—from that time to this, special and peculiar political relations have existed between the United States and the other countries of the western continent. Thank Heaven the need for it, the need for the protection that came from that great assertion, is growing less and less. There are some parts of the continent as to which the necessities of the Monroe Doctrine, as it regards our safety, do not grow less; but as to those great republics in South America which have passed out of the condition of militarism, out of the condition of revolution, into the condition of industrialism, into the paths of successful commerce, and are becoming great and powerful nations, the Monroe Doctrine has done its work. And the thing above all things that I hope and trust and believe the people of South America will become permanently convinced of is, that there is neither to the Monroe Doctrine nor any other doctrine or purpose of the American Government any corollary of dominion or aggression, or of aught but equal friendship.

There is a national spirit and a national purpose and a national ideal quite apart from individual purpose or [Pg 244]individual ideals. I am one of those who believe that for the existence of a truly great nation there must be an ideal of altruism. I believe that no people can be truly great which has no national and collective purpose that is not selfish. I believe that our country has a mission in the world; has great deeds to accomplish for the world; has a great future of beneficence for civilization; and that our sense of this, dim and vague doubtless among us in the main, buoys us up and makes us better patriots and makes our country the great nation that we love and honor. And directly to your hands in the accomplishment of the great national purpose, making all our prosperity, all our power, all our capital and our labor instruments for the bettering of mankind, for the progress of civilization and for the coming of the effective and universal rule of the religion which we profess, right at your hands, as the first and plainest duty, is the cementing of the bonds of friendship between our republic and our sister republics of the continent.

We have much to learn from Brazil—I hope she may learn much from us; and the interchange of benefits between us will but make stronger a friendship which carries with it the recognition of benefits. I sincerely hope, Dr. Müller, upon your return to Brazil, you may feel it in your heart to tell your people that here, while we are pursuing our business careers, earnest in competition, eager to improve our conditions, anxious for trade, desirous of the greatness and glory of our country, we seek those ends only through universal friendship, through carrying, so far as we can, the benefits of peace and prosperity to all our sister republics, in order that you and we may grow stronger and greater together, and that Brazil, with its enormous resources, with its patriotic people, with its brilliant minds, with its bright future, may go hand in hand with the republic of the north to ever happier and happier conditions for all our people.

A little less than three centuries of colonial and national life have brought the people inhabiting the United States, by a process of evolution, natural and, with the existing forces inevitable, to a point of distinct and radical change in their economic relations to the rest of mankind.

During the period now past, the energy of our people, directed by the formative power created in our early population by heredity, by environment, by the struggle for existence, by individual independence, and by free institutions, has been devoted to the internal development of our own country. The surplus wealth produced by our labors has been applied immediately to reproduction in our own land. We have been cutting down forests and breaking virgin soil and fencing prairies and opening mines of coal and iron and copper and silver and gold, and building roads and [Pg 246]canals and railroads and telegraph lines and cars and locomotives and mills and furnaces and schoolhouses and colleges and libraries and hospitals and asylums and public buildings and storehouses and shops and homes. We have been drawing on the resources of the world in capital and in labor to aid us in our work. We have gathered strength from every rich and powerful nation and expended it upon these home undertakings; into them we have poured hundreds of millions of money attracted from the investors of Europe. We have been always a debtor nation, borrowing from the rest of the world, drawing all possible energy towards us and concentrating it with our own energy upon our own enterprises. The engrossing pursuit of our own opportunities has excluded from our consideration and interest the enterprises and the possibilities of the outside world. Invention, discovery, the progress of science, capacity for organization, the enormous increase in the productive power of mankind, have accelerated our progress and have brought us to a result of development in every branch of internal industrial activity marvelous and unprecedented in the history of the world.

Since the first election of President McKinley, the people of the United States have for the first time accumulated a surplus of capital beyond the requirements of internal development. That surplus is increasing with extraordinary rapidity. We have paid our debts to Europe and have become a creditor instead of a debtor nation; we have faced about; we have left the ranks of the borrowing nations and have entered the ranks of the investing nations. Our surplus energy is beginning to look beyond our own borders, throughout the world, to find opportunity for the profitable use of our surplus capital, foreign markets for our manufactures, foreign mines to be developed, foreign bridges and railroads and public works to be built, foreign rivers to be turned into electric power and light. As in their several ways England [Pg 247]and France and Germany have stood, so we in our own way are beginning to stand and must continue to stand towards the industrial enterprise of the world.

That we are not beginning our new rôle feebly is indicated by $1,518,561,666 of exports in the year 1905 as against $1,117,513,071 of imports, and by $1,743,864,500 exports in the year 1906 as against $1,226,563,843 of imports. Our first steps in the new field indeed are somewhat clumsy and unskilled. In our own vast country, with oceans on either side, we have had too little contact with foreign peoples readily to understand their customs or learn their languages; yet no one can doubt that we shall learn and shall understand and shall do our business abroad, as we have done it at home, with force and efficiency.

Coincident with this change in the United States, the progress of political development has been carrying the neighboring continent of South America out of the stage of militarism into the stage of industrialism. Throughout the greater part of that vast continent, revolutions have ceased to be looked upon with favor or submitted to with indifference; the revolutionary general and the dictator are no longer the objects of admiration and imitation; civic virtues command the highest respect; the people point with satisfaction and pride to the stability of their governments, to the safety of property and the certainty of justice; nearly everywhere the people are eager for foreign capital to develop their natural resources and for foreign immigration to occupy their vacant lands.

Immediately before us, at exactly the right time, just as we are ready for it, great opportunities for peaceful commercial and industrial expansion to the south are presented. Other investing nations are already in the field—England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain; but the field is so vast, the new demands are so great, the progress so rapid, that what [Pg 248]other nations have done up to this time is but a slight advance in the race for the grand total.

The opportunities are so large that figures fail to convey them. The area of this newly awakened continent is 7,502,848 square miles—more than two and one half times as large as the United States without Alaska, and more than double the United States including Alaska. A large part of this area lies within the temperate zone, with an equable and invigorating climate, free from extremes of either heat or cold. Farther north in the tropics are enormous expanses of high table-lands, stretching from the Atlantic to the foothills of the Andes, and lifted far above the tropical heats; the fertile valleys of the western cordilleras are cooled by perpetual snows even under the equator; vast forests grow untouched from a soil of incredible richness. The plains of Argentina, the great uplands of Brazil, the mountain valleys of Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Colombia are suited to the habitation of any race, however far to the north its origin may have been; hundreds of millions of men can find healthful homes and abundant sustenance in this great territory.

The population in 1900 was only 42,461,381, less than six to the square mile. The density of population was less than one-eighth of that in the state of Missouri, less than one-sixtieth of that in the state of Massachusetts, less than one-seventieth of that in England, less than one per cent of that in Belgium.

With this sparse population the production of wealth is already enormous. The latest trade statistics show exports from South America to foreign countries of $745,530,000, and imports of $499,858,600. Of the five hundred millions of goods that South America buys, we sell them but $63,246,525, or 12.6 per cent. Of the seven hundred and forty-five [Pg 249]millions that South America sells, we buy $152,092,000, or 20.4 per cent—nearly two and a half times as much as we sell.

Their production is increasing by leaps and bounds. In eleven years the exports of Chile have increased forty-five per cent, from $54,030,000 in 1894 to $78,840,000 in 1905. In eight years the exports of Peru have increased one hundred per cent, from $13,899,000 in 1897 to $28,758,000 in 1905. In ten years the exports of Brazil have increased sixty-six per cent, from $134,062,000 in 1894 to $223,101,000 in 1905. In ten years the exports of Argentina have increased one hundred and sixty-eight per cent, from $115,868,000 in 1895 to $311,544,000 in 1905.

This is only the beginning; the coffee and rubber of Brazil, the wheat and beef and hides of Argentina and Uruguay, the copper and nitrates of Chile, the copper and tin of Bolivia, the silver and gold and cotton and sugar of Peru, are but samples of what the soil and mines of that wonderful continent are capable of yielding.

Ninety-seven per cent of the territory of South America is occupied by ten independent republics living under constitutions substantially copied or adapted from our own. Under the new conditions of tranquillity and security which prevail in most of them, their eager invitation to immigrants from the Old World will not long pass unheeded. The pressure of population abroad will inevitably turn its streams of life and labor towards those fertile fields and valleys. The streams have already begun to flow; more than two hundred thousand immigrants entered the Argentine Republic last year; they are coming this year at the rate of over three hundred thousand. Many thousands of Germans have already settled in southern Brazil. They are most welcome in Brazil; they are good and useful citizens there, as they are here; I hope that many more will come to Brazil and every other South [Pg 250]American country, and add their vigorous industry and good citizenship to the upbuilding of their adopted home.

With the increase of population in such a field, under free institutions, with the fruits of labor and the rewards of enterprise secure, the production of wealth and the increase of purchasing power will afford a market for the commerce of the world worthy to rank even with the markets of the Orient, as the goal of business enterprise. The material resources of South America are in some important respects complementary to our own; that continent is weakest where North America is strongest as a field for manufactures; it has comparatively little coal and iron. In many respects the people of the two continents are complementary to each other; the South American is polite, refined, cultivated, fond of literature and of expression and of the graces and charms of life, while the North American is strenuous, intense, utilitarian. Where we accumulate, they spend. While we have less of the cheerful philosophy which finds sources of happiness in the existing conditions of life, they have less of the inventive faculty which strives continually to increase the productive power of man and lower the cost of manufacture. The chief merits of the peoples of the two continents are different; their chief defects are different. Mutual intercourse and knowledge cannot fail greatly to benefit both. Each can learn from the other; each can teach much to the other, and each can contribute greatly to the development and prosperity of the other. A large part of their products find no domestic competition here; a large part of our products will find no domestic competition there. The typical conditions exist for that kind of trade which is profitable, honorable, and beneficial to both parties.

The relations between the United States and South America have been chiefly political rather than commercial or personal. In the early days of the South American struggle [Pg 251]for independence, the eloquence of Henry Clay awakened in the American people a generous sympathy for the patriots of the south as for brethren struggling in the common cause of liberty. The clear-eyed, judicious diplomacy of Richard Rush, the American minister at the Court of St. James, effected a complete understanding with Great Britain for concurrent action in opposition to the designs of the Holy Alliance, already contemplating the partition of the southern continent among the great powers of continental Europe. The famous declaration of Monroe arrayed the organized and rapidly increasing power of the United States as an obstacle to European interference and made it forever plain that the cost of European aggression would be greater than any advantage which could be won even by successful aggression.

That great declaration was not the chance expression of the opinion or the feeling of the moment; it crystallized the sentiment for human liberty and human rights which has saved American idealism from the demoralization of narrow selfishness, and has given to American democracy its true world power in the virile potency of a great example. It responded to the instinct of self-preservation in an intensely practical people. It was the result of conference with Jefferson and Madison and John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun and William Wirt—a combination of political wisdom, experience, and skill not easily surpassed. The particular circumstances which led to the declaration no longer exist; no Holy Alliance now threatens to partition South America; no European colonization of the west coast threatens to exclude us from the Pacific. But those conditions were merely the occasion for the declaration of a principle of action. Other occasions for the application of the principle have arisen since; it needs no prophetic vision to see that other occasions for its application may arise [Pg 252]hereafter. The principle declared by Monroe is as wise an expression of sound political judgment today, as truthful a representation of the sentiments and instincts of the American people today, as living in its force as an effective rule of conduct whenever occasion shall arise, as it was on December 2, 1823.

These great political services to South American independence, however, did not and could not in the nature of things create any relation between the people of South America and the people of the United States except a relation of political sympathy.

Twenty-five years ago, Mr. Blaine, sanguine, resourceful, and gifted with that imagination which enlarges the historian's understanding of the past into the statesman's comprehension of the future, undertook to inaugurate a new era of American relations which should supplement political sympathy by personal acquaintance, by the intercourse of expanding trade, and by mutual helpfulness. As secretary of state under President Arthur, he invited the American nations to a conference to be held on November 24, 1882, for the purpose of considering and discussing the subject of preventing war between the nations of America. That invitation, abandoned by Mr. Frelinghuysen, was renewed under Mr. Cleveland, and on October 2, 1889, Mr. Blaine, again secretary of state under President Harrison, had the singular good fortune to execute his former design and to open the sessions of the first American conference at Washington. In an address of wisdom and lofty spirit, which should ever give honor to his memory, he described the assembly as—

The policy which Mr. Blaine inaugurated has been continued; the Congress of the United States has approved it; subsequent presidents have followed it. The first conference at Washington has been succeeded by a second conference in Mexico, and now by a third conference in Rio de Janeiro; and it is to be followed in years to come by further successive assemblies in which the representatives of all American states shall acquire better knowledge and more perfect understanding, and be drawn together by the recognition of common interests and the kindly consideration and discussion of measures for mutual benefit.

Nevertheless, Mr. Blaine was in advance of his time. In 1881 and 1889 the United States had not reached a point where it could turn its energies away from its own internal development and direct them outward towards the development of foreign enterprises and foreign trade, nor had the South American countries reached the stage of stability in government and security for property necessary to their industrial development.

Now, however, the time has come; both North and South America have grown up to Blaine's policy. The production, the trade, the capital, the enterprise of the United States have before them the opportunity to follow, and they are free to follow, the pathway marked out by the far-sighted statesmanship of Blaine for the growth of America, North and South, in the peaceful prosperity of a mighty commerce.

To utilize this opportunity certain practical things must be done. For the most part these things must be done by a multitude of individual efforts; they cannot be done by [Pg 254]government. Government may help to furnish facilities for the doing of them, but the facilities will be useless unless used by individuals. This cannot be done by resolutions of this or any other commercial body; resolutions are useless unless they stir individual business men to action in their own business affairs. The things needed have been fully and specifically set forth in many reports of efficient consuls and of highly competent agents of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and they have been described in countless newspapers and magazine articles; but all these things are worthless unless they are followed by individual action.

I will indicate some of the matters to which every producer and merchant who desires South American trade should pay attention.

1. He should learn what the South Americans want and conform his product to their wants. If they think they need heavy castings, he should give them heavy castings and not expect them to buy light ones because he thinks they are better. If they want coarse cottons, he should give them coarse cottons and not expect them to buy fine cottons. It may not pay today, but it will pay tomorrow. The tendency to standardize articles of manufacture may reduce the cost and promote convenience, but if the consumers on the River Plata demand a different standard from the consumers on the Mississippi, you must have two standards or lose one market.

2. Both for the purpose of learning what the South American people want and of securing their attention to your goods, you must have agents who speak the Spanish or Portuguese language. For this there are two reasons: one is that people can seldom really get at each other's minds through an interpreter, and the other is that nine times out of ten it is only through knowing the Spanish or Portuguese language that a North American comes to appreciate the admirable and [Pg 255]attractive personal qualities of the South American, and is thus able to establish that kindly and agreeable personal relation which is so potent in leading to business relations.

3. The American producer should arrange to conform his credit system to that prevailing in the country where he wishes to sell goods. There is no more money lost upon commercial credits in South America than there is in North America; but business men there have their own ways of doing business; they have to adapt the credits they receive to the credits they give. It is often inconvenient and disagreeable, and it is sometimes impossible, for them to conform to our ways, and the requirement that they should do so is a serious obstacle to trade.

To understand credits it is, of course, necessary to know something about the character, trustworthiness, and commercial standing of the purchaser, and the American producer or merchant who would sell goods in South America must have some means of knowledge upon this subject. This leads naturally to the next observation I have to make.

4. The establishment of banks should be brought about. The Americans already engaged in South American trade could well afford to subscribe the capital and establish an American bank in each of the principal cities of South America. This is a fact, first, because nothing but very bad management could prevent such a bank from making money; capital is much needed in those cities, and six, eight, and ten per cent can be obtained for money upon just as safe security as can be had in Kansas City, St. Louis, or New York. It is a fact also because the American bank would furnish a source of information as to the standing of the South American purchasers to whom credit may be extended, and because American banks would relieve American business in South America from the disadvantage which now exists of [Pg 256]making all its financial transactions through Europe instead of directly with the United States. It is unfortunately true that among hundreds of thousands of possible customers the United States now stands in a position of assumed financial and business inferiority to the countries through whose banking houses all its business must be done.

5. The American merchant should himself acquire, if he has not already done so, and should impress upon all his agents that respect for the South American to which he is justly entitled and which is the essential requisite to respect from the South American. We are different in many ways as to character and methods. In dealing with all foreign people, it is important to avoid the narrow and uninstructed prejudice which assumes that difference from ourselves denotes inferiority. There is nothing that we resent so quickly as an assumption of superiority or evidence of condescension in foreigners; there is nothing that the South Americans resent so quickly. The South Americans are our superiors in some respects; we are their superiors in other respects. We should show to them what is best in us and see what is best in them. Every agent of an American producer or merchant should be instructed that courtesy, politeness, kindly consideration, are essential requisites for success in the South American trade.

6. The investment of American capital in South America under the direction of American experts should be promoted, not merely upon simple investment grounds, but as a means of creating and enlarging trade. For simple investment purposes the opportunities are innumerable. Good business judgment and good business management will be necessary there, of course, as they are necessary here; but, given these, I believe that there is a vast number of enterprises awaiting capital in the more advanced countries of South America, capable of yielding great profits, and in which the property [Pg 257]and the profits will be as safe as in the United States or Canada. A good many such enterprises are already begun. I have found a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a graduate of the Columbia School of Mines, and a graduate of Colonel Roosevelt's Rough Riders smelting copper close under the snow line of the Andes; I have ridden in an American car upon an American electric road, built by a New York engineer, in the heart of the coffee region of Brazil; and I have seen the waters of that river along which Pizarro established his line of communication in the conquest of Peru, harnessed to American machinery to make light and power for the city of Lima. Every such point is the nucleus of American trade—the source of orders for American goods.

7. It is absolutely essential that the means of communication between the two countries should be improved and increased.

This underlies all other considerations and it applies to the mail, the passenger, and the freight services. Between all the principal South American ports and England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, lines of swift and commodious steamers ply regularly. There are five subsidized first-class mail and passenger lines between Buenos Ayres and Europe; there is no such line between Buenos Ayres and the United States. Within the past two years the German, the English, and the Italian lines have been replacing their old steamers with new and swifter vessels of modern construction, accommodation, and capacity.

In the year ending June 30, 1905, there entered the port of Rio de Janeiro steamers and sailing vessels flying the flag of Austria-Hungary, 120; of Norway, 142; of Italy, 165; of Argentina, 264; of France, 349; of Germany, 657; of Great Britain, 1785; of the United States,—no steamers and seven sailing vessels, two of which were in distress!

[Pg 258]An English firm runs a small steamer monthly between New York and Rio de Janeiro; the Panama Railroad Company runs steamers between New York and the Isthmus of Panama; the Brazilians are starting for themselves a line between Rio and New York; there are two or three foreign concerns running slow cargo boats, and there are some foreign tramp steamers. That is the sum total of American communication with South America beyond the Caribbean Sea. Not one American steamship runs to any South American port beyond the Caribbean. During the past summer, I entered the ports of Pará, Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Montevideo, Buenos Ayres, Bahia Blanca, Punta Arenas, Lota, Valparaiso, Coquimbo, Tocopilla, Callao, and Cartagena—all of the great ports and a large proportion of the secondary ports of the southern continent. I saw only one ship, besides the cruiser that carried me, flying the American flag.

The mails between South America and Europe are swift, regular, and certain; between South America and the United States they are slow, irregular, and uncertain. Six weeks is not an uncommon time for a letter to take between Buenos Ayres or Valparaiso and New York. The merchant who wishes to order American goods cannot know when his order will be received nor when it will be filled. The freight charges between the South American cities and American cities are generally and substantially higher than between the same cities and Europe; at many points the deliveries of freight are uncertain and its condition upon arrival doubtful. The passenger accommodations are such as to make a journey to the United States a trial to be endured and a journey to Europe a pleasure to be enjoyed. The best way to travel between the United States and both the southwest coast and the east coast of South America is to go by way of Europe, crossing the Atlantic twice. It is impossible that trade should [Pg 259]prosper or intercourse increase or mutual knowledge grow to any great degree under such circumstances. The communication is worse now than it was twenty-five years ago. So long as it is left in the hands of our foreign competitors in business, we cannot reasonably look for any improvement. It is only reasonable to expect that European steamship lines shall be so managed as to promote European trade in South America, rather than to promote the trade of the United States in South America.

This woeful deficiency in the means to carry on and enlarge our South American trade is but a part of the general decline and feebleness of the American merchant marine, which has reduced us from carrying over ninety per cent of our export trade in our own ships to the carriage of nine per cent of that trade in our own ships and dependence upon foreign shipowners for the carriage of ninety-one per cent. The true remedy and the only remedy is the establishment of American lines of steamships between the United States and the great ports of South America, adequate to render fully as good service as is now afforded by the European lines between those ports and Europe. The substantial underlying fact was well stated in the resolution of this Trans-Mississippi Congress three years ago:

How can this defect be remedied? The answer to this question must be found by ascertaining the cause of the decline of our merchant marine. Why is it that Americans have substantially retired from the foreign transport service? We are a nation of maritime traditions and facility; we are a nation of constructive capacity, competent to build ships; [Pg 260]we are eminent, if not preëminent, in the construction of machinery; we have abundant capital seeking investment; we have courage and enterprise shrinking from no competition in any field which we choose to enter. Why, then, have we retired from this field in which we were once conspicuously successful?

I think the answer is twofold.

1. The higher wages and the greater cost of maintenance of American officers and crews make it impossible to compete on equal terms with foreign ships. The scale of living and the scale of pay of American sailors are fixed by the standard of wages and of living in the United States, and those are maintained at a high level by the protective tariff. The moment the American passes beyond the limits of his country and engages in ocean transportation, he comes into competition with the lower foreign scale of wages and of living. Mr. Joseph L. Bristow, in his report upon trade conditions affecting the Panama Railroad, dated June 14, 1905, gives in detail the cost of operating an American steamship with a tonnage of approximately thirty-five hundred tons as compared with the cost of operating a specified German steamship of the same tonnage, and the differences aggregate $15,315 per annum greater cost for the American steamship than for the German; that is $4.37 per ton. He gives also in detail the cost of maintaining another American steamship with a tonnage of approximately twenty-five hundred tons as compared with the cost of operating a specified British steamship of the same tonnage, and the differences aggregate $18,289.68 per annum greater cost for the American steamship than for the British; that is $7.31 per ton. It is manifest that if the German steamship were content with a profit of less than $15,000 per annum, and the British with a profit of less than $18,000 per annum, the American ships would have to go out of business.

[Pg 261]2. The principal maritime nations of the world, anxious to develop their trade, to promote their shipbuilding industry, to have at hand transports and auxiliary cruisers in case of war, are fostering their steamship lines by the payment of subsidies. England is paying to her steamship lines between six and seven million dollars a year; it is estimated that since 1840 she has paid to them between two hundred and fifty and three hundred millions. The enormous development of her commerce, her preponderant share of the carrying trade of the world, and her shipyards crowded with construction orders from every part of the earth indicate the success of her policy. France is paying about eight million dollars a year; Italy and Japan, between three and four million each; Germany, upon the initiative of Bismarck, is building up her trade with wonderful rapidity by heavy subventions to her steamship lines and by giving special differential rates of carriage over her railroads for merchandise shipped by those lines. Spain, Norway, Austria-Hungary, Canada, all subsidize their own lines. It is estimated that about $28,000,000 a year are paid by our commercial competitors to their steamship lines.

Against these advantages of his competitor the American shipowner has to contend; and it is manifest that the subsidized ship can afford to carry freight at cost for a period long enough to drive him out of business.

We are living in a world not of natural competition, but of subsidized competition. State aid to steamship lines is as much a part of the commercial system of our day as state employment of consuls to promote business.

It will be observed that both of these disadvantages under which the American shipowner labors are artificial; they are created by governmental action—one by our own Government in raising the standard of wages and living, by the protective tariff; the other by foreign governments in paying [Pg 262]subsidies to their ships for the promotion of their own trade. For the American shipowner it is not a contest of intelligence, skill, industry, and thrift against similar qualities in his competitor; it is a contest against his competitors and his competitors' governments and his own government also.

Plainly, these disadvantages created by governmental action can be neutralized only by governmental action, and should be neutralized by such action.

What action ought our Government to take for the accomplishment of this just purpose? Three kinds of action have been advocated.

1. A law providing for free ships—that is, permitting Americans to buy ships in other countries and bring them under the American flag. Plainly, this would not at all meet the difficulties which I have described. The only thing it would accomplish would be to overcome the excess in cost of building a ship in an American shipyard over the cost of building it in a foreign shipyard; but since all the materials which enter into an American ship are entirely relieved of duty, the difference in cost of construction is so slight as to be practically a negligible quantity, and to afford no substantial obstacle to the revival of American shipping. The expedient of free ships, therefore, would be merely to sacrifice our American shipbuilding industry, which ought to be revived and enlarged with American shipping, and to sacrifice it without receiving any substantial benefit. It is to be observed that Germany, France, and Italy all have attempted to build up their own shipping by adopting the policy of free ships, have failed in the experiment, have abandoned it, and have adopted in its place the policy of subsidy.

2. It has been proposed to establish a discriminating tariff duty in favor of goods imported in American ships—that is to say, to impose higher duties upon goods imported in [Pg 263]foreign ships than are imposed on goods imported in American ships. We tried that once many years ago and abandoned it. In its place we have entered into treaties of commerce and navigation with the principal countries of the world, expressly agreeing that no such discrimination shall be made between their vessels and ours. To sweep away all those treaties and enter upon a war of commercial retaliation and reprisal for the sake of accomplishing indirectly what can be done directly should not be seriously considered.

3. There remains the third and obvious method: to neutralize the artificial disadvantages imposed upon American shipping through the action of our own government and foreign governments by an equivalent advantage in the form of a subsidy or subvention. In my opinion this is what should be done; it is the sensible and fair thing to do. It is what must be done if we would have a revival of our shipping and the desired development of our foreign trade. We cannot repeal the protective tariff; no political party dreams of repealing it; we do not wish to lower the standard of American living or American wages. We should give back to the shipowner what we take away from him for the purpose of maintaining that standard; and unless we do give it back we shall continue to go without ships. How can the expenditure of public money for the improvement of rivers and harbors to promote trade be justified upon any grounds which do not also sustain this proposal? Would any one reverse the policy that granted aid to the Pacific railroads, the pioneers of our enormous internal commerce, the agencies that built up the great traffic which has enabled half a dozen other roads to be built in later years without assistance? Such subventions would not be gifts. They would be at once compensation for injuries inflicted upon American shipping by American laws and the consideration for benefits received by the whole American people—not the shippers or the [Pg 264]shipbuilders or the sailors alone, but by every manufacturer, every miner, every farmer, every merchant whose prosperity depends upon a market for his products.

The provision for such just compensation should be carefully shaped and directed so that it will go to individual advantage only so far as the individual is enabled by it to earn a reasonable profit by building up the business of the country.

A bill is now pending in Congress which contains such provisions; it has passed the Senate and is now before the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries; it is known as Senate bill No. 529, Fifty-ninth Congress, First Session. It provides specifically that the Postmaster-General may pay to American steamships, of specified rates of speed, carrying mails upon a regular service, compensation not to exceed the following amounts: For a line from an Atlantic port to Brazil, monthly, $150,000 a year; for a line from an Atlantic port to Uruguay and Argentina, monthly, $187,500 a year; for a line from a Gulf port to Brazil, monthly, $137,500 a year; for a line from each of two Gulf ports and from New Orleans to Central America and the Isthmus of Panama, weekly, $75,000 a year; for a line from a Gulf port to Mexico, weekly, $50,000 a year; for a line from a Pacific coast port to Mexico, Central America, and the Isthmus of Panama, fortnightly, $120,000 a year. For these six regular lines a total of $720,000. The payments provided are no more than enough to give the American ships a fair living chance in the competition.

There are other wise and reasonable provisions in the bill relating to trade with the Orient, to tramp steamers, and to a naval reserve, but I am now concerned with the provisions for trade to the south. The hope of such a trade lies chiefly in the passage of that bill.

[Pg 265]Postmaster-General Cortelyou, in his report for 1905, said: