Chapter VIII: Part 8

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, 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 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.

BANQUET OF THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

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.

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 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 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 toward this great work of national benefit and of international advancement in the cause of liberty, justice, and humanity.

FAREWELL SUPPER GIVEN BY MR. ROOT

SPEECH OF MR. ROOT

October 7, 1907

On the evening of the day of the banquet of the Minister for
Foreign Affairs, on the lower terrace of the castle where a
series of apartments had been assigned to his party, Mr.
Root gave a farewell supper to the members of the
Government, the diplomatic corps, the Entertainment
Committee, and numerous other Mexican notables.

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."

RESPONSE OF SEÑOR CORRAL

Señor Ramón Corral, Vice-President of the Republic, made the
following response to this farewell address:

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 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.

PUEBLA

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, 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.

ORIZABA

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 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.

GUADALAJARA

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 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; 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.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] This address was answered in appropriate terms by General Rincón Gallardo as the representative of President Díaz, and among other things he congratulated himself on the fact that the Mexican Committee had been granted the pleasing privilege of continuing to San Antonio in order to give there a welcome to the distinguished visitors. Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel García Cuellar also made an address. Neither of these addresses were preserved.

[6] Yale lectures on the Responsibilities of Citizenship, 1907. See also: _Addresses on Government and Citizenship_, by ELIHU ROOT; pp. 3-76. Harvard University Press, 1916.

ADDRESSES IN THE UNITED STATES ON LATIN AMERICAN RELATIONS

THE CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE CONFERENCE

In December, 1907, a Central American Peace Conference was
held at Washington, between delegates representing the five
Central American republics--Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, and Salvador. Mexico and the United States were
invited to participate in a friendly capacity and accepted
the invitation. The conference grew out of the initiative
taken during the previous summer by the presidents of the
United States and Mexico, in an endeavor to secure an
adjustment of then pending disputes between several of these
republics, in some form that would secure permanent peace
among them and foster their development. The conference was
called together by the following note of the Secretary of
State, addressed to the delegates:

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
WASHINGTON, November 11, 1907.

EXCELLENCIES: The plenipotentiaries of the five
Central American republics of Costa Rica, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador, appointed by their
respective Governments in pursuance of the protocol
signed in Washington on September 17, 1907, having
arrived in the city of Washington for the purposes
of the conference contemplated in the said protocol, I
have the honor to request that the said plenipotentiaries,
together with the representatives of the United Mexican
States and of the United States of America, appointed
pursuant to the second article of said protocol, convene
in the building of the Bureau of American Republics in
the city of Washington, on the fourteenth day of
November, instant, at half past two in the afternoon.

I avail myself of this opportunity to offer to Your
Excellencies the assurances of my highest consideration.

ELIHU ROOT.

The formal sessions of the conference began December 13, and
closed December 20. During this period nine treaties and
conventions were concluded between the five republics, as
follows:

1. A general treaty of peace and amity.

2. A convention additional to the general treaty of peace
and amity.

3. A convention for the establishment of a Central American
court of justice.

4. A protocol additional to the convention for the
establishment of a Central American court of justice.

5. An extradition convention.

6. A convention for the establishment of an International
Central American Bureau.

7. A convention for the establishment of a Central American
pedagogical institute.

8. A convention concerning future Central American
Conferences.

9. A convention concerning railway communications.

The most important were the general treaty of peace and
amity, and the convention for the establishment of a Central
American court of justice. The texts of these various
conventions are found in Malloy's _Treaties and Conventions
of the United States_, Volume II, pp. 2391-2420.

The Mexican Government was represented by His Excellency
Señor Don Enrique C. Creel, ambassador at Washington, and
the United States by Honorable William I. Buchanan.

At the opening session of the conference Mr. Root made the
following address:

ADDRESS OPENING THE CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE CONFERENCE, DECEMBER 13, 1907

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 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.

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 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.

ADDRESS CLOSING THE CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE CONFERENCE, DECEMBER 20, 1907

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; 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 PAN AMERICAN CAUSE

RESPONSE TO THE TOAST OF THE AMBASSADOR OF BRAZIL AT A DINNER IN HONOR OF REAR-ADMIRAL HUET DE BACELLAR AND THE CAPTAINS OF THE BRAZILIAN SHIPS ON A VISIT TO THE JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 18, 1907

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.

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. 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 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.

THE PAN AMERICAN UNION

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.

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, 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:

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
WASHINGTON, December 4, 1906.