s 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.

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 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