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.

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