h out into other lands
for investment, for the fruits of profitable enterprise, for the
expansion and extension of trade--just at that time the great and
fertile and immeasurably rich countries of South America are emerging
from the conditions of internal warfare, of continual revolution, of
disturbed and unsafe property conditions, and are acquiring stability in
government, safety for property, capacity to protect enterprise. So that
we may look with certainty to an enormous increase of population and of
wealth throughout the continent of South America, and we may look with
certainty for an enormous increase in purchasing power as a consequence
of that increase in population and wealth.

These two things coming together spread before us an opportunity for our
trade and our enterprise surpassed by none anywhere in the world or at
any time in our history.

It was with this view that last summer I spent three months, in response
to the kind invitations of various Governments of South America, in
visiting their capitals, in meeting their leading men, in becoming
familiar with their conditions, and in trying to represent to them what
I believe to be the real relation of respect and kindliness on the part
of the people of the United States.

I wish you all could have seen with what genuine reciprocal friendship
they accepted the message that I brought to them. We have long been
allied to them by political sentiment. Now lies before us the
opportunity--with their stable governments and protection for enterprise
and property, and our increased capital--now lies before us the
opportunity to be allied to them also by the bonds of personal
intercourse and profitable trade.

This situation is accentuated by the fact that we are turning our
attention to the south and engaging there in the great enterprise of
constructing the Panama Canal. No one can tell what effect that will
have upon the commerce of the world, but we do know that there never has
been in history a case of a great change in the trade routes of the
world which has not powerfully affected the rise and fall of nations,
the development of commerce, and the development of civilization.

We, by the expenditure of a part of our recently acquired capital, are
about to open a new trade route that will bring our Atlantic and Gulf
ports into immediate, close intercourse with all the Pacific coasts of
South and Central America, and which will bring our Pacific ports into