immediate and close relation with all the countries about the Caribbean
Sea and the eastern coast of South America. The combination of political
sentiment which has long allied us with the Latin American countries,
the opportunity which comes from their change of conditions and our
increase of capital, and the effects that must necessarily follow the
opening of the great trade route of the Panama Canal, all point to the
development of American enterprise and American trade to the south.

Now, in considering that view of the future there are certain practical
considerations that necessarily arise. How are we to adapt ourselves to
this new condition? How are we to utilize this opportunity? One subject
naturally presents itself, and that is the increase of means of
communication through which our intercourse and our trade may be carried
on. And that may be in two ways: one by the promotion of the railroad,
long ago projected, and in constant course of development--the road that
we speak of as the Pan American road. When we speak of the Pan American
Railroad we are speaking of something of the future, and which exists
today only in a great number of links, each of which has its separate
name. They are being built, and being built with great rapidity. In
Mexico, in Guatemala, in Bolivia, in Peru, in the Argentine, in other
countries pieces of road are being built--many of them by American
capital and American enterprise; some of them by capital coming from
other countries--promoted by the strong desire of the people of these
Latin American countries to break out from their isolation and to be
brought into closer contact with the rest of the world. Those pieces are
being built until now, when the work actually under contract is
completed, there will be less than 4,000 miles remaining to be built to
make a complete railroad which will unite the city of Washington with
the city of Buenos Ayres in the Argentine.

One of the objects of the Rio conference last summer was to promote and
further the interest of all American countries in the building of this
road, and I am glad to believe that the action taken by that conference
has had that effect. The line now running to the south is almost through
Mexico--has almost reached the Guatemala line; and lines are being built
in Guatemala to connect with that; and within the life of men now
sitting in this room it will be possible for passengers and merchandise
to travel by rail practic