n, in opening the
postprandial exercises of this evening, from
expressing the great satisfaction which I feel in
taking part in the transformation of the serious and
sometimes dry exercises of our meetings into this
social function. It is especially agreeable to me
because I cherish such rich and precious memories of
hospitality received from our South American guests.

I have said many times to my own countrymen, without
ever provoking resentment on their part, that I wish
they could all learn a lesson in courtesy and the
generosity of friendship from our brothers in South
America. I should have felt that my own participation
in this congress was imperfect and lacked an important
element, if I could not have met you, my old friends
of South America, in this gathering, which excludes
the serious and the scientific, and seeks to cultivate
and satisfy only the generous sentiments of friendship.

Although his address on the Codification of International Law
is contained in Mr. Root's _Addresses on International Subjects_,
it reinforces the views expressed by him, as secretary of
state, in the address before the Third International American
Conference, and its concluding paragraphs are here reprinted,
as a fitting close to the volume of addresses dealing with
the relations of the United States to our sister republics of
the South.

The presence here of Dr. Maurtua, whom it is a great pleasure for me to
hail as a colleague in the Faculty of Political and Administrative
Science of the University of San Marcos, at Lima, and of the
distinguished Ambassador from Brazil, my old friend from Rio de Janeiro,
lead me to say something which follows naturally from my reflections
regarding the interests of the smaller nations. It is now nearly ten
years ago when your people, gentlemen, and the other peoples of South
America, were good enough to give serious and respectful consideration
to a message that it was my fortune to take from this great and powerful
republic of North America to the other American nations. I wish to say
to you, gentlemen, and to all my Latin American friends here in this
congress, that everything that I said in behalf of the Government of the
United States at Rio de Janeiro in 1906 is true now a