that she has not known before,
a commerce of intelligence, of thought, and sympathy between North and
South. The Latin-American States which, to their disadvantage, have been
off the main lines will now be on the main lines. I feel that these
gentlemen honoring us with their presence to-day will presently find
that some part, at any rate, of the center of gravity of the world has
shifted. Do you realize that New York, for example, will be nearer the
western coast of South America than she is now to the eastern coast of
South America? Do you realize that a line drawn northward parallel with
the greater part of the western coast of South America will run only
about one hundred and fifty miles west of New York? The great bulk of
South America, if you will look at your globes (not at your Mercator's
projection), lies eastward of the continent of North America. You will
realize that when you realize that the canal will run southeast, not
southwest, and that when you get into the Pacific you will be farther
east then you were when you left the Gulf of Mexico. These things are
significant, therefore, of this, that we are closing one chapter in the
history of the world and are opening another of great, unimaginable
significance.

There is one peculiarity about the history of the Latin-American States
which I am sure they are keenly aware of. You hear of "concessions" to
foreign capitalists in Latin America. You do not hear of concessions to
foreign capitalists in the United States. They are not granted
concessions. They are invited to make investments. The work is ours,
though they are welcome to invest in it. We do not ask them to supply
the capital and do the work. It is an invitation, not a privilege; and
States that are obliged, because their territory does not lie within the
main field of modern enterprise and action, to grant concessions are in
this condition, that foreign interests are apt to dominate their
domestic affairs, a condition of affairs always dangerous and apt to
become intolerable. What these States are going to see, therefore, is an
emancipation from the subordination, which has been inevitable, to
foreign enterprise and an assertion of the splendid character which, in
spite of these difficulties, they have again and again been able to
demonstrate. The dignity, the courage, the self-possession, the
self-respect of the Latin-American States, their achievements in the
face of all these adverse circumstances,