Latin America and the United States / Addresses by Elihu Root

by Elihu Root

SANTIAGO

Speech of His Excellency Jermán Riesco

President of the Republic

At the Government House, September 1, 1906

I greet you and welcome you in the name of the people and of the Government of Chile, who receive your visit with the liveliest satisfaction.

Your attendance at the congress of fraternity which the American republics have just held; your visit to the neighboring countries, which we have followed with the greatest interest; and your presence amongst us, upon the invitation which we had the honor of extending to you, are eloquent testimony of the high-minded intentions, which will necessarily produce much good for the progress and the development of America.

In these moments we feel a most profound gratitude toward your country, toward your worthy President, and toward yourself for the friendship and sympathy with which you have joined in the sorrow of Chile because of the disaster which has wounded Valparaiso and other cities of the republic.

I wish that your stay in this country may be agreeable to you and your distinguished family.

Reply of Mr. Root

I thank you, Mr. President, for your kind welcome and for your generous expressions, and I thank you for the courteous invitation which led to this visit on my part. After the great calamity which has befallen your country, I should have feared to intrude upon the mourning which is in so many Chilean homes, but I did not feel that I could pass by without calling upon you—upon the representative of the Chilean people—to express in person the deep sympathy and sorrow which I, and all my people, whom I represent, feel for your country and for the stricken and bereaved ones; and the earnest hope we have for the prompt and cheerful recovery of spirit and of confidence and of prosperity after the great misfortune. We know that the spirit and the strength of the people of Chile are adequate for the recovery, even from so great a disaster. No one in the world, Mr. President, can feel more deeply the misfortune that you have suffered than the people of the United States, because you know that in our country we have recently experienced just such a calamity. I am sure that nowhere in the world will you find so keen a sense of sympathy as is there and as I now express. It may sometimes happen that in adversity stronger friendships arise than in prosperity; and I hope that although I come to bring to you an expression of the friendship of the United States of America for the republic of Chile now while the cloud rests upon you, the effect of the exchange of kind words and kinder feelings in this time may be greater, more permanent, and more lasting than they could have been when all were prosperous and happy.