Reply of Mr. Root
It is a great pleasure to represent here in this great commercial city the best and largest customer you have. The United States of America bought in the last fiscal year, the statistics of which have been made public, from the United States of Brazil about $99,000,000 worth of goods, and we sold to Brazil about $11,000,000 worth of goods. I should like to see the trade more even; I should like to see the prosperity of Brazil so increase that the purchasing power of Brazil will grow; and I should like to see the activity of that purchasing power turned towards the markets of the North American republic. I am well aware that the course of trade cannot be controlled by sentiment or by governments. It follows its own immutable laws and is drawn solely in the direction of profit. But there are many ways in which the course of trade can be facilitated, can be stimulated, can be induced and increased. Mutual knowledge leads to trade. All the advertisement in the world which pays is but the means of carrying information, knowledge, and suggestion to the mind that reads the advertisement. Mutual knowledge as between the people of North America and the people of Brazil—knowledge as between the individual people—will increase the trade. Our people will buy more coffee and more sugar and more rubber from the people they know, from the various trading concerns that they know about, than they will from strangers. Mutual knowledge cannot exist without mutual respect. I believe so much in the goodness of humanity that I think no two people can know each other without respecting each other.
There is the friendliest feeling in the United States of America for the people of Brazil, and we believe that there is great friendliness in this country for the people of the United States. We wish to be good friends and ever better friends; to enlarge our mutual trade to the advantage of both; and it is to express that feeling to you from my people with all the kindliness and friendship possible, that I am here in Brazil. It has been a great privilege to see something of your great coffee production—from the coffee plant on its red platform of the peculiar soil of São Paulo to the bags of coffee being carried to the steamer in which it is to be transported to the markets of the world. It is pleasing to me to see that the great commercial port of Santos has by the improvement of its harbor facilities become more and more great, and has done away with the unhealthiness that once existed. I congratulate you upon the fact that you have made your port and your city so healthy that yellow fever no longer exists.
This is probably the last word I shall utter in public before I leave the coast of Brazil, and as I pass from among you, I shall endeavor to make my last word an expression of grateful appreciation for all the courtesy, the kindliness, and the friendliness which has surrounded me every hour, from the moment I first landed at Pará three weeks ago today. My reception and that of all my family—the attentions that have been paid to us, the kindness that has been exhibited—far exceed anything that I anticipated or had hoped for; and I beg you to believe that we shall never forget it. We shall make it known to our people when we return home. I believe that it will increase the friendship they feel for the people of Brazil; and it is with the greatest satisfaction that I shall feel entitled upon my return to say to the people of the United States that I have found in the republic of Brazil a country to which the laborers of the world may come to make new homes and to rear their families in prosperity and in happiness; that I may say to my people that I have found in the republic of Brazil a country where capital is secure, where the rights of man are held sacred, and the rewards of enterprise may be reaped without hindrance. I shall go from you with the hope that in my weak way I may do what it is possible for one man to do in return for all the friendship that you have shown me throughout Brazil—may give my evidence to aid in turning towards your vast and undeveloped resources that immigration and that capital which have been the means of building up and developing the vast riches of my own country. I hope that the same brilliant and prosperous success that has blessed my own land may for many generations visit the people of Brazil. I hope that for many a year to come the two peoples, so similar in their laws, their institutions, their purposes, and the great task of development that lies before them, may continue to grow in friendship and in mutual help. And so, gentlemen, I make to you, and through you to the people of Brazil, my grateful and appreciative farewell.
PARÁ
Speech of His Excellency Augusto Montenegro
Governor of the State of Pará
In the City of Pará (Belem), at a Breakfast given by him to Mr. Root July 17, 1906
I will say but a few words in offering the health of Mr. Root, the very illustrious Secretary of State of the United States of North America. I regret exceedingly that Mr. Root should have only a few hours available to remain among us; but I know that his time is limited and that he cannot remain among us without inconvenience; however, I hope that these few hours which His Excellency has devoted to Pará will have been sufficient for him to carry away a good impression of this region. I also fervently hope that Mr. Root's visit may mark the beginning of a new era in the diplomacy of the two Americas, and that, if possible, it may contribute still further to a strengthening of the friendly ties which already bind the two republics together. I hope that Mr. Root will gather the very best impressions of the whole country from his other visits. I am certain that he will be received everywhere with that cordiality, hospitality, and affection which we proudly proclaim as being among the chief characteristics of the Brazilians. I drink to the health of Mr. Root and of the great and noble President of the United States of North America.
Reply of Mr. Root