I find that the difference between the South America of today and the South America as the records show it to have been a generation ago, is as wide as the difference marked by centuries in the history of Europe. Why is it? You are the same people—not so much better than your fathers. The same fields offered to the hand of the husbandman their bounteous harvests then as now; the same incalculable wealth slept in your mountains then as now; the same streams carried down from your mountain sides the immeasurable power ready to the hand of man for the production of wealth then as now; the same ocean washed your shores ready to bear the commerce of the world then as now. Whence comes the change? The change is not in material things, but in spiritual things. The change has come because in the slow but majestic progress of national development, the peoples of South America have been passing through a period of progress necessary to their development, necessary to the building of their characters, up from a stage of strife and discord, of individual selfishness, of unrestrained ambition, of irresponsible power, and out upon the broad platform of love for country, of national spirit, of devotion to the ideal of justice, of ordered liberty, of respect for the rights of others; because the individual characters of the peoples of the South American republics have been developed to that self-control, to that respect for justice toward their fellowmen, to that regard for the rights and feelings of others which inhere in true justice. The development of individual character has made the collective character competent for self-government and the maintenance of that justice, that ordered liberty, which gives security to property, security to the fruits of enterprise, security to personal liberty, to the pursuit of happiness, to the home, to all that makes life worth living; and under the fostering care of that character, individual and national, the hidden wealth of the mountains is being poured out to enrich mankind; under the fostering care of that character, individual and national, new life is coming to the fields, to the mines, to the factories, to commerce, to all the material interests of South America.
Mr. Minister, this is but a part of a great world movement on a wider field. It is no idle dream that the world grows better day by day. We cannot mark its progress by days or by years or by generations; but marking the changes by the centuries mankind advances steadily from brute force, from the rule of selfishness and greed toward respect for human rights, toward desire for human happiness, toward the rule of law and the rule of love among men. My own country has become great materially because it has felt the influence of that majestic progress of civilization. South America is becoming great materially because it, too, is feeling the influence that is making humanity more human.
We can do but little in our day. We live our short lives and pass away and are forgotten. All the wealth, prosperity, and luxury with which we can surround ourselves is of but little benefit and little satisfaction; but if we—if you and I—in our offices and each one of us in his influence upon the public affairs of his day, can contribute ever so little, but something, toward the tendency of our countries, the tendency of our race, away from greed and force and selfishness and wrong, toward the rule of order and love—if we can do something to contribute to that tendency which countless millions are working out, we shall not have lived in vain.
You were kind enough to refer to an incident in the diplomatic history of the United States and Peru, when my own country recognized its error in regard to the Lobos Islands and returned them freely and cheerfully to their rightful owner. I would rather have the record of such acts of justice for my country's fair name than the story of any battle fought and won by her military heroes.
We cannot fail to ask ourselves sometimes the question, What will be the end of our civilization? Will some future generation say of us, in the words of the Persian poet, "The lion and the lizard keep the courts where Jamshýd gloried and drank deep"? Will the palaces we build be the problem of the antiquarians in some future century? Will all that we do come to naught? If not—if our civilization is not to meet the fate of all that have gone before—it will be because we have builded upon a firm foundation, a foundation of the great body of the plain, the common people, and upon a character formed on the principles of justice, of liberty, and of brotherly love. Our one hope for the perpetuity of our civilization is that quality in which it differs from all civilizations that have gone before—its substantial basis. I find that here in Peru you are building upon that firm rock.
I find that here individual character is being developed so that the people of Peru are collectively developing the necessary and essential national character.
I find that the riches of your wonderful land are in the hands of a people who are worthy to enjoy them.
I shall take away with me from Peru not only the kindest feelings of friendship and of gratitude but the highest and most confident hope of a great and glorious future for the people to whom I wish so well.
Mr. Minister, will you permit me the honor of asking all to join me in drinking to the health of His Excellency the President of Peru?