Reply of Mr. Knox.
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary of State, Ladies, and Gentlemen
It is with the feeling of sincere gratitude that I desire, on my own behalf and on the part of the people and Government of the United States, to express thanks for the courteous and cordial hospitality you have so generously lavished upon me and upon my family.
It is indeed a pleasure for me, Mr. President, to come from my countrymen as the bearer of a message of their good will and friendship to the people of Salvador.
Although the smallest of all the American republics, Salvador has much of which it may justly feel proud. Early among the Central American republics to proclaim its independence and to embark in the struggle for national emancipation, Salvador has always given to the world a wholesome example as a peace-loving and industrious people. With its dense population and small area its people have found it advantageous and even necessary to seek new fields of occupation and are gradually spreading into the neighboring republics, there to engage in the pursuit of agriculture, and lands theretofore unproductive promptly respond to the sturdy and capable hand of the enterprising Salvadoran who has gone peacefully to promote their industrial conquest.
Salvador is the only sovereign nation of the Northern Continent of the Western Hemisphere which does not border on both oceans, and the opening of the Panama Canal will shorten by some 10,000 miles the journey by water between Acajutla and New York, which should naturally be one of the chief markets for Salvadoran products. The United States is not only the greatest producing nation but likewise is the greatest consuming nation of the world, and as soon as the products of Central America, by being popularized in the United States, becomes sufficiently known, and the facilities for transporting them thither are made adequate, the trade with our [Page 1332] Caribbean neighbors will grow and develop to an enormous extent.
The people of the United States have been too ignorant of our southern neighbors, their vast, undeveloped resources, and the measures they have taken to open themselves to the world.
If we are to enjoy with them the satisfactions of international friendship, the advantages of international trade, and the blessings of peace we must give more consideration to the means by which these advantages are brought about. Friendship and peace are indeed the common, if not inevitable, consequences of commercial intercourse and result from reciprocal dependence of countries upon each other’s products, sympathies, and assistance.
I have heretofore elsewhere in my journey spoken of the possibilities of greater reciprocal helpfulness between the United States and the other American republics. This might take the form, in part, of more generous measures of commercial reciprocity between them. This, it seems, would be a natural expression of their mutual interdependence. In speaking, some two years ago, of the spirit and purpose of American diplomacy I then expressed the hope that the commerce between the United States and its southern neighbors, which makes so powerfully for friendship, might be adjusted on a more reciprocal basis.
The total annual trade of the Central American states, not including Panama, with the United States now amounts to something like $22,500,000. An idea as to what extent this commerce is capable of development and expansion may be obtained by recalling for a moment what has taken place with regard to the commerce of Mexico, whose close relations with the United States have so materially contributed to the rapid development of an enormous volume of trade.
Picture, then, the possibilities of these Central American republics and pause for a moment to consider that Salvador, in proportion to its area, produces more by far than any of its neighbors, and some faint idea may then be obtained of the magic to be worked by the closer intercourse between them and the United States.
By far the most active sphere of American diplomacy to-day is that of our relations with the twenty other republics of the Western Hemisphere. Most of these republics are passing through an evolution similar to our own—that of the peopling and developing of vast areas and the attempt to perfect republican government under similar institutions. Now that so many of the republics to the south of us have achieved government as stable, as enlightened, and as responsible as our own, it becomes more and more incumbent upon the citizens of the United States to know and appreciate them.
Nothing could have gratified me more than the sentiment the Minister for Foreign Affairs has just expressed when he said: The Government of Salvador expects, as a pleasing reality, that my visit to-day will have beneficial and practical results for the rapprochement and concord of both peoples and Governments, which will open a new era in international friendship and is in the nature of a frank refutation of unfounded prejudices. It is, indeed, the supreme purpose of my visit to show that upon our part there is no justification or substantial reason for prejudice or misunderstanding between the people of the United States and the people of Central America. What we both sorely need is that the truth about Central America [Page 1333] and Central Americans and of their high civilization and lofty purpose and graceful and dignified hospitality should reach the United States through unpolluted sources and that the truth as to the motives and friendliness of the Government of the United States should reach you without wicked perversion. Then, indeed, would our countries and our peoples be unhampered in our advancement in the paths of rectitude and trustful confidence to higher levels of welfare and beneficial association. By such advances the stature of equality tends gradually to become as real as the equality of sovereignty and to reach the high level of stability, justice, and moderation and mutual responsibility which now happily characterize the relations between Salvador and the United States.
With its beautiful and health-giving mountain ranges, fertile and productive valleys, dense and labor-loving population dedicated to peaceful pursuits, Salvador presents, Mr. President, a spectacle which irresistibly merits the admiration of every foreigner whose good fortune it may be to touch these shores and justifiably inspires with pride the heart of every true son of Salvador.