I cherish as an honor this opportunity to meet the men selected by their various communities to enact into law the will of the people of Brazil.
We are engaged in the common task of working out effective government by the people. This great experiment in human welfare rests upon our confidence that the majority conclusions of an instructed people will, in the long run, be right and wise. We know that mistakes will be made and that failures may discourage those who look for the millennium over night. But if we survey the century of experience in the Western Hemisphere, we see that we have made more progress in human welfare than has been made in any such period of history. We can emphasize further, that methods of justice and ordered liberty have been built upon foundations more firm and more promising for the future than ever before. The road of opportunity for the individual man to rise by his own accomplishment was never clearer of obstruction than today.
The world has entered upon a great period of economic expansion. The energies of the world were stirred by the war, but of far greater importance, we are today receiving the powerful impulses from years of advancement in education and technical training; from great scientific discoveries and their application through the invention of a myriad of appliances; from an enlarged skill in workmen and leaders in organization. Transportation and communication have been quickened by the improvements in steam, by the automobile, the airplane, the radio. The splendid advance in the application of electrical power has lifted burdens from the backs of men and drudgery from women.
From it all, the productivity of men is increasing a thousand-fold, and with growing productivity our standards of living are rising and the surplus capital of the world for new ventures and for building up the open spaces is accumulating. But with these advances the problems of government greatly increase. It is indeed the function of each legislature to accept and encourage these discoveries and to incorporate them within the economy and culture of each country. New forms of greed and tyranny grow also from these new discoveries which must be met by wise restraints. Therefore, with the increasing complexity of our civilization, the burdens upon our legislative bodies increase. It is fortunate that we have many independent governments, for each of them becomes an experimental laboratory in dealing with these forces. By an interchange of these experiences we all profit.
I wish to thank you for your expressions of welcome and your expressions of friendship to my country. Our countries have throughout their history an unbroken record not only of peace, but a record of mutual good will and helpfulness which has become a precious tradition between us. I wish again to repeat my gratitude for the honor which you have paid to my country.
NOTE: President-elect Hoover spoke before the Brazilian Congress in Rio de Janeiro in response to remarks of welcome by Antonio Azeredo, President of the Congress, and Rego Barros, President of the Chamber of Deputies, as follows:
PRESIDENT OF THE CONGRESS
Mr. President-elect, Members of the National Congress:
The National Congress has met today to receive within this august precinct, in the name of the Brazilian people which it represents, the eminent American citizen elected to the Chief Magistracy of his illustrious country. It is the first time that a President of the United States has come to Brazil and to the other Republics of our continent.
Enthusiastically received, he must realize, from the expressions of friendliness inspired by his merits and from the manifestations of the ancient friendship which binds us to the great people of the United States of America, how responsive we are to his friendly decision to come to know us. His visit makes us proud not only because it is a compliment, but because of our conviction that after coming to know us better—our political purposes, our respect for order, our aspirations to progress, our development in agriculture, stock raising and industry, and our great material possibilities—he may come to judge correctly what we are and what are our qualities.
An organizer gifted with a profound knowledge of human affairs, we are sure, judging by all that he has been able to observe and accomplish, that he will deal justly with the peoples to which an auspicious destiny confided this part of the American continent where, inspired by sentiments of high human endeavor and devoted to fruitful work, they keep alive on the altar of their countries the ardent flame of fraternal ideals. It is, therefore, with great pleasure that we receive the visit of President-elect Hoover who, in addition to attaining the high post which gives him world distinction, reached that distinction through his own efforts, thus enhancing those democratic institutions through which men of his ability without distinction of fortune or class may attain the highest posts, to the constant renewal of the splendid forces which progress multiplies for the service of humanity in our countries.
To further emphasize the political scope of this friendly visit, it is hardly necessary to recall to the minds of Americans and Brazilians the ties of cordiality which bind our peoples together. The life history of our nations, the unmistakable good faith of our uninterrupted understanding, the firmness of our attitudes, defy the malevolent prophecy of apprehensive and prejudiced minds.
Today, as yesterday, the sentiments which unite us are those expressed with such felicity and beauty in memorable speeches in the Palace of Itamaraty by Elihu Root and Ruy Barbosa. The loyalty of the liberators of the great people of the north to those of our fellow countrymen who first struggled for the independence of Brazil; the solicitude expressed by the American Government on the occasion of the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic—a solicitude which rivaled that of our great friend, Argentina, in the recognition of our definitive political organization; the echo which the unforgettable words of Wilson found among us when, during the Great War, he broadcast throughout the world the generous appeal of his people; are all examples of the assured friendship which grows ever stronger. And, as a new pledge of this traditional esteem, comes the visit with which President-elect Hoover now honors us.
As the political representative of the most prosperous country of our continent, we shower him with manifestations of the cordiality and respect with which his great country inspires us. As a representative of his people and of his time, we welcome him with enthusiasm, we applaud him with the utmost fervor. Brilliant embodiment of all the best tendencies of his people and of his century, Mr. Hoover is, above all, an organizer. An engineer, he chose well his profession. The knowledge and activities of these professions constitute the guiding light of the United States in our day.
The heroic epoch of independence also had its symbol: the soldier; that of political construction, the legislator; its present formidable, unprecedented economic activity, the engineer, who constructs railways, harnesses electricity, wrests from the subsoil its gold, iron, coal, and petroleum, who in the airplane dominates the upper air, and in the submarine penetrates the depths of the ocean.
It is to this man, who by the vote of his fellow citizens and by his high personal qualities represents at one and the same time the gigantic political organization of his wonderful country and the most eminent virtues of its citizens, that the National Congress of Brazil now renders its most sincere and fervent tribute of homage.
PRESIDENT OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
Your Excellency, President-elect Hoover:
The Congress of the United States of Brazil meets in special session to render homage to the future President of the United States of America, thus signifying the sentiments of fraternity and admiration entertained by the Brazilians toward that great country which through the exceptional quality of its people has conquered, in a space of time as short as it is brilliant, the highest degree of civilization yet attained by any contemporary country, and has taken its place among the nations as the leader of human evolution in its multiple aspects.
This is not a mere official ceremony of purely diplomatic courtesy in which we are now participating, but the spontaneous expression of the Brazilian soul, strong, enthusiastic, frank, responsive to all noble ideals and sensitive to all greatness, sincere in its legitimate praise of a friendly nation and the solemn reaffirmation of its traditional and continuous cordiality.
The enthusiasm of this manifestation is accentuated as we consider the exceptional personality which prompts it. Intelligence, culture, energy, altruism, creative power, organizing ability, natural authority: all these constitute the substratum of this rare personality, a perfect embodiment of the best characteristics of the American people. The life of President Hoover is, fellow Congressmen, an example of human ability in the domain of positive achievement, whether expressed in the realm of material phenomena or of social relations.
Although entirely the product of his environment and time, with a mind molded by the practical modern spirit and an activity directed by utilitarian motives, Mr. Hoover exemplifies at each fruitful stage of his brilliant career the man of ideas and of perception. He is neither the idealist who loves impracticable abstractions nor the inert and introspective sentimentalist, but the great achiever of practical idealism useful to society, the altruist who, inspired by a humanitarianism based on actual human solidarity, labors with the noble objective of aiding and succoring his fellow men. From whatever angle we consider his influence, we see the beneficent action of a superior human being concentrated in acts of real value for universal progress.
Throughout his entire career President-elect Hoover has shown himself to be a creator, an organizer, and an achiever. As technician in Australia, he so modified the processes of gold extraction that the exploitation of mines, previously considered exhausted, became remunerative, thus gaining professional fame. Consider, also, his role in China, whether in the administration of mining industries or in resisting the Boxer Uprising; and, finally, his admirable organization of an international mining company with branches in San Francisco, New York, London, Melbourne, and Shanghai. Moreover, throughout all this period of industrial activity he proved to be a keen sociologist, in his accurate comprehension of the true relations between capital and labor, one inspired not only by sound economic judgment but, also, by the highest philanthropic sentiments.
It is, however, in the memorable campaign for supplying food and clothing to the civilian populations of the countries stricken by the European conflagration that this personality shines most dearly. Belgium was being devastated by famine as well as by the invading army. President-elect Hoover, then in London, conceiving the idea of applying the neutrality of his country to a humanitarian end, created the Commission for Relief in Belgium. And when he was found to be the only person capable of organizing and directing this humanitarian task, he did not hesitate before the sacrifice it entailed. It meant the abandonment of his industrial enterprises, the possible loss of the personal fortune acquired by long years of persistent industry.
In the struggle between his own interests and altruism, victory fell to the latter. The sentiment of human solidarity, instinctive in superior men, triumphed. In this humanitarian campaign the manifold abilities of the great American had full play, and the success he unfailingly attained was due to his intelligence, willpower, culture, and magnetic sympathy.
How well that great institution was organized and administered, how much effort and ability were displayed, and how great was the relief throughout Europe, is well known to all of us who followed the various phases of the war. Material obstacles, political resistance, difficulties of every kind were faced and overcome by the indomitable energy, the quick intelligence and the unswerving strength of a great human ideal. And this energy, this intelligence, this irresistible force were united in one man: President-elect Hoover, on whom was conferred the official title of "Honorary Citizen of Belgium and Friend of the Belgian People," whose deeds have consecrated him illustrious citizen of the universe and friend of humanity.
His entrance into American administration and politics was a logical consequence of these glorious antecedents. The people clamored for the collaboration of this great man. As head of the Department of Commerce he gave it new life, coordinating it to his conception of government as a living organism and not an abstraction. As one writer puts it, his system consists in obliging everyone to assume both initiative and responsibility and thus make himself individually more useful, his maxim being that it is necessary to centralize ideas and decentralize their application. In accordance with these principles, Mr. Hoover, as an executive, asked for the cooperation of private enterprise in his campaign for economy in production and for harmony between manufacturers, merchants and consumers looking to the reduction of the cost of living and to the greatest commercial development. The extraordinary expansion of American commerce under his able direction is well known as is, also, the influence which he exerted over the other departments of public administration.
According to one biographer, there are three fundamental traits in his psychological makeup due to his origin, education, and profession: Quaker philanthropy, or love of service for humanity; the strong individualism of one who has raised himself by his own efforts in the struggle of competition; and an unlimited confidence in education and the belief that America is leading the world not only in quantity but also in quality.
Behold the great citizen who will shortly exercise the Chief Magistracy of the United States of America, and consider the happy augury for humanity in such a man as he becoming head of such a people!
May Your Excellency, President-elect Hoover, continue on a still greater scale the mission of progress and of human solidarity which has guided your hitherto successful career. May the great nation over whose destinies you are so soon to preside be the supreme exponent, especially in the American continent, of peace and fraternity among the nations. These wishes express the desires of the Brazilian people, desires which have been traditional in its international policy ever since its independence, and its unbroken friendship and confidence in the admirable North American federation—that federation in whose example the founders of our Republic sought inspiration in outlining the structure of our constitution.
In this unity of purpose, in the intensification of economic and intellectual interchange between the two largest American nations, will be found that assurance of political equilibrium indispensable to the evolution of the peoples of this continent. These were the objectives of our diplomacy established by Baron Rio Branco and brilliantly followed by the present Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senhor Mangabeira.
From this rapid visit with which Your Excellency has honored us, from the observation of our economic possibilities, from the personal contact with our citizens in which you have felt the pulse of the Brazilian heart in an atmosphere of fraternal sympathy, there will certainly result, for your country as for mine, and indeed for all America, something infinitely greater than a simple diplomatic gesture.
The Chief Magistrate of Brazil is likewise a citizen and patriot whose public life is an eloquent example of how great a part intelligence and will can play in the solution of complex problems of government, in the execution of administrative programs and in the achievement of political ideals. And the meeting of these two notable Chief Executives will be recorded in history as an event of great significance in the destinies of Pan American politics.
Your Excellency, accept the homage of the Brazilian people and the sincere expression of their noble sentiments of brotherhood.
Herbert Hoover, Address Before the Brazilian Congress in Rio de Janeiro Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/372884
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