Mr. President:
You have given expression to the noble and elevated friendship of Brazil to my country and you have formulated, in words, the courtesy and welcome which have overwhelmed me and my colleagues since our landing yesterday upon your shores.
It is difficult indeed to make a reply which adequately represents the response of all our hearts to the atmosphere of charming kindness and friendliness of the people of your great city. I hope my visit here will be accepted as the responsive sentiment of 110 million of my countrymen toward the people of Brazil.
I know that on these occasions it is usual to refer to that unbroken span of good will which traverses the whole history of our two countries. Nor is it trite or commonplace to give voice to these facts, for when true friends meet, the renewal of their expressions and experiences is but the glow of the responsive human heart. It has been a good will far beyond the formal relationships between nations. It has been proven by sympathy and mutual support in times of trial, and by mutual satisfaction in times of success and triumph. Never has a cloud passed even in the dry words of diplomatic communication. The public opinion between our two peoples has always been most happy.
No one could fail to be moved by these hundreds of thousands of smiling men and women and joyous children who have lined your streets in demonstration of the feeling they have toward my countrymen. No language can interpret the overwhelming waves of sentiment they have extended to us. They are in themselves proof of the complete confidence, the serene and helpful friendship between our countries. We have established between us a powerful tradition of earnest cooperation to common welfare. To maintain that tradition is not only an obligation, but a satisfaction to every leader of my country. To impair or destroy its growth would be an act of unparalleled wickedness, for in it lies the most benevolent of all human forces: that is, peace, not through fear but through affection.
Friendship between nations is far more dependent upon sympathy and understanding than upon material interests. But cultivation of the forces which lead to this end does not preclude mutual economic interest. Some persons seem to think that trade between nations is solely for money making purposes, and that it is, therefore, more often a source of friction than of good will. Yet as a matter of fact, economic interchange is a part of the whole of our mutual civilization. I know of no better instance of the economic mutuality of nations than that of Brazil and the United States. A large part of Brazil lies in the tropical zone and possesses unlimited opportunity for tropical productions. My country is wholly in the Temperate Zone. With every advance in human comfort and luxury, with every step of invention, the exchange of products of the tropical and Temperate Zones which neither can themselves produce becomes of more and more vital importance. A century ago, our countries could and did live a more primitive life without the exchange of products of the Temperate Zone for coffee, rubber, and a score of other articles. Today, however, but for the products which we exchange, not a single automobile would run; not a dynamo would turn; not a telephone, telegraph, or radio would operate; a thousand daily necessities and luxuries would disappear. In fact, without these exchanges of commodities, huge masses of humanity who have now become dependent upon an intensive and highly attuned civilization could not be kept alive. I could point out the same dependent relations in trade between almost every country. Therefore, let no one think that international trade is but the noisy dickering of merchants and bankers— it is the lifeblood of modern civilization.
Another form of exchange where our mutual interests rise to their highest aspects is the exchange of scientific ideas, of experience in government, of intellectual thought and of culture. In our two great continents we are still in the making of material civilization. We are still engaged, in every country, in the expansion of transportation, of our electrical power, and in the development and improvement of our agriculture. We are still pushing highways across the plains and mountains; we are still bridging streams, digging harbors and waterways; we are still combating the ravages of disease. We are about to undertake communication by airplane. The experience in the applied science and in administration which each of us gains from these undertakings is the joint fund of all of us. Science and technology know no frontiers and know all languages.
Nor is this field of intellectual ideas and exchanges confined to science and technology. The results of scientific research, the development of literature, art, music and the drama, the inspiration of lofty thoughts, of morals and ideals, are the forces which make for increasing satisfactions and nobility amongst men. I should like to see a more definitely organized effort not only between the cultural institutions—especially of students, teachers, and professional men of my country and your country—but also between all our western nations. We all have something vital to contribute to each other and it is especially from these exchanges and contacts that we gain the respect and esteem which so greatly strengthen the foundations of international friendship. I feel that our intellectual exchanges must be expanded beyond the daily news, the moving pictures and other incidentals. These can not give a full cross section of the national culture of any one of us. The news is concerned with the events of the day, and unfortunately wickedness is often greater news than righteousness—probably because it is the more unusual. The moving picture cannot give the full prospective of national character, for it is in the main concerned with entertainment. I am offering no criticism of these agencies, but I only hope that we may definitely organize and greatly enlarge those exchanges that make for a more lofty appreciation of and more vital force in human progress.
Mr. President, I would that I could adequately express the admiration which I have for this beautiful city which is the proof of the progress of a great nation. And again, I should like to express the appreciation and gratitude which I and my colleagues feel toward you and the people of Brazil for the reception which we have received. It demonstrates the charming courtesy and hospitality so highly developed in your people.
In conclusion, I pray that Divine Providence may continue to guide the leaders of our countries in those courses which uphold and maintain our mutual faith. And I wish to express my admiration for the leadership you have given to a great nation.
NOTE: President-elect Hoover spoke in the Cattete Palace in Rio de Janeiro in response to remarks of welcome by President Washington Luis Pereira de Sousa, as follows:
Excellency:
Deeply moved, I present to Your Excellency the sincere thanks which, through me, the entire nation offers you for the honor of this visit in your tour of South America.
Some there are who note with regret the shortness of your visit, in the wish to emphasize their appreciation of the courtesy and honor you have done us. And this is, perhaps, a reasonable sentiment from the point of view of those who, believing themselves profound judges of the practical American spirit, expect from the experienced traveler only a rapid financial and economic survey, instead of the longer period which is indispensable for a successful realization of the objectives of his visit. This would also be the judgment of those who sec in this tour nothing more than a subtle inspection of the resources, both for aggression and defense, of the lands and peoples visited. To advantageously supplement any previous knowledge, they would argue, a lengthy stay would be necessary.
And again, the same criticism might perhaps occur to those who, past masters in the art of planning for the future, believe that visits such as this, undertaken on the spur of a sudden but clear sighted decision must end in the signing of treaties of friendship and commerce to the well-being of the contracting parties and universal peace among the peoples. Such results, however, owing to present diplomatic methods and the inevitable slow pace of our chancelleries, would require months and even years to achieve.
And those who see in this tour a mere form of vacation, a leisurely or comforting sedative after an exhausting campaign, would probably react in a similar manner. They do not know what travel really is, or they forget "how many discomforts, how many dangers, discouragement's, and fears one must experience in fatiguing travel," as Garrett so ably puts it.
To all these a lengthy stay in every country is a necessity. But it is precisely the brevity of this visit, the rapidity of this extensive tour, which removes even the possibility of such fantastic objections. Thus only is Mr. Hoover's resolution seen as the unique, beautiful, and dignified thing it really is, as he really wished it to be and as we have accepted it—that is, a delicate gesture of surpassing courtesy, an extraordinary honor which ennobles him who conceived and executed it, and which is further enhanced by the warm approval of the entire American nation.
Gentlemen, Mr. Hoover, to whom the Brazilian Nation without distinction of political parties or groups, of religious creeds or social classes, renders here and now the sincere tribute of its respect and its admiration, is indeed the great representative of his nation, for in him are combined all the essential attributes of his race, all the characteristics of the noble people to which he belongs and of which he is the supreme embodiment.
The energy, the intelligence, the ability to conceive, decide and accomplish in the shortest possible time and with the maximum efficiency, which characterize the people of the United States, are found in Mr. Hoover to a degree which sets him apart from the rest of his countrymen. The recognition of this fact, moreover, involves no great mental effort or lofty flight of imagination. Even the simple, cold, and incomplete biographical data given in the encyclopaedias abundantly demonstrate this fact. They, also, point him out—and this is worthy of praise and admiration—as a great organizer, a powerful driving force in human life in its most beautiful and admirable aspects.
Let us cite some of the outstanding events in Mr. Hoover's life from the time that his personality, passing beyond the limits of his own country, began to be a world figure, subject to the critical judgment of the world.
In 1914, at the outbreak of the war, Mr. Hoover found himself in London, where he organized the American Relief Commission which returned to their native country about 100,000 of his compatriots.
The invasion of Belgium took him to that heroic country, where he organized and headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium, a task which was soon extended to include the north of France and which succored 10 million individuals, directed a fleet of 200 vessels, and administered more than (950 million. For this service King Albert conferred upon him the titles of "Citizen of the Belgian Nation," and "Friend of the Belgian People."
After the entrance of the United States into the World War in August 1917, President Wilson appointed him Food Administrator, in which capacity Mr. Hoover established an immensely useful organization which stimulated production, curbed speculation, and broke up monopolies. The average annual export of foodstuffs during his administration was over 6 million tons, valued at about $20 million.
He founded the U.S. Grain Corporation and the U.S. Sugar Equalization Board which, together with the Food Administration, purchased under his direction and delivered to the Army, the Navy, and foreign countries, foodstuffs and merchandise to the value of $11 billion. He was also Chairman of the Interallied Food Council which, at his suggestion, supplied the enemy countries after the armistice. He then became the Chairman of the Committee which later was converted into the Supreme Economic Council.
In the autumn of 1919 the various food organizations had working funds amounting to $700 million, one of the most admirable of their achievements being the elimination of the typhus epidemic then ravaging Poland and Rumania. Six million abandoned children found comfort and protection with those organizations. In 1920 and 1921, with a special fund of over (50 million, Mr. Hoover continued to furnish the children of Central and Eastern Europe with food. In 1923, he directed the systematic distribution of foodstuffs to 12 million people in the famine areas of Russia. These formidable organizations, astounding in their size, were directed with the admirable energy and enthusiasm of those who know how to crown with victory their work in a good cause.
Since statistics on the world cataclysm beginning in 1914 deal mostly with the number of dead and maimed in battle, of cities destroyed, of fields devastated, wealth irreparably lost and finances irretrievably ruined, it is not out of place to recall these figures which deal with the providential action undertaken during the same period.
When imperious reasons, inevitable motives and complex causes, strong and fatal as was destiny to the ancients, converted the world into a field of battle and divided the peoples into two camps the primordial duty of each being to kill and destroy, the noblest qualities of the American Nation—which entered the war that all wars might cease—found in Mr. Hoover their greatest exponent. He ended and prevented epidemics, fed the famished, clothed the children, distributing millions of tons of foodstuffs and clothing, to the value of billions of dollars, to millions of individuals.
Instead of the common task of killing, his mission was that of keeping alive. . . . If it were still lawful to confer titles, I should choose for Mr. Hoover that of "Friend of Humanity." In his case, love for his fellow men turns from its contemplative function, beneficence loses its doctrinaire and evangelistic form, both taking on the ardent desire, the constant activity, indomitable energy, continuous initiative, prompt execution, beneficent deeds, and dynamic action which are nothing more or less than the saving renewal of our ancient and common aspiration of making humanity more happy—an ideal not yet attained but one which we all cherish.
These qualities, these aspirations, these ideals, which definitely brought Mr. Hoover's name to the fore, are the substratum, the basic element of a race which has already found itself, of a people which is already constituted, of a nation which has already been organized in North America and which has achieved and now guards a new stage in the progress of civilization.
We have traveled far since that not so remote period, 1620, when the passengers of the Mayflower brought colonizers in the name of Great Britain to the desolate region of the primitive Americans, the natives of a wild and savage country. It is not long since the Thirteen Colonies, already progressive and prosperous, were uniting themselves in the common defense of their own valuable and peculiar economic interests; nor since, after adopting in a moment of enthusiasm the liturgical phrase "God bless our native land," they replaced it, with an eye to the future, by "God bless the United States."
Their economic prosperity from the beginning was healthy and vigorous, based as it was not only on a spirit of admirable organization but on the discoveries and conquests of modern science, especially those which instruct in the defense of life; as, for example, prophylactics, hygiene and medicine, and those which make for increased comfort, as mechanics, engineering, and economics, in which American citizens are acknowledged experts.
The original and magnificent political institutions of the United States create, maintain, and develop all individual rights and public liberties, to the strengthening of republican democracy and the fulfillment of the desires and aspirations of the present time. All the fundamental ideas of Western civilization—labor, capital, property, virtuous family life, an indestructible nation, God and religion—to which we all rally, are there consecrated to the making of a great nation.
Indeed, "Union" and "United States" are phrases still preserved in the laws, although the term American has been exalted to designate a great people.
We see today in the United States a great nation, an indivisible people, one in language and race in their home of immense geographic extension, a people of glorious traditions in the past and noble aspirations for the future, and with a complete political code created in its own likeness.
The American nation in revitalizing European civilization and by its contribution and collaboration toward the creation of a happier humanity is approaching the zenith of its power. That it may remain there forever is our most ardent desire. Therefore, gentlemen, let us lift our glasses in salutation to Mr. Hoover and the American Nation, not, however, before I request you to include in that salutation Mrs. Hoover, who has been his inseparable, untiring, and courageous comrade in all the great tasks which he has accomplished.
To the expression of my sincere wishes for the personal happiness of Mr. Hoover and the happiness of his home, I now add the most ardent hope that during his administration he may successfully execute his noble program, to the end that the United States of America may fulfill the high destiny to which it has been called.
Herbert Hoover, Remarks the Cattete Palace in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/372882
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