Excellency:
I wish to thank you for the eloquent expression you have given of your sentiment toward myself and of the friendship of the people of Uruguay toward my country. I know that these expressions, this hospitality, and this reception will meet a response in the hearts of the people of the United States.
Your Excellency, I sometimes think that relations between nations bear the humble comparison of the relations between neighbors in our busy private lives. Crowded with domestic problems, we really know but little of our neighbors; we read in the press of sensational accidents; we know the gossip of unworthy members of their families; we read descriptions of their homes. But we know little of the finer qualities of their home life, their deep affections, their sorrows, their self-denials, their courage, and their idealism's. So it is with nations. Their national accomplishments, the "flower" of thought and the great intangibles of national character and ideals, can come only with contact. From these contacts come that respect and friendship, that desire for helpfulness, which must be the true basis of international relations. I have hoped that I might by this visit symbolize the courtesy of a call from one good neighbor to another, that I might convey the respect, esteem, and desire for intellectual and spiritual cooperation.
Your Excellency has spoken of our common ideals of justice not only in our international relations, but in our system of government. Justice is not only an ideal—it is a science. In the contributions of the leaders of Uruguay to the science of jurisprudence, both in the national and international field, she has given proofs of great cultivation of mind and at the same time has demonstrated that the moral weight of nations is based not upon size or numbers, but upon the spirit or character of a people.
Thus Uruguay is an exemplar of the profound political truth that national greatness springs not primarily from broad areas and imperial possessions, but from the height and depth of the national soul. More and more you have been coming to the world with your hands full of spiritual and intellectual gifts.
Mr. President, we are all interested in economic exchanges—they are of the utmost importance for the preservation and betterment of life. Exchanges of ideas are even more vitally important to humanity than exchanges of commodities, which are but perishable. From a new idea we may attain revolutionary economic advance, but, of more importance, from the exchange of ideas we reinforce and strengthen the system of thought and life from which springs freedom itself. And again I pay tribute to Uruguay for her large benefactions in this world of the intellect. Nor can I fail to be impressed by the marvelous material development in your country. Its resources, its magnificent roads and public works, its beautiful capital city, the multitude of schools and cultural agencies, all bespeak a people alert, vigorous, and progressive.
Your Excellency, no citizen of a republic, no man who feels deeply the values and who glories in the triumph of democracy, could witness the profound success of this Republic and remain unmoved. Your acts and words spring, I feel, not only from the exquisite courtesy, but from the generous heart of a free people. I appreciate them on my own behalf and I accept them with gratitude on behalf of my Republic, which has been proud to call Uruguay her sister and her consistent friend.
NOTE: President-elect Hoover spoke at the Parque Hotel in Montevideo in response to remarks of welcome by President Juan Campisteguy. A translation of President Campisteguy's remarks follows:
Mr. President:
Uruguay receives Your Excellency with the most spontaneous cordiality, esteeming your presence in its capital as the living expression of the friendship of that great people which has just consecrated you as its foremost citizen.
Your Excellency, who with exalted and happy purpose is now establishing contact with the peoples of America in preparation for the enormously responsible task which awaits you, will now add to the impressions already gathered in other countries, as fraternal and hospitable as ours, those which Uruguay will engrave on your mind and heart. This leads us to entertain the hope that these impressions will also serve to shape your future action, in harmony with our traditional friendship, in favor of the ready and necessary interchange of our material and moral values, and in support of the reciprocal interests of both nations, since a mutually adequate understanding of our ability and intentions is the fundamental basis of that undertaking.
It is the aspiration of my country to maintain the high opinion which it believes it has gained in the international field, thanks to the unremitting efforts exerted in the past, and equally manifest in the present. In pursuit of this objective, it will continue its unmistakable policies of the most absolute and conscientious respect in the fulfillment of those obligations which law and justice impose as fundamental principles of international relations. To this end, it will constantly strive to collaborate in everything which tends to benefit the interests of humanity, thus preserving the ideal relationship which it covets as the guarantee of its future and the ample development of its activities.
Just as in the past Uruguay and the United States of America have shared responsibilities, uncertainties, and success marked by outstanding evidences of sincere affection, so in the future, the two countries, I can assure you, will be identified by similar sentiments in the realization of every generous undertaking which tends toward human betterment and perfection, thus capable of assuring not only those material conquests which contribute to the economic well-being of the peoples, but also those more valuable conquests which foster the advancement of culture, which guarantee the full sovereignty of justice, which uphold the active defense of every right, and which will forever and eternally insure universal peace and justice.
The unusual qualities which, tested and tried in your life of incessant work, mark Your Excellency as with shining characters, warrant the assurance that your administration will be worthy of the praise not only of your own fellow citizens but of ours, because it will tend to the maintenance of the ties binding the two countries together, ties which we, on our part, will earnestly endeavor to strengthen day by day.
And it is for the realization of these happy auguries, for the personal happiness of His Excellency President Coolidge, for that of his worthy successor, our illustrious guest, and Mrs. Hoover, as well as for the future greatness of the United States of America, that I propose a toast in the name of Uruguay.
Herbert Hoover, Remarks at the Parque Hotel in Montevideo, Uruguay Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/372886
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