between nations affiliated by
origin and for so many years united by the most intimate links of
sympathy and intellectual solidarity.

Consequently, we adopted the legitimate defense of protectionism, while
remaining faithful to those friendly feelings, and very naturally we
turned to the continental nation that better understood the advantages
of a free exchange of products; we looked unsuspiciously to the friendly
people who conceived the idea of making in America, united and strong,
a large neutral area devoted to peace amidst the possible divergencies
that may perchance in time separate in aggressive antagonism a
rejuvenated and martial Orient and the nations of the West.

We understood at once the difficult task to be accomplished, in order,
by your side and with your aid, to secure the neutralization of America,
so desirable and so necessary for the final reconciliation of nations
still militarized, and for the establishment of a secure standpoint for
the general fraternization of mankind.

All the enthusiastic appreciation of the twenty-one democracies that
follow and love your deed, and all the facilities and cooperation that
they can offer for its accomplishment, you will find, sir, should you
visit them as you now do one of their number, in the corresponding
twenty-one Brazilian capitals.

The Commercial School of Sao Paulo, from which very likely will come
later commercial agents of Brazil, sincerely espouses your policy of
peace and solidarity on the American continent; and in the person of its
eminent chancellor salutes the noble North American nation.

REPLY OF MR. ROOT

I thank you, students of Sao Paulo, for your greeting and for your
generous sympathy.

I am here upon a mission of friendship and of appreciation. I am here in
order that my country may know more of the people of Brazil, and in
order that the people of Brazil may learn more of my country, believing
that the cause of almost all controversy between nations, the most
fertile source of weakness and of war, is national misunderstanding and
the prejudice that comes from misunderstanding.

I shall go back to my country and tell my people that I have found in
this famous city of learning, Sao Paulo, a great body of young men who
are gathering inspiration in the cause of learning and of human rights
from the atmosphere of liberty and independence.

I shall tell them that here, where the independence of Brazil was born,
the spirit of t