I feel most keenly the great honor conferred upon me by this
distinguished legislative body. I thank you for your courtesy
personally; still more I thank you for the exhibition of friendship and
sympathy for my country,--an exhibition which corresponds most perfectly
to the spirit and purpose actuating my visit to Peru.
I do not think, sir, that any one long concerned in government can fail
to come at last to a feeling of deep solicitude for the welfare of the
people whom he serves. He must come to feel toward them somewhat as the
lawyer does toward his clients, as the physician feels toward his
patients, as the clergyman feels toward his parishioners--the advocate,
the friend of the people whose interests are committed to his official
action; and, as a member of the government of a friendly republic, I
feel toward you that sympathy which comes from a common purpose, from
engagement in the same task, from being actuated by the same motive. The
work of the legislator is difficult and delicate. Governments cannot
make wealth; governments cannot produce enterprise, industry, or
prosperity; but wise government can give that security for property, for
the fruits of enterprise, for personal liberty, for justice, which opens
the door to enterprise, which stimulates industry and commercial
activity, which brings capital and immigration to the shores of the
country that is but scantily populated; and which makes it worth while
for the greatest exertions of the human mind to be applied to the
development of the resources of the country. How difficult is the task!
As the engineer controlling a great and complicated machine does not
himself furnish the motive power or do the work, yet by a wrong turn of
the lever may send the machine to ruin; so the legislative body cannot
itself do the work that the people must do, yet by ill-advised,
inconsiderate, and unwise legislation, it may produce incalculable
misery and ruin. The wisdom that is necessary, the unselfishness that is
necessary, the subordination of personal and selfish interests that is
necessary, has always seemed to me to consecrate a legislative body
seeking to do its duty by its country and make it worthy not only of
respect but of reverence.
Mr. President and Senators, in your deliberations and your actions, so
fraught with results of happiness or disaster for the people of your
beloved country, we of the North, the people of a republic long bound to
Peru by ties of real and sincere friendship, follow you with sympathy;
with earnest, sincere desire that you may be guided by wisdom; that you
may work in simplicity and sincerity of heart for the good of your
people; and that your labors may be crowned by those blessings which God
gives to those who serve His children faithfully and well.
INSTALLATION OF MR. ROOT AS A MEMBER OF THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL AND
ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN MARCOS, LIMA
SEPTEMBER 14, 1906