I thank you very heartily for your kind words, for your flattering
description of myself, and for the spirit of friendship for my country
which you exhibit. I am highly appreciative of all the hospitality, the
warm welcome, and the graceful and most agreeable entertainment which
you and your people of Guadalajara and of the state of Jalisco have
given to my family and to myself.
I think it is perhaps fitting that I should make the last extended visit
of all I have been making in Mexico, to the city of Guadalajara. The
most striking feature of Mexican life to a stranger is that rare
combination of history and progress which one finds. The two eras of
history, the Spanish, and before that the Indian civilization, which has
to so great an extent passed away, and beside that the modern
development, the spirit of modern enterprise, the active progress of
mining and agriculture and manufactures, the stimulus of sound finance,
and the general determination of the people to take rank with the great
productive nations of the earth,--nowhere have I found that combination
more marked and distinct than I find it here in Guadalajara. As I said
to you a short time ago, your excellency, the things that impressed me
most on entering this city were, first, that it was clean; secondly,
that there were many fine-looking people; thirdly, that it was
cheerful; and, fourthly, that it had many beautiful buildings. I can add
to that a fifth, that it is bright with the rainbow of hope for the
fruits of its many enterprises.
This may be the last time I rise to speak to any audience in Mexico
before my departure for my own country, and there are two things that I
wish to say; one is, that nothing could have been more generous, more
tactful, and more grateful to us than the hospitality and friendship
which my family and I have received during the entire time since we
crossed the border at Laredo. We are grateful for it, we are deeply
appreciative of it. The other thing that I wish to say is that I have
all the time since I came to Mexico been thinking about the question of
the permanence of your new prosperity. I go back to my home encouraged
and cheered by having found, as I believe, evidence, substantial
evidence, that the new prosperity of Mexico is not evanescent and
temporary, but is permanent. I do not believe that Mexico will ever
again return to the disorder of the condition which characterized the
first sixty years of her independence. I believe that during this long
period of peace and order which has been secured for your people by your
great, wise, strong President Diaz, there has grown up a new spirit
among Mexicans and a new appreciation of individual duty to civilization
in the maintenance of peace and order.
So I go back, not only charmed with the beauty of your country, not only
delighted with the opportunity to see the wonderful historic monuments
you possess, not only delighted with the hospitality of your homes and
charmed with the character of your people, but I go back with the
feeling that the Mexican people have joined forever the ranks of the
great, orderly, self-controlled, self-governing republics of the world.