REMARKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE, SEPT. 24, 1904, ON THE OCCASION OF THE
RECEPTION OF THE INTERPARLIAMENTARY UNION
_Gentlemen of the Interparliamentary Union_:
I greet you with profound pleasure as representatives in a special
sense of the great international movement for peace and goodwill
among the nations of the earth. It is a matter of gratification to
all Americans that we have had the honor of receiving you here as
the Nation’s guests. You are men skilled in the practical work of
government in your several countries; and this fact adds weight to
your championship of the cause of international justice. I thank you
for your kind allusions to what the Government of the United States
has accomplished for the policies you have at heart, and I assure you
that this Government’s attitude will continue unchanged in reference
thereto. We are even now taking steps to secure arbitration treaties
with all other Governments which are willing to enter into them with us.
In response to your resolutions I shall at an early date ask the
other nations to join in a second Congress at The Hague. I feel, as
I am sure you do, that our efforts should take the shape of pushing
forward toward completion the work already begun at The Hague, and
that whatever is now done should appear not as something divergent
therefrom, but as a continuance thereof. At the first conference at
The Hague several questions were left unsettled, and it was expressly
provided that there should be a second conference. A reasonable time
has elapsed, and I feel that your body has shown sound judgment in
concluding that a second conference should now be called to carry some
steps further toward completion the work of the first. It would be
visionary to expect too immediate success for the great cause you are
championing; but very substantial progress can be made if we strive
with resolution and good sense toward the goal of securing among the
nations of the earth, as among the individuals of each nation, a just
sense of responsibility in each toward others, and a just recognition
in each of the rights of others. The right and the responsibility must
go hand in hand. Our effort must be unceasing both to secure in each
nation full acknowledgment of the rights of others, and to bring about
in each nation an ever growing sense of its own responsibilities.
At an early date I shall issue the call for the conference you request.
I again greet you and bid you welcome in the name of the American
people, and wish you Godspeed in your efforts for the common good of
mankind.