significant, therefore, of this, that we are closing one chapter in the
history of the world and are opening another of great, unimaginable
significance.

There is one peculiarity about the history of the Latin-American States
which I am sure they are keenly aware of. You hear of "concessions" to
foreign capitalists in Latin America. You do not hear of concessions to
foreign capitalists in the United States. They are not granted
concessions. They are invited to make investments. The work is ours,
though they are welcome to invest in it. We do not ask them to supply
the capital and do the work. It is an invitation, not a privilege; and
States that are obliged, because their territory does not lie within the
main field of modern enterprise and action, to grant concessions are in
this condition, that foreign interests are apt to dominate their
domestic affairs, a condition of affairs always dangerous and apt to
become intolerable. What these States are going to see, therefore, is an
emancipation from the subordination, which has been inevitable, to
foreign enterprise and an assertion of the splendid character which, in
spite of these difficulties, they have again and again been able to
demonstrate. The dignity, the courage, the self-possession, the
self-respect of the Latin-American States, their achievements in the
face of all these adverse circumstances, deserve nothing but the
admiration and applause of the world. They have had harder bargains
driven with them in the matter of loans than any other peoples in the
world. Interest has been exacted of them that was not exacted of anybody
else, because the risk was said to be greater; and then securities were
taken that destroyed the risk--an admirable arrangement for those who
were forcing the terms! I rejoice in nothing so much as in the prospect
that they will now be emancipated from these conditions; and we ought to
be the first to take part in assisting in that emancipation. I think