That is one form of free trade to which the leaders of every opposing political party can subscribe. In a large sense we in the Americas stand charged today with the maintaining of that tradition. When, speaking a little over a year ago in a similar vein in the Republic of Brazil, I included the Dominion of Canada in the fellowship of the Americas, our South American neighbors gave hearty acclaim. We in all the Americas know the sorrow and the wreckage which may follow if the ability of men to understand each other is rooted out from among the nations. Many of us here today know from experience that of all the devastations of war none is more tragic than the destruction which it brings to the processes of men's minds.
Truth is denied because emotion pushes it aside.
Forbearance is succeeded by bitterness. In that atmosphere human thought cannot advance. It is impossible not to remember that for years when Canadians and Americans have met they have lightheartedly saluted as North American friends with little thought of dangers from overseas. Yet we are awake to the knowledge that the casual assumption of our Page 28 greetings in earlier times, today must become-a matter for serious thought. A few days ago a whisper, fortunately untrue, raced 'round the world that armies standing over against each other in unhappy array were about to be set in motion.