The Globe-republican., 1906-11-22
The Banquet Of Kansas City Com
mercial Club Brings Them To-
gether to Discuss Relations.
SECRETARY ROOTS ADDRESS
All United In the Opinion That RcIa-
tiOns with Our Southern Neigh
bOrs Should BE More Cordial
ana Extensive.

oiuC VI liC oCoI VI 6oFOi hihSh.t WV
Commercial club Monday night cele'
brated the signing of the John Jay
treaty by banquet at the Midland
hotel. 1t was the twelfth annual din
ner Of the club, marking the nineteenth
year of its own existence.
The important occasion had ben am
ply provided for. Special trains and
special cars had brought e. H. Harri-
man, Secretary Root and the other
distinguished guests from Washington
and New York to Kansas City.
The principal interest centered in
the speeches of Secretary Root and
representatives of South American
countries present on mission to pro-
duce closer commercial relations with
our southern neighbors.
Mr.. Root spoke in part as follows:
Since John Jay made the tariff
treaty which is commemorated by the
annual dinner Of this club, the Unitel
States has passed through a period of
comparative isolation and Indifference
in foreign affairs The fathers of the
republic who in their early lives were
colonists were naturally familiar with
European affairs. The whole course
of colonial life, followed by the French
alliance and the early wars of Great
Britain, was one Of intimate relation
IA lin
bounded on the north by the British
provinces, on the south by Florida and
Louisiana, the possessions of Spain
and France and to the west by saw
age tribes under foreign influence;
the navigation of the Mississippi block
ed at the mouth by foreign guns mad
merce, had to be keenly alive to for
eign Influence and the course of for
eign diplomacy; but when our southern
and western borders We're relieved
fro mthese influences and the end of
the exhaustive Napoleonic wars had
led Europe to turn its strength to-
colonization and trade of the Orient
had begun to absorb the surplus ac-
tivity of Europe, we turned our atten-
ton to our own internal matters and
for long period ceased to take much
note of what was going on abroad,
or to be much concerned with the way
in which it might affect us. Now,
however, our growth has been so great
as to bring us again on the wider
field of the worlds trade and construc-
tive enterprise into contact with all
the great and active nations of man
kind. We have entered anew, whether
we will or not, by the necessities of our
development, into the field of intimate
relations with all the nations of the
earth. 1t is a field in which the guild
ing principle laid down by Washington,
of friendship for all with entangling
alliances with none, is as wise a rule
of conduct as it was in Washington's
time.
Nations have souls and consciences
as truly as individual citizens. The
life of the just and faithful and kind,
ly man who is respected and beloved
by his neighbors is the type of what
every citizen should wish his own
country to be in its relations to all
other countries. To be narrow and
hard, selfish and grasping, to be arro
agnt toward the weak and timid in
maintaining the right against the
strong, to be unwilling to give kindly
consideration to the rights and inter
ests and feelings of others, to be with
out sympathy or helpfulness for the
rest of mankind,-a these things
make an individual man despsed and
hated in his community. We should
take the same pains to help our coun-
try avoid them that we would take to
avoid them ourselves. The greater
part of the controversies and wars be. |
tween nations arise from the tendency |
of the people of each nation to assume
IIdL upOu 6NSIy queotiOu Which, diIoC |
all the right is upon their own side
and to insist upon having their own
way without that deliberate and kind
ly consideration of the rights and in
terests of the other side of the ques
ton which just man would give his
neighbor. America has given to the
world an example of democracy
made up of individuals capable of that
self-control and selfrestraint which en-
ables the defeated contestants in a
most excited political controversy to
accept peacefully the judgment of the
majority and leads the entire commun-
it :, however deep may be his feelings,
to LOW with respect to judicial judy
ment The same spirit reinforced by
the sentiment for humanity and the
desire to help on the progress of civ
lization, the rule that peace and jus.
tice throughout the world may exert
a powerful influence not only upon our
own affairs with other nations but
upon the international intercourse of
mankind.