Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-10-21
TAFT AND DIAz
IN FELICITATION
PRESIDENTS OF TWO GREAT Ma
TIONS MEET ON BORDER
LAND.
ASSURANCES OF FRIENDSHIP,
PERSONAL AND NATIONAL,
LAVISHLY EXCHANGED.
MUCH POMP ATTENDS FoRMALl
TIES-MExICAN EXECUTIVE
GIVES BANQUET.

Ell Paso, Texas, Oct. 1.-THE long
expected meeting between Presidents
Taft and Diaz occurred yesterday.
CutWardly, it was attended by dis
play of soldiery, the boom of cannon.
and pomp suggestive of supreme
authority; but in the actual hand
clasp OF the two executives and in the
exchange of courteous words, there
was a simple and cordial informality.
President Diaz assured President
Taft Of his warm personal regard and
nigh esteem of the man who accom-
pushed so much in the Philippines,
CUBA and elsewhere, low hOnored by
being chief executive. President Taft
declared that he was glad to know the
president of such great nation, the
president who lad made that nation
SO great.
Less than a score Cf persons were
permitted to witness the meeting.
Even these were excluded when Presi-
dents Taft and Diaz entered the inner
room and attended only by Governor
Creel, former ambassador to the
United States, who acted as inter
prefer. The ceremonies shifted back
and forth across the shallow Rio
Grande between the little American
city and the Mexican settlement of
Ciudad Juarez.
In the customs house there, Presi-
dent Diaz received President Taft's
return call, and last evening enter
tanned the American executive and
| a large party at a banquet, which In
| lavish decorations, wealth of silver
plate, handed down from the time
of Emperor Maximilian, and every
detail, was probably the most notable
feast ever served on the American
continent. At the banquet, formal
public expressions of regard were ex-
changed
Ell Chamizal territory, a part of the
city of Ell Paso, over which Mexico Is
Contending for sovereignty, was
neutral territory for the day.
Taft in Mexico.
President Taft was received at the
Mexican end of the bridge by all
Mexican troops and was paid the
same honOrs that Diaz had received
The adobe walls of Juarez were hung
with the flags Of Mexico and the Unit
ed States. The route to the custom
house was a continuous court OF
honor.
At the banquet last night the two
presidents sat together. Their con-
versation was partly Spanish, as Pres
ident Taft retains much Spanish
gained in the Philippines. The
speeches of both were delivered as
toasts. President Diaz' words we're
repeated in English to the Americans,
President Taft's in Spanish to the
MeXicans.
President Diaz said:
The courtesy of this visit will be
a happy precedent for the Latin-Amer-
lean republics to cultivate constant,
cordial relations among themselves
and with all the countries of this con-
tinent. Inspired by these sentiments
| toast the hope that the court of the
immortal Washington always will en-
joy all the happiness and prosperity
justly corresponding to the intelligent
activity and high civil qualities char
acterizing the manly and cultured
American people, and for the ever
lasting glory of its heroic founders. /
toast the personal happiness Of its IL
IustriOus president, whose manifesto
ton of friendship will contribute toI
cultivate the common interests bind
ing the neighbOring countries whose
ell ments of life and progress are re
ciprocaIly completed and magnitied by
association"
When President Taft hao arisen
and the cheering had subsidized he
said:
Responding as BELTS this most au-
spicious occasion, l express in behalf
of the people of the United States the
admiration and esteem for the illus
trious president of Mexico and hearty
sentiments of friendship wherewith
my countrymen regard the Mexican
people. The people of the United
States respect and honor the MeXl-
cans for their patriotic devotion, en-
ergy and advancement in industrial
development and moral happiness.
"The aims and ideals Of the two
nations are identical, their sympathy
is mutual and lasting and the world
can be assured OF a vast neutral zone
of peace wherein the controlling aspi- |
ration of either nation is individual
happiness.
4 drink to the president of this
great republic, his continued long life
and happiness and never-endlng
bond of mutual sympathy between
Mexico and the United States.
President Taft returned here in a |
blaze of artificial light with an escort /
which changed at the international
bridge from Mexican to American.
The Macmillan silver and gold /
service used at the banquet is valued
at 100000 and the cut glass at
$4,000 Three train loads of flowers
were gathered to decorate the patio
OF the customs house.
SENDS POISONED TEA BY MALT |