It gives me not only great pleasure to welcome the President of the great Republic of Mexico, but to welcome the present President of the Republic of Mexico, who has made it so great.

The people of the United States respect and honor the Mexicans, for their patriotic devotion, their will, energy, and for their steady advance in industrial development and moral happiness.

[addressing the Minister of War]: I have been Minister of War, and therefore I have a sympathy with you.

I wish to express to you my belief that this meeting is looked upon by both peoples with a great deal of interest not as making stronger but as typifying the strength of the bond between the two countries.

I drink to my friend, the President of this great Republic, to his continued long life and happiness, and to the never-ending bond of mutual sympathy between Mexico and the United States.

I am very glad to welcome you here, sir; I am very glad indeed.

You have already met the Secretary of War and the Governor of Texas. I shall be glad to have the privilege of presenting to you the Postmaster General.

The aims and ideals of our two nations are identical, their sympathy mutual and lasting, and the world has become assured of a vast neutral zone of peace, in which the controlling aspiration of either nation is individual human happiness.

I believe you will be made a State.

I am willing to admit, as I suppose you will, the truth of the statement of the Chairman, that I have not anywhere had an audience of which this is not a peer.

In the first place, I want to commend myself, and that is by having appointed Judge Sloan your Governor.

I am inclined to think that the ladies before me generally follow that course.