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 some of these gentlemen have already had occasion to bear witness that the Department of State in recent months has tried to serve them in that wise.  In the future they will draw closer and closer to us because of circumstances of which I wish to speak with moderation and, I hope, without indiscretion.

We must prove ourselves their friends and champions upon terms of equality and honor.  You cannot be friends upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality.  You cannot be friends at all except upon the terms of honor.  We must show ourselves friends by comprehending their interest whether it squares with our own interest or not.  It is a very perilous thing to determine the foreign policy of a nation in the terms of material interest.  It not only is unfair to those with whom you are dealing, but it is degrading as regards your own actions.