Mr. President-elect:
It gives me the greatest possible pleasure to welcome Your Excellency on this occasion and to express to you my profound appreciation of the signal honor which you, through your visit, are conferring upon the Government and people of the United States. Your presence is but another evidence of that sincere and uninterrupted friendship which has always linked our countries together so that it can truly be described as traditional. It is, therefore, an especial privilege for me to be able this evening to convey to you and the Brazilian nation a message of cordiality and esteem from the sister republic of the north.
The friendly relations to which I have just alluded are the natural outgrowth of the traditions and ideals which our two nations hold in common. Firm believers in democracy, they are successfully upholding within their borders the principles of self-government. In their relations with the other nations of the world they are animated by a desire to maintain amity and, through loyal efforts, to further the cause of peace.
In other respects also, sir, your nation is viewed with sympathetic admiration by my countrymen. Your people are conquering the wilderness and are bringing to the markets of the world the fruits of their labor. The inexhaustible riches of your great country, which are contributing so effectively to the comfort and progress of mankind, offer a marvelous field of activity to the industry of your people. One need not be a prophet to say that the future of Brazil is one of unlimited possibilities.
To the life of this great nation, sir, you have been for many years contributing your patriotic endeavors. Your field of activity has been broad and comprehensive, earning thereby the confidence and affection of the Brazilian nation, which has rewarded you with the supreme honor that a republic can bestow on one of its sons. In your long and honorable public career you have served in the legislatures of your native state and of the Federal Government, and you have discharged the duties of Chief Executive of the great State of Sao Paulo. The wide experience you have gained will contribute greatly to the welfare and prosperity of your country.
I cannot, Mr. President-elect, permit this opportunity to pass without referring to my delightful visit to your country. Particularly do I wish to mention the cordiality of the reception that was accorded to me in your beautiful capital. I was particularly impressed, sir, with the spontaneity of that reception and the evidences of sincere and unaffected friendship for the United States which greeted me on every side. It is no exaggeration to say that the impression of that friendship which I carried away with me will always remain in my memory as a living evidence of the sentiments which the people of Brazil cherish towards the people of the United States, and which I hardly need assure Your Excellency are sincerely and heartily reciprocated by them.
As I have said, Mr. President-elect, it is a great pleasure for me to extend to you a most cordial and heartfelt welcome on the part of the Government and the people of the United States. It is my earnest hope that your visit here will be as pleasant as was my own visit to Brazil, and I should be most happy if you felt when you leave us some measure of the satisfaction with which I myself look back on my experience in your country. Nothing contributes so much to better understanding between peoples and a closer cooperation between nations which have common ideals and common purposes as personal contacts and friendships between individuals, and it is peculiarly gratifying to us that we have this opportunity to have you with us. Mrs. Hoover, who is greatly disappointed that she has not been able to have the pleasure of welcoming you here, joins me in extending to you our best wishes for your personal welfare and happiness and for the success of your administration. Permit me also to express the hope that Senhora Prestes will soon be fully restored to health. It was a keen disappointment to us that she was unable to accompany Your Excellency here.
I am personally very happy, Mr. Ambassador, to have been able to enjoy your hospitality this evening, and I appreciate deeply the courtesy which you have shown me.
Note: The President spoke at a dinner given by Brazilian Ambassador S. Gurgel do Amaral at the Pan American Union Building. His remarks were broadcast over the national radio networks.
A translation of President-elect Prestes' remarks follow:
Mr. President:
I thank Your Excellency for the magnificent and hearty manifestations which, together with my compatriots, I am receiving from the Government and the people of the United States, and the echo of which arouses enthusiasm in the heart of the Brazilian nation which I have the honor to represent.
The distinction of the visit which Your Excellency conferred on Brazil, on your voyage around South America, as President-elect of the great American nation, giving new vigor to, and linking ever more closely the sentiments of our mutual esteem, demanded a reciprocal recognition.
Recognized and proclaimed President-elect of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, my first care was to carry out this duty imposed by an old and uninterrupted friendship, the records of which go back far beyond the secular span of our independence. The cordiality between our countries and between our citizens does not stand in need of solemn assurances, and by its irresistible affinity rises high above the conventional rules governing international agreements.
Independent of treaties, the bonds of a friendship such as this will endure forever, because it has been handed down from generation to generation and has been stimulated and perfected by a common understanding of the true interests of our people, through the beneficent action of their statesmen, for the advantage of human civilization and for the greater security of liberty and peace.
The work of the statesmen who called into being, and of those who have ever since been improving the political organization and the mechanism of the administration of the great North American Republic, goes far beyond the bounds of nationality and displays in the splendor of its greatness the marvelous ideal of those flashes of genius which honor and ennoble mankind.
The civilization of America is the greatest assertion of the intelligence and the capacity of a people and constitutes for this very reason the most important accomplishment of this century, for throughout its incredible and dizzying growth, the United States are bringing into perfection the organization of society and of work which it sustains and defends, removed from struggle, with order and within the confines of law and justice.
The word energy seems to have been devised to express and define American life in all its aspects even unto its most spiritual manifestations, even when it appears as moral energy, irradiating courage, altruism, and human fellowship, asserting its civilization by deeds of daring and actions of good will, of confidence and of faith in the destiny of man, in peace, in liberty, and in the justice of nations.
Beyond the moral ties which bind our countries, we foresee, following natural sequences, in the development of our commercial intercourse, the most important element for progress and prosperity of the continent.
Through diversity of their climates and of their products there has been reserved to our countries the mission of collaborating with each other, especially now when science in the service of humanity shortens distances and industrializes the resources of the world, thus creating new sources of production and wealth and assuring to mankind greater well being and worthier livelihood.
My wishes, and the wishes of my country, are for the personal happiness of Your Excellency, for the complete reestablishment of the health of Mrs. Hoover, to whom I bring heartfelt greetings from every Brazilian woman, and for the increasing splendor of the great country whose destiny Providence has confided to your patriotism.
Herbert Hoover, Remarks Welcoming President-Elect Julio Prestes of Brazil Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/210648
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