Remarks in Cartagena, Colombia.

From the days of my youth when I was a small boy, it has been my dream to visit "La Ciudad Heroica"—this noble Cartagena of the New World which signifies so much to all Americans in every part of our continent.

Today that dream has come true, and more than true, for I little thought that it would be my happy privilege, as the representative of the United States, to be the guest of the President and of the People of Colombia. I am indeed grateful to you for the warmth of your reception and for the close spirit of friendship which you have shown me, and I am especially happy to be received by President Herrera, who has left behind such a multitude of warm friends which he made during all those years when he represented Colombia in Washington.

We, the citizens of all the American Republics are, I think, at the threshold of a new era.

It is a new era because of the new spirit of understanding that is best expressed in the phrase, "Let us each and every one of us live and let live." In all of our American Nations, there is growing insistence on the peaceful solution of international problems. Colombia and Peru have rendered an inestimable service to humanity in the settlement of their Letitia problem. The United States joins with Colombia in every effort she has made to end the unfortunate war in the Chaco, a war that is the only discordant note that remains in all the length and breadth of North and Central and South America.

We are entering a new era in accepting the plan that no one of our Nations must hereafter exploit a neighbor Nation at the expense of that neighbor. We shall all of us find methods for the development of the commerce and resources of the Americas, but we shall do this in the spirit of fair play and of justice.

Finally, I hope, my friends, that this new era is bringing a communion of understanding of the life and culture and ideals of the separate Nations that make up the Americas. It is right that each country should have its own cultural development, but every one of us can learn greatly from each other.

That is true of literature and of the arts, and it is true also of government.

We in the United States know of the universities in the lands. to the South of us. Many of these were great institutions of learning long before white men founded Virginia or landed at Plymouth Rock. We know of your poets and of your painters and of your writers.

But it must be equally understood that the process of development in sociological and humanitarian lines is proceeding at a splendid pace in every American Republic. All of us are seeking to improve the condition of the average citizen and we give to social legislation an interest and an incentive which augurs well for succeeding generations.

And so, Your Excellency, it is in this spirit of seeking mutual understanding and mutual helpfulness that a President of the United States sets foot for the first time on the sacred soil of the Republic of Colombia. May your Nation greatly prosper and may both our countries from this day forth come to know and honor each other as good neighbors and as preservers of human liberty.