WELCOME TO THE LATIN AMERICAN PUBLICISTS TAKING PART IN THE SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 30, 1915 Mr. Root's interest in and knowledge of the American republics is not of yesterday, nor does it date from his secretaryship of state. It antedated and has survived official position. In 1893 it inspired his address of welcome to the officers of the foreign and United States squadrons which escorted the Spanish caravels to New York. It colors with a touch of personal feeling his address on the Codification of International Law, delivered before the joint sessions of the American Society and the American Institute of International Law, and is beautifully expressed in the following brief passage from his remarks at the dinner of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to the delegates of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress. Gentlemen of the Pan American Scientific Congress, and our guests: I cannot refrain, in opening the postprandial exercises of this evening, from expressing the great satisfaction which I feel in taking part in the transformation of the serious and sometimes dry exercises of our meetings into this social function. It is especially agreeable to me because I cherish such rich and precious memories of hospitality received from our South American guests. I have said many times to my own countrymen, without ever provoking resentment on their part, that I wish they could all learn a lesson in courtesy and the generosity of friendship from our brothers in South America. I should have felt that my own participation in this congress was imperfect and lacked an important element, if I could not have met you, my old friends of South America, in this gathering, which excludes the serious and the scientific, and seeks to cultivate and satisfy only the generous sentiments of friendship. Although his address on the Codification of International Law is contained in Mr. Root's _Addresses on International Subjects_, it reinforces the views expressed by him, as secretary of state, in the address before the Third International American Conference, and its concluding paragraphs are here reprinted, as a fitting close to the volume of addresses dealing with the relations of the United States to our sister republics of the South.