In response to your resolutions I shall at an early date ask the other nations to join in a second Congress at The Hague. I feel, as I am sure you do, that our efforts should take the shape of pushing forward toward completion the work already begun at The Hague, and that whatever is now done should appear not as something divergent therefrom, but as a continuance thereof. At the first conference at The Hague several questions were left unsettled, and it was expressly provided that there should be a second conference. A reasonable time has elapsed, and I feel that your body has shown sound judgment in concluding that a second conference should now be called to carry some steps further toward completion the work of the first. It would be visionary to expect too immediate success for the great cause you are championing; but very substantial progress can be made if we strive with resolution and good sense toward the goal of securing among the nations of the earth, as among the individuals of each nation, a just sense of responsibility in each toward others, and a just recognition in each of the rights of others. The right and the responsibility must go hand in hand. Our effort must be unceasing both to secure in each nation full acknowledgment of the rights of others, and to bring about in each nation an ever growing sense of its own responsibilities. At an early date I shall issue the call for the conference you request. I again greet you and bid you welcome in the name of the American people, and wish you Godspeed in your efforts for the common good of mankind. WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON _November 4, 1904_