FINAL ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 65 



circular instruction to American diplomatic officers abroad to invite the 

 Governments to which they were accredited 



to send delegates to a conference to be held at The Hague, at such date as 

 may be found convenient, there to meet and consult the like delegates of 

 the other countries, with a view to considering a general plan for an 

 inventory of the natural resources of the world and to devising a uniform 

 scheme for the expression of the results of such inventory to the end that 

 there may be a general understanding and appreciation of the world's 

 supply of the material elements which underlie the development of civil- 

 ization and the welfare of the peoples of the earth. 



The general and specific advantages to accrue from such a Congress to 

 each Nation, and to all, as all are, and must increasingly be, dependent 

 upon the welfare of each, are thus set forth in Secretary BACON'S lan- 

 guage: 



It would be appropriate also for the Conference to consider the general 

 phases of the correlated problem of checking and, when possible, repairing 

 the injuries caused by the waste and destruction of natural resources and 

 utilities, and make recommendations in the interest of their conservation, 

 development, and replenishment. 



With such a world inventory and such recommendations the various 

 producing countries of the whole world would be in a better position to 

 cooperate, each for its own good and all for the good of all, toward the safe- 

 guarding and betterment of their common means of support. As was said 

 in the preliminary Aide-Memoire of January 6th: 



"The people of the whole world are interested in the natural resources 

 of the whole world, benefited by their conservation and injured by their 

 destruction. The people of every country are interested in the supply 

 of food and of material for manufacture in every other country, not only 

 because these are interchangeable through processes of trade, but because 

 a knowledge of the total supply is necessary to the intelligent treatment 

 of each nation's share of the supply." 



Nor is this all. A knowledge of the continuance and stability of peren- 

 nial and renewable resources is no less important to the world than a knowl- 

 edge of the quantity or the term remaining for the enjoyment of those 

 resources which when consumed are irreplaceable. As to all the great 

 natural sources of national welfare, the peoples of to-day hold the earth in 

 trust for the peoples to come after them. Reading the lessons of the past 

 aright, it would be for such a conference to look beyond the present to the 

 future. 



In the introductory part of the instruction Secretary BACON stated 

 the special needs of the American Governments and showed at the same 

 time that these needs were common alike to the countries of the older 

 civilization. Thus, he says: 



While recognizing the imperative necessity for the development and 

 use of the great resources upon which the civilization and prosperity of 

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