80 FINAL ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 



in the United States of an enlightened and intellectual Pan Americanism 

 that greater attention has not heretofore been given in the Republic of 

 the North to the interesting history, the continuous development and 

 the growth and realization of the ideals of the Latin American peoples. 

 It is, however, confidently believed that the meeting of this Congress, in 

 the capital of the United States, composed as the Congress was of the 

 representative scholars, economists, and publicists from each of the 

 twenty-one American Republics, will be both an impetus and an incen- 

 tive to the acquisition of such knowledge. Chairs of the' kind recom- 

 mended have already been established in a few universities and have 

 exercised a marked influence upon the students attending them. It 

 would be ungracious to single out and to mention any institution or 

 institutions in the different countries, but the Congress hoped by this 

 article, and by the experience already had in the matter, to contribute 

 by its measured recommendation to the establishment of such chairs in 

 every American country; for it is not enough that the outward and 

 material facts be known to the exclusion of an adequate knowledge and 

 appreciation of the inner and spiritual life and growth of the peoples of 

 the American Republics. 



ARTICLE 17. The Second Pan American Scientific Congress urgently 



recommends that 



Spanish be taught more generally in the schools, colleges, and 

 universities of the United States and that English be taught 

 more generally in the educational institutions of the Latin 

 American Republics, and that both languages be taught 

 from the point of view of American life, literature, history, 

 and social institutions. 



As a practical example of the benefit arising from a greater familiarity 

 with the lives of the liberators and statesmen of the New World, a passage 

 from the writings of George Washington is quoted as an introduction to 

 the comment upon this article and as a justification of the article itself, 

 if one were needed. 



In a letter wiitten in the year 1788 to a comrade in arms, who had 

 returned to his home in a foreign country, although he was a citizen of 

 the United States as well, WASHINGTON, then living in private life but 

 already designated as President of the Republic due to his constancy 

 and devotion, said: 



To know the affinity of tongues seems to be one step toward promoting 

 the affinity of Nations. Would to God the harmony of Nations were an 

 object that lay nearest to the hearts of sovereigns, and that the incentives 

 to peace, of which commerce and facility of understanding each other are 

 not the most inconsiderable, might be daily increased. 



