88 FINAL ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 



American Library such as is recommended by this article. It will be 

 seen from an inspection of its wording that it relates exclusively to the 

 American Continent, because the works to be popularized are not the 

 productions of foreign authors, for if Secretary KNOX'S happy statement 

 is to be taken literally as well as figuratively that "geographically 

 America is a unit; commercially each of its members is being brought 

 into more frequent contact; intellectually each should contribute to the 

 knowledge of each and to the advancement of all." 



The scope of this article is very broad, although it consists of but a 

 few lines, namely, to collect from time to time the best scientific, literary, 

 and artistic works of American authors, meaning by "American authors" 

 writers of each and every one of the American Republics, to 'have the 

 works considered worthy of a wider circulation and a more varied public, 

 translated not into any one particular language but into any and perhaps 

 all of the languages spoken in the Western world, namely, Spanish, 

 Portuguese, French, and English. The word "library" is not used in the 

 sense of an institution, of a building in which the books may be collected 

 and consulted by readers, but in the sense of an apt title by which the 

 series should be known, and it is broad enough to include magazines and 

 periodicals and articles of value which they may contain. 



There is no doubt a willingness to believe on the part of the authors of 

 North America that the publication and popularization of their works 

 in the other American countries would be as advantageous to the reading 

 public thereof as it would be pleasing to the writers ; and the same might 

 be said of the authors of each and every American country. The purpose, 

 however, of this article was not to secure the translation and circulation 

 of the works produced in any one country to the exclusion of the works 

 produced in any other country, or indeed in all other American countries. 

 The purpose was rather to call the attention of the reading and scien- 

 tific public to the fact that scholars, scientists, literateurs, and men of 

 taste and refinement of all of the American Republics are contributing 

 to the intellectual treasures of the Americas and that, in the interest of a 

 common civilization and of a common culture, works of merit of the 

 kind specified should be placed at the disposal of persons in the different 

 countries who might profit by them, but who might not have either the 

 inclination or the time to master the languages in which they have been 

 written and published. The Congress contented itself with recognizing 

 the importance of such an undertaking ; it did not and it could not deter- 

 mine the details, which are left to the enlightened enterprise and judg- 

 ment of the publishers of the American Continent. 



