90 FINAL ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 



devoted exclusively to these purposes, there can be no two opinions, but 

 there may well be a divergence of views as to whether the organization 

 should be connected with the Pan American Union, which is a diplomatic 

 body, or whether it should be a separate and distinct organization having 

 the confidence of the Governments of the Americas, but not subject to 

 their control or dictation, as must necessarily be the case in a diplomatic 

 or political organization. In other words, the question which meets 

 us upon the threshold is whether the functions if not the scope of the 

 Pan American Union should be increased by imposing upon it the duties 

 contained in this article and assigning them to what the article calls 

 a department of education thereof, or whether there should be formed for 

 educational purposes a union comparable to the American Institute of 

 International Law, which is a private organization uniting the national 

 societies of international law existing in each of the American Republics, 

 in which the Governments are interested by reason of the services which 

 the Institute can render, but in which and over which the Governments 

 exercise no control. 



It would be inadvisable, and indeed it would be out of place, to pursue 

 this matter further, as the Congress recommends that the existing 

 machinery of the Pan American Union be used and that there be created 

 in the Pan American Union a department of education. This recom- 

 mendation is, as already pointed out, in accordance with the resolution of 

 the Third and Fourth International American Conference authorizing the 

 Pan American Union, among other things, "To supply information on 

 educational matters," and with the convention adopted by the Fourth 

 Conference and since approved by the Governments of the American 

 Republics, declaring, in Article II thereof, as one of the purposes of the 

 Pan American Union, to be "To compile and distribute information and 

 reports concerning * * * educational development." It is therefore 

 clearly within the competence of the Pan American Union to assume 

 and to perform the duties sought to be conferred upon it by the Congress, 

 whereby the Union shall become the agent of the American Republics in 

 educational matters. 



It is of interest to note, in this connection, that the proposal to create 

 a department of education of the Pan American Union for the purpose 

 set forth in the article was made by one very familiar with the aims, 

 purposes, and procedure of the Union, namely, the President of the 

 Congress, His Excellency Sr. BDUARDO SUAREZ-MUJICA, the Chilean 

 Ambassador. It is difficult briefly, and within the compass of this 

 report, to comment upon the specific clauses of this very important 

 article, for, taken together, they state in general the duties of a Minister 



