FINAL ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 149 



political . What is now proposed is an organization essentially intellectual , 

 separate and distinct from the political and official interests of each Nation. 



The projects already presented embrace three phases of this subject: The 

 university, the library, and archaeology. But there are, of course, others, 

 since the various branches of human knowledge from the moral sciences 

 to the pure and applied assume in America continental as distinct from 

 universal characteristics. Setting aside this latter, and considering con- 

 cretely the American conception of each, it is evident that for all Ameri- 

 cans a greater interest lies in the advance in knowledge of the continental 

 aspect of each problem and in a combined effort to include therein the study 

 of each new phase presenting itself. It is indispensable to our continent 

 to approach science from the continental point of view, for there is no 

 course of study that can be pursued in the abstract and apart from regional 

 peculiarities, which, with respect to true science, inject unique aspects, 

 and, with respect to applied science, are usually of exclusive importance. 



Thus to take an example from political economy which belongs to the 

 group of moral sciences. This science has, in addition to its doctrinal 

 and academic, its regional aspect. As the exponent of the actual economic 

 activity of each human group, political economy presents, because of 

 geographical conditions, special problems. It is, therefore, both logical 

 and necessary to take into account national and regional elements and 

 conditions. The same may be said of all courses of scientific study, 

 from those of the purest to those of the most applied sciences. 



Why, then, should not an intellectual center be constituted which would 

 embrace the American aspect of human knowledge, which would reach 

 all the students of the continent, which would enable them to cooperate 

 in a common task, and which would give a forward impulse to all America, 

 and thus cause to disappear the isolation in which its intelligence is dissi- 

 pated ? But such center should not bring about a doubling of the personnel 

 in the present Pan-American Union, for the proposed union is of a wholly 

 different character. It should seek to cultivate sentiments of intellectual 

 cooperation and friendship among the inhabitants of the different countries 

 and increase among these the knowledge and understanding of the various 

 Nations of the continent. To this end a system of mutual assistance 

 should be devised, maintained, promoted, and extended to the institutions, 

 organizations, associations, and agencies considered necessary or useful in 

 the fulfillment of all or any of the objects of the Union. In a word, a Pan 

 American Intellectual Union should be organized which would be free from 

 official participation, foreign to politics, and which would be the work of 

 private efforts, whether by existing associations or by a confederation of 

 the same, or by individuals, isolated or in groups. 



If the Pan American Scientific Congress deems the realization of this 

 idea desirable, it could recommend the formation of such a union to any 

 of the existing foundations or endowments, or advise the creation of a new 

 union, which private munificence could endow with the necessary resources. 

 The example offered by the creation of the Carnegie Endowment for 

 International Peace demonstrates the practicability of the idea, and it is 

 to be hoped that private fortunes will gladly contribute to this new form of 

 practical Pan Americanism. 



