28 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY GENERAI.. 



PROMOTION OF INTEREST IN CONGRESS. 



Early efiforts were made through formal communications to learned 

 and scientific associations and through circular letters to the press of the 

 three Americas to create and promote a real interest in the purposes of 

 the congress. Copies of these communications follow : 



To the officers and members of the National Academy of Sciences: 



I am permitted by your distinguished president, member and honorary 

 vice chairman of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress, to formally 

 acquaint you this morning with the fact that this congress will be held 

 in Washington, December 27, 1915, to January 8, 1916. In view of the 

 fact that such a congress affords the opportunity of not only advancing 

 science, but of establishing more intimate relations among the republics 

 of the Western Hemisphere, the Secretary of State by act of Congress 

 is given authority to officially provide for proper representation at the 

 congress. The governing board of the Pan American Union, of which the 

 Secretary of State is ex officio chairman, has authorized the use of its 

 handsome building for the offices and sessions of the congress. 



The First Pan American Scientific Congress was held, as you know, in 

 1908, in Santiago, Chile. This congress was the outgrowth of several 

 scientific congresses that had been held in the Latin American Republics. 

 With the generous conviction that the United States should participate 

 in an undertaking of this character, the Chilean congress was enlarged 

 in order to include our country, which was represented on the occasion 

 of the Chilean congress by official delegates chosen from among our 

 leading scientists and scholars and representatives from learned societies 

 and educational institutions. The First Pan American Scientific Con- 

 gress highly expressed its appreciation of our participation by desig- 

 nating, in a manner entirely voluntary and unsolicited, the capital of 

 our country as the next place of meeting. In view of this generous 

 interest, it is most desirable that this nation show its appreciation of the 

 same in the earnest efforts of our leading scientists to cooperate with the 

 executive committee in charge of the congress, its officers and committees, 

 to make this congress the greatest of all Pan American gatherings. 



This congress will be of particular importance to the field of science in 

 general through the industrial and economic implications which the 

 discussion of the larger questions of the congress seems to suggest. 

 Important scientific contributions therefore will be made by those 

 who take part in its proceedings on account of the application of pure 

 science to matters of practical Pan American interest. 



