30 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY GENERA^. 



This congress has been signally honored. Through the opportunity it 

 affords of advancing science and of establishing, with its emphasis upon 

 international law, public law, and jurisprudence, 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 repre- 

 sentation at the Congress. Assistant Secretary of State Hon. Wiluam 

 PhiIvIvIPS is chairman ex officio of the executive committee of the Scientific 

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

 the Secretary of State is ex officio chairman, hg.s permitted Director 

 General John Barrett to accept the responsible commission of secretary 

 general of the congress, and has authorized the use of its handsome 

 building for the offices and sessions of the congress. 



The First Pan American Scientific Congress was held in Santiago.Chile, 

 in 1908. This congress was the outgrowth of several scientific congresses 

 that had been held in the Latin- American RepubHcs. 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 the 

 United States. Our country was represented on this occasion by official 

 delegates chosen from among our leading publicists, scientists, and 

 scholars. The First Pan American Scientific Congress expressed its 

 appreciation of this participation by designating in a manner entirely 

 voluntary and unsolicited the capital of the United States as the next 

 place of meeting. In view of this generous interest, it is most desirable 

 that we show now our appreciation of the same by our earnest efforts 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. 



Particular importance attaches itself at this time to a deliberative 

 congress df this character. The present European war has precipitated 

 many problems, the solution of which, in every respect satisfactory to the 

 United States, depends upon the earnest and immediate concern of the 

 publicists of our country. While science is most broadly defined by the 

 congress, including under its nine main divisions such subjects as anthro- 

 pology, meteorology, engineering, commerce, and finance, the main inter- 

 est in the congress to your associations will be in Section VI on interna- 

 tional law, public law, and jurisprudence, of which Dr. James Brown 

 Scott, secretary of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 

 and member of the executive committee, is chairman. The leading Pan 

 American scientific and learned associations and educational institutions 

 have been invited to be represented by delegates and writers of papers. 



