34 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL. 



executive committee through the secretary general of the congress. It 

 is earnestly hoped that these committees as they are appointed will 

 speedily convey to the secretary general lists of writers for all of the 

 special Pan American topics which the congress hopes to discuss in a 

 series of Pan American conferences. Each country is asked to name 

 some one to discuss each of the topics. There will be at least one topic 

 for each of the nine sections of the congress, and in some sections one 

 for each of the subsections. 



The executive committee and the Department of State of the United 

 States, through the organization officers, are seriously engaged in mak- 

 ing adequate preparations to make this scientific congress worthy of 

 the participating countries, whose scholarly interest in the arts and sci- 

 ences of peace is singularly felicitous at this writing. Time and place 

 are in happy conjunction. Washington will offer unusual advantages for 

 a congress of this nature. It enjoys an enviable reputation among the 

 world capitals for the keen scientific interest and investigation in its 

 various Federal bureaus, the varied and extensive nature of its libraries 

 and museums, the beauty of its buildings and the growing importance 

 of detached but semiofficial institutions and bureaus engaged in work of 

 international scope. Among these none occupies a position of greater im- 

 portance than the Pan American Union, whose building is, in a sense, the 

 Capitol of Pan America; of which institution one may be permitted to 

 say that it has doubtless done more than any other one American in the 

 establishment of commercial comity among the republics of the western 

 world; whose good fortune it has also bieen to see through the seeming 

 accident of war the potential promise of its great work becoming realized 

 so soon. 



DETAILS OF THE ORGANIZATION. 



The labors of organization of the Scientific Congress were carried on 

 by the executive officers at the Pan American Union. A small staff, 

 consisting of two stenographers, two clerks, and a messenger, served 

 the assistant secretary general in charge up to November 15. After that 

 date the staff of clerks and translators increased rapidly. Abstracts 

 of over half of the papers presented were made and translated into 

 Spanish or English. Five hundred copies of each abstract were printed 

 for distribution at the time of the congress. Many complete sets of 

 abstracts, remaining on hand at the time of adjournment, have since 

 been mailed to leading public, association, and college libraries in the 

 different countries and will be found of great value in lieu of the posses- 

 sion of a set of the printed proceedings. On the eve of the congress 



