INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF 



STATE. 



Hon. Robert Lansing, 



Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 



Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith a report covering the Second 

 Pan American Scientific Congress, held in Washington, December 27, 

 1915-January 8, 1 91 6, of which, at the request of the Department of 

 State and the executive committee of organization, and by permission 

 of the governing board of the Pan American Union, I served as secretary 

 general. 



In the preparation of this report I have been greatly aided by the 

 assistant secretary general, Dr. Glen Levin Swiggett, late professor of 

 romance languages in the University of Tennessee, who resigned from 

 that position to devote his time to this congress, and I wish to take 

 advantage of this opportunity to express my appreciation of his faithful 

 and efficient service. 



I desire also to emphasize that the success of the congress was largely 

 brought about by the excellent advice and unremitting cooperation which 

 I constantly received from Hon. William Phillips, then Third Assistant 

 Secretary of State and chairman of the executive committee; Dr. James 

 Brown Scott, secretary of the Carnegie Endowment for International 

 Peace; and the other members of the executive committee, who were 

 ex officio chairmen of the different sections of the congress, as follows: 

 Dr. P. P. Claxton, Brig. Gen. W. H. Bixby, Surg. Gen. William C. Gorgas, 

 Dr. William H. Holmes, Hennen Jennings, Dr. Leo S. Rowe, George M. 

 Rommel, and Dr. Robert vS. Woodward. 



The particular interest which the President of the United States mani- 

 fested in the congress from the time that he was first approached on the 

 subject by the Secretary of State was a strong and permanent factor in 

 making the congress an occasion of historical and international im- 

 ]wrtance. He manifested his interest through advice to the committee, 

 the selection of high-class delegates on behalf of the United States Gov- 

 ernment, and his own participation in the proceedings and in the social 

 entertainment of the delegates. The address he delivered at a plenary 

 session of the congress was epoch making in its significance, and the 



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