REPORT O? run SECRETARY GENERAL. 5 1 



The president of the congress then spoke as follows: 



Ladies and gentlemen, as chairman of the Chilean delegation, 

 and accepting the invitation which is extended to me, I have the 

 honor to assume the presidency of the Second Pan American Scien- 

 tific Congress, and I greet the delegates cordially. I accept it with 

 the deepest feeling of obligation. I solemnly declare inaugurated 

 the sessions of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress. It will 

 treat of the various needs of our countries, and I earnestly hope that 

 the outcome of this deliberation shall achieve the greatest success and 

 benefit for our Governments and for the advancement of mankind. 

 At the conclusion of the remarks by the president of the congress, the 

 secretary general made some announcements pertaining to the organiza- 

 tion of the congress and requested the audience to face the rear of the 

 hall in order that a photograph of the assemblage might be taken by the 

 official photographers. 



The president of the congress then introduced the honorable Vice 

 President of the United States in these words: 



I have the pleasure to introduce to you the highest official here present, 

 the Vice President of the United States, Mr. Thomas R. Marshall. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED 

 STATES GIVEN BY HON. THOMAS R. MARSHALL, VICE 

 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Ladies, Mr. President, Distinguished Representatives of Sister Jurisdic- 

 tions, Mr. Secretary General, and Members of the Second Pan American 

 Scientific Congress: 



I do not apologize for the absence of the President of the United States. 

 The reason for his absence is known to you all. In the presence of love, 

 science is silent. But I am quite sure that I address no man who has 

 loved, no man who does love, nor no man who hopes to love who does not 

 wish the President of the United States years of unclouded happiness. 

 I would, however, that he were here, because he could tickle this English 

 language of ours into such a smile that these delegates would not recog- 

 nize the difference between it and their own mother tongue. 



It is a very remarkable pleasure and honor to welcome the delegates to 

 this convention. About one-half of the conventions that are held in the 

 world might as well never have been held, because they simply consist of 

 coming together, listening to some one speak on a subject that no one save 

 the man who speaks is interested in, attending a dinner, and passing into 

 oblivion. Such, however, is not this remarkable convention. Travelers 

 have told me that there is a point in Iceland where the rays of the setting 



