62 REPORT OP THE SECRETARY GENERAL. 



It is the good fortune of this assembly to meet at a time gratifying to 

 the political and international interests of the Republics herein repre- 

 sented. Twenty days ago, at the time of the solemn opening of the Fed- 

 eral Congress of this great Republic, His Excellency the President of the 

 United States, tracing in detail the lines of the exact meaning of Pan 

 Americanism, succeeded so eloquently and expressively in shaping his 

 sentiments of continental brotherhood that his statements were flashed 

 by the wires throughout our Americas like messages of friendship and as 

 a crystallization of a policy of American respect, equality, and solidarity. 

 With the echo from those solemn declarations still vibrating, and as if to 

 confirm their meaning and extent in a direct and unmistakable manner. 

 His Excellency the Secretary of State, the authorized organ for communi- 

 cating the official thought to the other countries, has just uttered in terms 

 perhaps more assertive, although not more transparent, the complete 

 expression of the Pan American sentiment and poHcy, wherefrom the 

 Government guiding the affairs of George Washington's country derives 

 and shall derive its inspiration. 



"A new community of interests and a clearer conception of their com- 

 mon ties," said His Excellency President Wilson, "binds the nations of 

 America to-day. All intelligent men should welcome the new light 

 guiding us now, when nobody here thinks of guardianship or tutelage, 

 but of a frank and honorable association with our neighbors, in the in- 

 terest of all America, North and South. Within the purpose of defending 

 national independence and political liberty in America, which inspired the 

 historical declaration by President Monroe, there is no thought of our 

 taking advantage of any Government in this hemisphere or of exploiting 

 for our benefit their political contingencies. All the Governments of 

 America," the worthy Executive of this country concludes with eloquent 

 majesty, "stand, so far as we are concerned, upon a footing of genuine 

 equality and unquestionable independence. Mutual cooperation in the 

 divers orders of their national activities, the unity of their thought and 

 action, the community of their sympathies and ideals, such are the charac- 

 teristics of Pan Americanism." 



There is none of the imperialistic spirit in it; only the embodiment, 

 the effectual embodiment, of the spirit of law, of independence, of liberty, 

 and of reciprocal support. 



A similar language, an expression equally clear and precise, of Ameri- 

 can confraternity, a statement of declarations no less substantive and 

 valuable, has just been formulated by his excellency the Secretary of 

 State in the remarkable speech we have heard from him. 



