8o REPORT OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL. 



Secretary of State of this great Republic and the president of the congress. 

 We all realize and firmly believe in the sincerity of their expression of 

 good wishes and fraternal welcome, and we know that each one of us on 

 this great occasion has only one purpose, i. e., to strive for the mutual 

 benefit and progress of these great Americas as a whole. But there are, 

 perhaps, some points which I, in the capacity of one who has resided for 

 almost twenty years in this country, may be permitted to express to you. 



It has been often said that science is the only thing which unites 

 indi\4duals in the different w alks of life, countries, races, and the world 

 as a whole into a single thought-vehicle, which gives impetus to the 

 progress of the human race; but though science is no doubt the alluringi 

 light which has attracted us to this city from the most remote places of 

 the American Continent, science in reality merely represents the effect 

 but not the cause of that irresistible force which, if carefully considered, 

 obeys that which stands for itself, indominitable, unshakable, and 

 invariable — the truth. 



It is because truth constitutes the principle upon which science is 

 based that science has that magnetic and irresistible power to bring us 

 together on this occasion. We have only to congratulate ourselves on 

 being members and representatives of this congress, whose only efforts 

 from to-day and to-morrow and the morrow after is toward the investi- 

 gation and enlightenment of that knowledge. 



It is that mighty truth promulgated by Lincoln, uttered and followed 

 by the President of this country, and the representatives of the American 

 countries as a whole, "A government of the people, by the people, and 

 for the people" that guides, and should guide always, the culture and 

 education of the American Continent. 



I say culture and education, and not civilization, because civilization, 

 a fictitious and misleading thing, may bring men to disorganization, 

 depredation, and to the border of death, while culture and education, 

 alone, bring men to the plane of clearly imderstanding the difference 

 between right and wrong. 



The present European conflict is the result of that civilization. What 

 a contrast between the strife in the Old World and the peace in America at 

 the present ! We all know that America does not stand for war, that force 

 does not represent the sound principles for the ruling of nations. We do 

 not desire war, not because we are afraid of it or too proud to fight, but 

 because there is no place for it with us. We claim to be sufficiently 

 educated to avoid a disastrous and unnecessary conflict. We are to be 

 congratulated on the fact that our education has reached such a develop- 



