86 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL. 



unquestioned independency," marching onward animated by common 

 ideals and determined to maintain their own position and personality, 

 opening up a road of influence as a new factor in the destinies of the 

 world. 



I note, gentlemen, that I am almost repeating the eloquent words of 

 His Excellency, President Wilson, contained in his noteworthy message 

 on Pan Americanism. 



And permit me to say that I do not employ other words because there 

 are none more expressive. This repetition is not out of place here, 

 because this is a Pan American congress in which all of us are called on 

 to work, treading the furrow of Pan Americanism in which President 

 Wilson has sown such precious seed to bear fruit at all times. 



Let me say that it is a great consolation, a great joy for all the nations 

 of our hemisphere, to be able to devote a few quiet moments in order to 

 throw light upon a part of human culture in this continent, at a time of 

 great disturbance and sorrow when the social and intellectual life of the 

 Old World appears suspended as a result of the tremendous struggle among 

 nations that blazed the way for us along the paths of civilization and 

 cleared the road toward literary and material progress and comfort and 

 artistic refinement. 



From this coimtry — the great and happy home of so many dijBFerent 

 human races — will be heard, through the Second Pan American Scien- 

 tific Congress, the voice of pacific America proclaiming the prepetuity of 

 moral and intellectual ties, of cordial relations, of the beneficial coopera- 

 tion of the Republics of our continent — ^free from the gravest social, 

 political, and economic prejudices which have disturbed and under- 

 mined the very foundation of the life of Europe. 



From this congress, from those which preceded it, and from those 

 still that are now being held in this beautiful city of Washington, and 

 from others in the near future, will spring valuable and decisive elements 

 in tbe renewal of the rights of nations; will spring the outlines of a new 

 and political regime — the new social and international gospel upon which 

 the structure of the civilization of the world is to be restored and recon- 

 structed. 



Gentlemen, let this congress and all others be welcomed, as they pro- 

 mote in the highest degree a profitable exchange of ideas and explora- 

 tions in the mysterious sources of life, of human values, of the progress 

 and achievements of studious, scientific, and professional men in the 

 different branches of learning. Let them be welcomed because they are 

 a review of the enormous material from observation and science ac- 

 cumulated, little by little, in every country in America; because they 



