140 REPORT OF THB SECRET ARYjceNERAL. 



Little by little, however, by intercourse and by personal friendships, 

 we are breaking down the barriers that formerly separated us; we are 

 learning to know one another; we are seeing that, notwithstanding out- 

 ward differences, our i,deals are much the same, and that in the stranger 

 of to-day we greet a possible friend of the morrow, 



I can not escape, Mr. Toastmaster, the feeling that the great obstacle 

 standing in the way of the better relations that we all desire is the fact 

 that we do not come together and that we do not meet as we have met 

 in the last ten days at this congress; and I can not escape the feeling, 

 indeed the firm conviction, that as the result of this congress, as the 

 result of the knowledge of one another, as the result of that better under- 

 standing, the foundations of friendship have been laid; that, little by 

 little, there will go out from the peoples of the American Republics a 

 desire to cultivate still closer relations, so that, unconsciously, we shall 

 become in fact the friends one of another. And in closing I would like 

 to repeat that the greatest result of this conference is not the scientific 

 discussions; it is not the fact that we have added even in a remote degree 

 to the sum total of htunan knowledge; but that, coming together, we 

 have laid the foundations for personal friendship and for loyal and 

 harmonious cooperation. 



There is a very apt French expression which I should like to quote and 

 to make my own, for it expresses in some four or five words all that I 

 would like to say, more than I have said, and indeed more, I believe, 

 than anyone can reasonably hope to say on an occasion of this kind. 

 The expression is Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner — "to know is to 

 pardon" — to understand is to forget, is to forgive; and I am quite sure, 

 gentlemen, that if we will all give ourselves the trouble to understand 

 each other, those of the south to understand their brothers of the north, 

 and those of the north to understand their brothers of the south, there 

 will be no longer misunderstandings of an international character be- 

 tween us, and that we shall have laid the foundations for a permanent 

 peace, because it will be a peace bottomed upon understanding and 

 mutual respect. 



ADDRESS OF SECRETARY GENERAL BARRETT. 



At the conclusion of Dr. Scott's address the presiding officer called 

 for impromptu remarks from the secretary general, who took this 

 occasion to pay tribute to the cooperating support of the officials of the 

 Department of State, the members of the governing board of the Pan 

 American Union, the officers of the Carnegie Endowment, and the 



