private law, government and education, all those great fields 

 which invite the intellectual thought of man, fall within the 

 province of the deliberations of this Congress. In the ex- 

 change of ideas and comparison of experiences we will come 

 to know one another and to carry to the nations which we 

 represent a better and truer knowledge of our neighbors than 

 we have had in the past. I believe that from that wider 

 knowledge a mutual esteem and trust will spring which will 

 unite these Republics more closely politically, commercially, 

 and intellectually, and will give to the Pan-American spirit 

 an impulse and power which it has never known before. 



The present epoch is one which must bring home to 

 every thinking American the wonderful benefits to be gained 

 by trusting our neighbors and by being trusted by them, by 

 cooperation and helpfulness, by a dignified regard for the 

 rights of all, and by living our national lives in harmony and 

 good will. 



Across the thousands of miles of the Atlantic we see 

 Europe convulsed with the most terrible conflict which this 

 world has ever witnessed; we see the manhood of these great 

 nations shattered, their homes ruined, their productive ener- 

 gies devoted to the one purpose of destroying their fellowmen. 

 When we contemplate the untold misery which these once 

 happy people are enduring and the heritage which they are 

 transmitting to succeeding generations, we can not but con- 

 trast a continent at war and a continent at peace. The 

 spectacle teaches a lesson we can not ignore. 



If we seek the dominant ideas in world politics since we 

 became independent nations, we will find that wc won our 

 liberties when individualism absorbed men's thoughts and 

 inspired their deeds. This idea was gradually supplanted by 

 that of nationalism, which found expression in the ambitions 



