The Pan-American Conferences 



475 



and to improve the reciprocal commer- 

 cial relations that might be beneficial 

 for all. Never before had such an ex- 

 tensive program been presented for 

 an international conference, nor had it 

 been considered possible that such a 

 program could be a matter of discus- 

 sion between delegates of different na- 

 tions. 



The labors of the Pan-American Con- 

 ference were of concord and peace ; it 

 had not the purpose, like the congresses 

 of Leybach and Verona, to restore a 

 form of government and authorize a 

 nation to reconquer her colonies ; nor 

 was it inspired either as the Congress 

 of Panama, a dream of the great Simon 

 Bolivar, with the necessity of uniting 

 the persecuted to resist the attacks of 

 a common aggressor ; but, seeking 

 rather the union of all in a general ef- 

 fort, it undertook to create the general 

 commercial prosperity of the hemi- 

 sphere, giving this prosperity a basis of 

 peace by means of the amicable solu- 

 tion of international conflicts. 



The invitation of the Congress was 

 addressed to all the governments of the 

 American Continent on the 13th of July, 

 1888, and after all of them accepted it 

 the Conference met at Washington on 

 October 2, 1889, with James G. Blaine, 

 then Secretary of State, in the chair. 

 For a period of six months the program 

 of the Conference was largely dis- 

 cussed, and its resolutions were in the 

 form of simple recommendations to the 

 respective governments. 



The City of Mexico having been se- 

 lected for the Second Conference, the 

 government of the United States of 

 Mexico, on the 15th of August, 1900, 

 addressed an invitation to all the gov- 

 ernments of the American states to as- 

 semble in October, 1901, in the capital 

 of the aforesaid republic. 



The program was as extensive as that 

 of the First Conference, and was cal- 

 culated to give rise to long and thor- 

 ough discussion of all those principles 

 that serve to lay the foundation of the 

 agricultural, industrial, commercial, 



and political prosperity of America. 



But the principal achievement of the 

 Conference in Mexico, one which is 

 destined to perpetuate its name in his- 

 tory, is the convention on obligatory 

 arbitration of pecuniary claims, which, 

 having been ratified by the Congress of 

 the United States, by that of Mexico, 

 and by Peru, will soon be also approved 

 by all the other nations of this hemi- 

 sphere. 



To understand the wide scope of this 

 convention it is sufficient to consider 

 that, notwithstanding the gigantic ef- 

 forts made in all the civilized world to 

 renounce force to obtain redress, this 

 is the first time the principle which the 

 great Argentine jurist, Carlos Calvo, 

 enunciated, that the collection of pe- 

 cuniary claims should never be made 

 by force, has been consecrated in a gen- 

 eral and obligatory form. 



It is not possible for human sagacity 

 to penetrate the future, to ascertain 

 what the next and the succeeding in- 

 ternational American conferences are 

 to be in the course of time, but it can 

 be affirmed without fear of falling into 

 error that each one will be of more im- 

 portance than the preceding, and that 

 all of them will strive with more eager- 

 ness to strengthen the bonds which are 

 to unite the nations of this hemisphere. 



If we have seen that a union of the 

 nations is to be accomplished at the 

 cost of some sacrifices of national sel- 

 fishness, and if we have reflected that in 

 the long run these sacrifices, without 

 suppressing the frontiers which divide 

 nations, contribute to the organization 

 of future humanity, it is but natural to 

 suppose that all of these conferences 

 which America is to hold from time to 

 time are to be landmarks in the way 

 traversed until we reach the ideal that 

 protects and encourages us. The 

 American Continent, governed by free 

 institutions, ruled by just governments, 

 impelled by noble ambitions, is the 

 most appropriate field for establishing 

 the new forms of future international 

 law, and we may hope that to the crea- 



