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The National Geographic Magazine 



tion of these new forms the Pan- 

 American conferences will direct all 

 their efforts. 



BY THE BRAZILIAN AMBASSADOR, MR 

 JOAOUIM NABUCO 



The function of these periodical as- 

 semblies of the American republics, as 

 it appears to me, should be, first, to 

 create and manifest to the world the 

 American conscience ; secondly, to 

 form the American public opinion. I 

 am employing the word American in 

 the sense of continental. 



The American conscience is the sen- 

 timent of our own separate orbit, abso- 

 lutely detached from the European, in 

 which Africa and Asia, not speaking of 

 Australasia, are moving. With all our 

 sympathy and interest for Europe, 

 conscious of all we owe to European 

 influx, products as we are of the over- 

 flow of the European races, doubting 

 even that in our soil the stems of Euro- 

 pean culture could ever produce the 

 same fruits or the same flowers as in 

 their native soil, we, however, are a 

 political system wholly unconnected 

 with the orbit of Europe. 



An obstacle to the growth of this 

 Pan-American conscience lies in the 

 great shadow your great country 

 throws over the rest of the continent. 

 But it will be a matter of good sense 

 and of sincerity for the Latin republics 

 to recognize a fact that the whole world 

 is conscious of and frankly acknowl- 

 edge the guarantee afforded to the 

 separateness of the whole American 

 system by the existence in its midst of 

 a mass of human energy that practi- 

 cally balances the rest of the world. 



SOUTH AMERICA BELIEVES IN THE MON- 

 ROE DOCTRINE 



For the formation of the American 

 conscience it is necessary, therefore, 

 that the Latin republics do not look to 

 the part that the United States had and 

 has to play in guarding the Monroe 

 Doctrine as in any way offensive to the 

 pride and dignity of any of them, but, 



on the contrary, as a privilege which 

 all ought to support, at least with their 

 sympathy and their gratitude. That 

 will, no doubt, be the ultimate result 

 of the Pan-American conference, as, 

 working together with you, they all 

 will understand better your aims, your 

 sincerity, and your disinterestedness. 



The other great function of these 

 conferences is the formation of a com- 

 mon public opinion throughout the con- 

 tinent. You have seen in what words 

 Secretary Root put it in an address he 

 delivered the other evening at the Bra- 

 zilian Embassy in Washington : "May 

 we all do our share toward the building 

 up of a sound and enlightened public 

 opinion of the Americas, which shall 

 everywhere, upon both continents, 

 mightily promote the reign of peace, of 

 order, and of justice in every Ameri- 

 can republic." 



I am glad he expressed himself in 

 that way, as I have always maintained 

 that everything in that direction de- 

 pends absolutely on the creation of a 

 common American opinion. 



The great laws of the physical world 

 apply, we may be sure, to the moral 

 world as well. You could not conceive 

 a religion, an institution, a society, that 

 would remain impenetrable to the spirit 

 of the age, as that would be the same 

 as imagining a body without porosity ; 

 neither can you imagine nations mix- 

 ing and working together without 

 showing in the length of time distinct 

 traces of the civilization as liquids in 

 communicating vases will show the 

 same level. These conferences are the 

 means of communication, until they be- 

 come the communion of the American 

 republic. They are bound to take one 

 day the same level. Remember that 

 Latin-America in these conferences is 

 mixing with your democracy, the like 

 of which, both in scope and magnitude 

 has never before been seen in histor}^. 

 This American democracy is a great 

 magnet for freedom, for progress, and 

 for peace. 



I will add one word more, since I am 



