The Pan-American Conferences 



477 



at one of the centers of America's high- 

 est culture. What the conferences and 

 meetings of the governments can do is 

 much in itself, but it is little compared 

 to what would be done if the people, 

 the liberal minds, the institutions, the 

 organs of public opinion of the different 

 American republics, were to approach 

 each other, to have their own confer- 

 ences, to show real concern in their 

 common progress, in seeing that no 

 country remains hopelessly behind the 

 others. That is the much broader and 

 much deeper task that is waiting for 

 the awakening of the universities of the 

 two Americas, chiefly of yours, for a 

 generation of masters and students pos- 

 sessed of the continental spirit and 

 anxious to see American civilization ex- 

 pand and equally cover the whole New 

 World. 



BY THE COSTA RICAN MINISTER, SENOR 

 DON JOAQUIN BERNARDO CALVO 



Speaking for Central America and 

 especially for my own country, I wish 

 to say a word. That precious link be- 

 tween the two Americas to the bless- 

 ings of being in the center of this con- 

 tinent, bathed by the two great oceans, 

 inhabited by peoples of no common in- 

 telligence, orderly and progressive, 

 adds to its glory one of which we are 

 proud. The independence of Central 

 America was the consequence of the 

 triumphs of the great patriots of Mex- 

 ico and South America, and was de- 

 clared on the 15th of September, 1821, 

 and only two years later, by a single 

 decree, the abolition of slavery was ac- 

 complished at once, without any in- 

 demnity being paid to the owners of 

 the slaves who were themselves the 

 first to support this humane measure. 

 Such an act shows how Central Ameri- 

 can people appreciated the benefits of 

 liberty, which they owed to - their 

 greater neighbors, and that they were 

 well enlightened for their new life as a 

 free people. 



To be relatively small is not a dis- 

 grace. Material grandeur, if certainly 



desirable, is not the acme of greatness, 

 and we know that the latter exists 

 where justice rules, where the general 

 good is the supreme law, and where the 

 aspiration is toward the consideration 

 and respect of the other nations and to- 

 ward the common advancement of hu- 

 manity. 



Now we are divided into five inde- 

 pendent states, with Panama as a sixth, 

 which may eventually merge into a 

 greater nation. But, whether united or 

 divided, the states of Central America 

 have shown at all times their love for 

 progress and advancement ; they have 

 cooperated with true ideas of Pan- 

 Americanism to the success of the first 

 and second conferences ; therefore you 

 are assured that they fully recognize the 

 broad as well as narrow interests which 

 the republics of America have in com- 

 mon, and will cheerfully now, as they 

 have in the past, endeavor to do their 

 part in the intelligent progress that the 

 Third Conference is destined to bring 

 about. 



BY SENOR DON IGNACI0 CALDERON, THE 

 BOLIVIAN MINISTER 



When a handful of pilgrims aban- 

 doned the home of their fathers for 

 conscience sake, and undertook to cross 

 the ocean, seeking their freedom, 

 everything before them was uncertain, 

 except their faith in God and their deep 

 and strong love for justice and right. 



They brought and propagated in the 

 New World all the virtues that go to 

 make a man a true and worthy image 

 of his Maker ; and from such seed have 

 developed a nation that in due course 

 of time has come to be, not only a 

 great world power, but the sacred 

 asylum for all liberty-loving people. 



Great as is your material strength, 

 astonishing as is your progress and the 

 expansion of your industries and com- 

 merce, and amazing as is the accumu- 

 lation of wealth and the well-being of 

 the great majority of the people of the 

 United States, nothing appeals with 

 greater force to my mind than the prac- 



