The Pan-American Conferences 



479 



country in America ; and as this metal 

 is found almost all over the country, 

 its future is great. The United States 

 consumes for its industries about 43 per 

 cent of the tin in the world, and for the 

 want of banking facilities, direct trans- 

 portation from South America here, 

 and custom hindrances, you are com- 

 pelled to get from Europe the Bolivian 

 tin ; and this is the case with many 

 other South American products. 



When the roads that are now being 

 surveyed are completed one of the most 

 important links of the Pan-American 

 Railway will be made, and then it will 

 be possible to go over a distance of 

 about 2,000 miles, from La Paz in Bo- 

 livia to Buenos Aires in the Argentine, 

 in a few days by rail. 



A COUNTRY WITHOUT A D£BT 



I will also mention the fact that Bo- 

 livia is absolutely free from any for- 

 eign debts, and instead of owing any 

 money, has at her disposal $10,000,000 

 in gold devoted to the building of rail- 

 ways, and that her revenues are suffi- 

 cient, not only for all the expenses of 

 the administration, but to leave some 

 surplus to pay the interest of the addi- 

 tional capital that we are seeking for 

 the construction of the roads I spoke 

 about. 



We will welcome the rivalry of cap- 

 ital and the enterprising spirit of the 

 Americans, and I earnestly hope that 

 the leading men of this country will 

 pay more attention to the great possi- 

 bilities that are to be found in every 

 one of the South American countries ; 

 and that coming in closer contact the 

 peoples of the North and the South will 

 learn to understand each other better, 

 and to see that South America is not 

 a field only for revolutions, but that her 

 people are just as progressive and 

 ready for advancement as any in the 

 world. And by this means a true Pan- 

 American feeling may be developed in 

 a great democratic brotherhood based 

 on the mutual respect and estimation 

 of its citizens, and thus banish all feel- 

 ings of mistrust and fear. 



REASONS WHY THE UNITED STATES 

 IN PARTICULAR SHOULD EN- 

 COURAGE THE PAN-AMERI- 

 CAN CONFERENCES 



THE following paragraphs are 

 quoted from testimony of Hon. 

 Elihu Root, Secretary of State, before 

 a committee of Congress, urging sub- 

 stantial support of the Conference at 

 Rio de Janeiro. 



I think that the work of the Bureau 

 of American Republics, the existence 

 of the International Union, and the 

 holding of these conferences afford al- 

 together the best means of breaking up 

 the comparative isolation of this coun- 

 try from the other countries of America 

 and establishing relations between us 

 and them in place of the relations — the 

 rather exclusive relations — that have 

 existed hitherto between them and 

 Europe. 



Our relation with them has been 

 largely a political relation, while, on 

 the other hand, the ties of race and 

 language and inherited customs and 

 usage — the relations which have come 

 from the investment of great amounts 

 of European capital in their country, 

 which have come from the establish- 

 ment of numerous and convenient lines 

 of communication between them and 

 Europe — have made the whole trend 

 of South American trade and social re- 

 lations and personal relations subsist 

 with Europe rather than with the 

 United States ; so that while we occupy 

 the political attitude of warning Eu- 

 rope off the premises in Central and 

 South America under the Monroe Doc- 

 trine, we are comparative strangers to 

 them and the Europeans hold direct 

 relations with them. 



Now there is, I think, a strong and 

 genuine desire on the part of the South 

 American statesmen — and they have 

 very many able ones — to promote a 

 greater knowledge on the part of their 

 people of the people of the United 

 States, and on the part of our people a 

 greater knowledge of the southern re- 

 publics, and to promote greater inter- 



