take credit to myself, nevertheless, because of the importance of this occasion and the presence here of so many distinguished colleagues, nor because of the chairman's phrases, since I know that everything is due to the charming kindliness which governs your lives and to the habitual expression of your innate courtesy. My work on the Governing Board of the Pan American Union has been modest and my activities limited; in the balance which might now be struck upon my retirement, there remain in my favor only the enthusiasm and faith which have strengthened me during all the time I have cooperated with you.

I can not deny that I leave the Pan American Union with great regret. This is not because of the contribution which I might continue to bring to our common task, but because of the influence which the Union has exercised upon the temper of my mind, modifying and improving it.

Indeed, it is my duty to state at this time, when I cease to belong to the central representative body of the American nations, that the practice of Pan Americanism has elevated my international principles. My studies in the diplomacy of the so-called great periods, my convictions with respect to the methods of defending the interests of one's own State, as well as my opinions of the public men of the past, have been totally revised. A fresh and vigorous breeze has swept away many ideas which seemed to me incontrovertible, ideas which my mind then, as now, considered reprehensible, but which I regarded with the respect paid to the inescapable. In this atmosphere of ours, I have seen in actual practice that moral integrity and intellectual integrity are not incompatible in international matters.

This confession is a tribute of gratitude which, on taking my departure, I pay to the Union of which I have been a member.

Pan Americanism to-day is, in my opinion, not merely a continental institution but, and I should almost say chiefly, a notable step in the progress of ideas and in the improvement of our collective life. It has exiled from international procedure secret agreements, previous understandings and combinazioni, as Machiavelli called them, by which a well-organized minority could overwhelm the majority in conferences and congresses. Under its influence, we have seen every individual pact fit into the general whole. Every bloc, although based on similarity of interests, has been considered a practice of questionable morality. Secret diplomacy, so difficult to banish from world affairs, has been abolished for many years on American soil. A real equality of States, large and small, has arisen under the Pan American aegis, and our gatherings give the impression that the strong recognize it as beneficial to themselves that all should enjoy high international standing and prestige, for only thus will all have the deep sense of responsibility indispensable to the general good.

The collective labors of the Americas have placed international law in the field of ethics, and have taken into consideration the fact that there exists a higher principle than sanctions, a principle based on the universal condemnation and repudiation of deeds injurious to the community of nations. It was in Pan American assemblies that the recourse to war, formerly considered the supreme expression of sovereignty and to-day happily abolished, was first stricken by responsible powers from the law of nations.

The policy of the "balance of power," which colored international life during all the last century and the beginning of the present, was never accepted in America; and the system of alliances, although practiced with disinterested motives and for the common good, could not survive the first obstacles encountered. Pan Americanism had its origin in an aggregation of free and equal nations, with no intermediaries between the national unit and the continental whole, and it still maintains this basic principle intact. Those who prophesied that chaos would result from this international society of free and equal members were as mistaken as those who believed, when modern democracy was born, that it would

inevitably descend to anarchy because of the absence of dominating leaders and dominated masses.

An international structure conforming more closely to the ideas of general good and general usefulness does not necessarily presuppose perfection. Conflicts of interests exist and will continue to exist as long as mankind rules our planet, but the results of such conflicts are weakened; the solution is found not in the threatening and arrogant diplomacy of other times, nor in political or economic aggression, but in the application of the principles of justice, which brings everything controversial within the field of law. We may claim with pride that even in cases of century-old disputes over American territorial questions when the parties, influenced by inflamed public opinion, not unnaturally lose sight of all the different and complex aspects of the problem under discussion, of the pros and cons to be weighed before reaching any solution, the proposal to maintain friendly relations at any cost encourages them to accept the friendly, sincere, and scrupulously impartial cooperation of the whole continent.

In international affairs it must be recognized that this part of the world has set history a new course and opened a new horizon to law. On the basis of the evolution of internal public law, Pan Americanism has proved that the interest of the strong, to give this term its literal meaning, is not in domination but in general cooperation, in reciprocal good will, in common effort for the welfare of all, in friendly cooperation.

My stay of more than five years among you has given me the opportunity of attending this school of international ethics, in which these principles are daily obseryed.

You can therefore understand my deep gratitude.

Distinguished colleagues: Although distance may separate us as we continue our course in life, the ties of friendship created during a long period of joint labors are imperishable, especially when one has had the good fortune of relations with statesmen of your ability and attainments. In any position where my Government may place me to serve my country, I shall cherish, with the memory of the years which we have spent together in this Capital, the friendship which to-day unites us.

Mr. Chairman, I can not tell you, without perhaps embarrassing you by paying you the tribute which you well deserve, how pleasant I have found it to serve my Government as its representative to yours. Permit me to-day, when I am on the eve of assuming a post like that of Your Excellency's, to tell you that I have closely followed your labors and admired your always frank and correct attitude. A clear mind, an alert spirit, a quick comprehension of others' customs, a kindly interpretation of facts and ideas, are the best qualities a Secretary of State can have, and these qualities Your Excellency possesses. It is my ardent desire that in the future, as in the present, they should continue to exert the same influence that I now feel as I follow your steps and admire your success, so that I may successfully perform the duties of the new position entrusted to me. Before concluding, gentlemen, I desire to express to the Director General, Dr. L. S. Rowe, my warm friendship and gratitude. While our stay in this institution is but transitory, he remains here permanently, animating it with his spirit and quickening it with his enthusiasm. As Dante said of Pier delle Vigne, so I shall say of Doctor Rowe, that he holds the two keys of the Pan American heart. To his able collaborator, Dr. Esteban Gil Borges, I again express my cordial admiration, and to all the officials of this institution I extend my sincere good wishes.

Permit me, in closing, to express to you my fervent desire that in the new position which I am to hold, I may have the privilege of serving the cause of Pan Americanism, the cause of progress and of peace, with a zeal and a faith consonant with its high ideals.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS

OF THE PAN AMERICAN UNION

A LETTER BY JOHN BASSETT MOORE, LL. D.'

JOHN L. MERRILL, Esq.,

President, The Pan American Society,

67 Broad Street, New York, N. Y. DEAR Mr. MERRILL: A mere expression of regret over my absence from the celebration of Pan American Day would do injustice to my feelings. Ever since 1885, when my first service in the Department of State, at Washington, began, I have taken a deep interest and often an active part in the conduct of our relations with the American countries; and as the result of long and varied associations, official and personal, I entertain for the peoples of our sister States not only an abiding sentiment of respect and good will, but also an ardent desire for the perpetuation and development of the ideal of Pan Americanism.

We live to-day in a world racked and torn by the passions inflamed by a great war and perpetuated by the peace by which the war was nominally ended. In consequence, we have had new wars and rumors of wars, until we have at length reached the stage at which professed apostles of peace, aghast at the prospect, have nothing better to offer than the frantic proposal to avert armed conflicts by equipping our peace pacts with artificial teeth and claws, with which, under the euphemistic guise of "economic sanctions," they may bite and scratch their way to universal concord and brotherly love.

From this fantastic conception, indifferent alike to the teachings. of history and the daily manifestations of human nature, we turn with grateful relief to the International Union of American Republics, formed more than 40 years ago for the purpose of cementing relations of friendship between the independent nations of America and promoting the cause of peace with justice. As a human institution, it naturally has not achieved perfection. It has not prevented the occasional commission of acts which we could not unite in com

1 This letter, which is self-explanatory, is here published by courtesy of the writer and of the Pan American Society of the United States, of which Judge Moore is honorary president. It will be recalled that since 1913 he has been a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague. Among the many other well-merited distinctions conferred on this eminent jurist and diplomat is that of having been elected in 1921 one of the 11 judges who composed the Permanent Court of International Justice on its organization. Judge Moore resigned from the Court in 1928. He is now editing "International Adjudications, Ancient and Modern, History and Documents, together with mediatorial reports, advisory opinions and the decisions of domestic commissions on international claims," of which four volumes have appeared.-Editor.

mending as exemplifications of the ideal which it raised in the western world. But there can be no doubt that through the conferences for which it provided, and its permanent official organ, the Pan American Union, it has accomplished results of the highest beneficence not only to the nations of America but to the world as a whole. Based upon the principle of conciliation combined with the mutual recognition of national rights and aspirations, it has repeatedly averted the calamities of war and brought about the peaceful settlement of serious disputes.

No infatuation can be greater than the supposition that war, which is itself simply a contention by force, can be prevented by a union of nations for the use of force. War, even though peace be its professed object, is waged for victory; and its consequences may bring disaster to victor and vanquished alike.

In the last analysis, the preservation of peace must ever depend upon the propensities and desires of peoples and of those by whom their affairs are administered. We celebrate this year the bicentennial of the birth of George Washington, one of the wisest men and greatest characters the world has ever known, who, although now often dubbed by peddlers of millenial devices an "isolationist," was, as a dispenser of justice and good will, an internationalist in the most practical and most exalted sense. When, in his immortal Farewell Address, he adjured his countrymen to observe good faith and justice toward all nations, to cultivate peace and harmony with all, and particularly to avoid the attachments and antipathies that tend to make a nation a slave to its partialities and its passions, he preached nothing that he had not practiced in his conduct of foreign affairs. Conceding to all independent states equality before the law, he made to the improvement of international relations contributions of far-reaching and incalculable value, not the least of which was the revival of the practice of international arbitration, which recurrent wars in Europe had for two centuries caused to fall into disuse. Recalling to-day his precepts and his deeds, we do well to acclaim him as an apostle of the spirit and purpose of Pan Americanism.

Very faithfully yours,

(Signed)

JOHN BASSETT MOORE.

124832-32-Bull. 7- -4

A MESSENGER OF GOOD WILL

THE LAUNCHING OF THE S. S. "SANTA PAULA", GRACE LINE (PANAMA MAIL SERVICE)

THE

EXCERPTS OF AN ADDRESS

By L. S. ROWE, PH. D., LL. D.

Director General of the Pan American Union

HE launching of the steamship Santa Paula possesses a significance far deeper than the addition of another splendid vessel to the service of inter-American commerce. In a broader sense, it marks a step in that larger Pan American movement which means so much to the progress and prosperity of the entire continent.

I have had the privilege of witnessing, almost from its inception, the great and significant movement for the development of closer communication between the nations of America. When a little over 25 years ago I made my first trip to South America, I was compelled to go to England in order to find a vessel that would take me to Rio de Janeiro. When I contrast this situation with the fine service to every section of Latin America that exists to-day, I begin to appreciate the great advance that we have made in this respect during the last quarter of a century.

It is a source of gratification to every one interested in our relations with the countries of Latin America that tourist travel to Mexico, Central America, and to the countries of South America is steadily increasing with each year. This splendid group of vessels, to which the Santa Paula represents the latest addition, will now shorten by 20 per cent the period of time necessary to reach the west coast ports of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. When our people fully appreciate the great natural beauty of these countries and the unending interest which they offer to the tourist, I feel certain that the volume of tourist travel will be increased many fold. . . .

There is, however, a still deeper significance to the launching of the great messenger of good will which we have just witnessed. It is another indication of the new position which the United States occupies in world affairs and especially in relation to the 20 Republics to the south of us. They are destined to be the best customers for our manufactured products, and this, combined with the fact that we have over $6,000,000,000 invested in their industries and their securi