Latin America and the United States Part 22

_Secretary of State and ex officio Chairman of the Governing Board of the Bureau of American Republics._

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the action of the Secretary of State, as Chairman of this Board, in sending the aforesaid letter be, and it hereby is, approved.

_Mr. Carnegie to Mr. Root._ NEW YORK, January 1, 1907.

HON. ELIHU ROOT.

_Secretary of State and ex officio Chairman of the Governing Board of the Bureau of South American Republics, Washington, D. C._

DEAR SIR: I am greatly pleased that you and your colleagues of the South American Republics have done me the honor to suggest that I might furnish a suitable home in Washington for the Bureau of American Republics.

The approval of your application by the Governing Board of the International Bureau and President Roosevelt's hearty expressions of satisfaction are most gratifying.

You very kindly mention my membership of the first Pan American Conference and advocacy of the Pan American Railway, the gaps of which are being slowly filled. The importance of this enterprise impresses itself more and more upon me, and I hope to see it accomplished.

I am happy, therefore, in stating that it will be one of the pleasures of my life to furnish to the Union of all the Republics of this hemisphere the necessary funds ($750,000) from time to time as may be needed for the construction of an international home in Washington.

The cooperation of our own Republic is seen in the appropriation of funds by Congress for the purchase of the site, and in the agreement between the Republics for the maintenance of the Bureau we have additional evidence of cooperation, so that the forthcoming American Temple of Peace will be the joint work of all of the Republics. Every generation should see them drawing closer together.

It is a cheering thought that all these are for the first time to be represented at the forthcoming Hague Conference. Henceforth they are members of that body, whose aim is the settlement of international disputes by that "High Court of Nations" or other similar tribunal.

I beg to express to each and all of them my heartfelt thanks for being permitted to make such a New Year's gift as this. I have never felt more keenly than I do this New Year's morning how much more blessed it is to give than to receive, and I consider myself highly honored by being considered worthy to provide the forthcoming union home, where the accredited representatives of all the Republics are to meet and, I trust, to bind together their respective nations in the bonds of unbroken peace.

Very truly, yours, ANDREW CARNEGIE.

_Resolutions approved by the Governing Board of the International Bureau of the American Republics, January 30, 1907._

_Resolved_, That the letter of Mr. Andrew Carnegie to the Chairman of the Board, dated January 1, 1907, be received and filed and spread upon the minutes of the Board.

_Resolved_, That the Governing Board of the Bureau of American Republics express to Mr. Andrew Carnegie its acceptance and grateful appreciation of his generous and public-spirited engagement to supply the funds for the proposed new building for the Union of American Republics. The Board shares with Mr. Carnegie the hope that the inst.i.tution whose work will thus be promoted may further the cause of peace and justice among nations and the sincere and helpful friendship of all the American Republics for each other.

_Resolved_, That the Chairman of the Board communicate a copy of the foregoing resolutions to Mr. Carnegie.

The Governing Board of the International Bureau of the American Republics further resolves:

1. That the letter of the Honorable the Secretary of State, Mr. Elihu Root, to Mr. Andrew Carnegie; the answer of this distinguished philanthropist, and the resolution of the Governing Board accepting this splendid gift be kept on file with the important doc.u.ments of the Bureau; and

2. That the text of these letters and the resolutions thereon be artistically engrossed under the t.i.tle of "Carnegie's Gift to the International Bureau of the American Republics," and, properly framed, to form a part of the exhibit of the Bureau at the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition.

On May 11, 1908, Mr. Root, then secretary of state, whose forethought and personal efforts had made its construction possible, delivered the address at the laying of the corner stone, and later, on April 26, 1910, when he was no longer secretary of state but senator of the United States and friend of the Americas, he delivered the princ.i.p.al address at the dedication of the building. These two addresses follow:

ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE OF THE BUILDING FOR THE PAN AMERICAN UNION WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 11, 1908

We are here to lay the corner stone of the building which is to be the home of the International Union of American Republics.[10]

The wise liberality of the Congress of the United States has provided the means for the purchase of this tract of land--five acres in extent--near the White House and the great executive departments, bounded on every side by public streets and facing to the east and south upon public parks which it will always be the care of the National Government to render continually more beautiful, in execution of its design to make the national capital an object of national pride and a source of that pleasure which comes to rich and poor alike from the education of taste.

The public spirit and enthusiasm for the good of humanity, which have inspired an American citizen, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, in his administration of a great fortune, have led him to devote the adequate and ample sum of three-quarters of a million dollars to the construction of the building.[11]

Into the appropriate adornment and fitting of the edifice will go the contributions of every American republic, already pledged and, in a great measure, already paid into the fund of the Union.

The International Union for which the building is erected is a voluntary a.s.sociation, the members of which are all the American nations from Cape Horn to the Great Lakes. It had its origin in the first Pan American conference held at Washington in 1889, and it has been developed and improved in efficiency under the resolutions of the succeeding conferences in Mexico and Brazil. Its primary object is to break down the barriers of mutual ignorance between the nations of America by collecting and making accessible, furnishing and spreading, information about every country among the people of every other country in the Union, to facilitate and stimulate intercourse, trade, acquaintance, good understanding, fellowship, and sympathy. For this purpose it has established in Washington a bureau or office under the direction of a governing board composed of the official representatives in Washington of all the republics, and having a director and secretary, with a force of a.s.sistants and translators and clerks.

The bureau has established a rapidly increasing library of history, travel, description, statistics, and literature of the American nations.

It publishes a _Monthly Bulletin_ of current public events and existing conditions in all the united countries, which is circulated in every country. It carries on an enormous correspondence with every part of both continents, answering the questions of seekers for information about the laws, customs, conditions, opportunities, and personnel of the different countries; and it has become a medium of introduction and guidance for international intercourse.

The governing board is also a permanent committee charged with the duty of seeing that the resolutions of each Pan American conference are carried out and that suitable preparation is made for the next succeeding conference.

The increasing work of the bureau has greatly outgrown the facilities of its cramped quarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, and now at the close of its second decade and under the influence of the great movement of awakened sympathy between the American republics, the Union stands upon the threshold of more ample opportunity for the prosecution of its beneficent activity.

Many n.o.ble and beautiful public buildings record the achievements and ill.u.s.trate the impulses of modern civilization. Temples of religion, of patriotism, of learning, of art, of justice, abound; but this structure will stand alone, the first of its kind--a temple dedicated to international friendship. It will be devoted to the diffusion of that international knowledge which dispels national prejudice and liberalizes national judgment. Here will be fostered the growth of that sympathy born of similarity in good impulses and n.o.ble purposes, which draws men of different races and countries together into a community of nations, and counteracts the tendency of selfish instincts to array nations against each other as enemies. From this source shall spring mutual helpfulness between all the American republics, so that the best knowledge and experience and courage and hope of every republic shall lend moral power to sustain and strengthen every other in its struggle to work out its problems and to advance the standard of liberty and peace with justice within itself, and so that no people in all these continents, however oppressed and discouraged, however impoverished and torn by disorder, shall fail to feel that they are not alone in the world, or shall fail to see that for them a better day may dawn, as for others the sun has already arisen.

It is too much to expect that there will not be controversies between American nations to whose desire for harmony we now bear witness; but to every controversy will apply the truth that there are no international controversies so serious that they cannot be settled peaceably if both parties really desire peaceable settlement, while there are few causes of dispute so trifling that they cannot be made the occasion of war if either party really desires war. The matters in dispute between nations are nothing; the spirit which deals with them is everything.

The graceful courtesy of the twenty republics who have agreed upon the capital of the United States for the home of this International Union, the deep appreciation of that courtesy shown by the American Government and this representative American citizen, and the work to be done within the walls that are to rise on this site, cannot fail to be powerful influences towards the creation of a spirit that will solve all disputed questions of the future and preserve the peace of the Western World.

May the structure now begun stand for many generations to come as the visible evidence of mutual respect, esteem, appreciation, and kindly feeling between the peoples of all the republics; may pleasant memories of hospitality and friendship gather about it, and may all the Americas come to feel that for them this place is home, for it is theirs, the product of a common effort and the instrument of a common purpose.

ADDRESS AT THE DEDICATION OF THE BUILDING OF THE PAN AMERICAN UNION, WASHINGTON, D. C. APRIL 26, 1910

I am sure that this beautiful building must produce a lively sense of grateful appreciation in all who care for the growth of friendship among Americans; to Mr. Carnegie, not merely for his generous gift but for the large sympathy and far vision that prompted it; and to the a.s.sociate architects, Mr. Albert Kelsey and Mr. Paul Cret, who, not content with making this structure express their sense of artistic form and proportion, have entered with the devotion and self-absorption of true art into the spirit of the design for which their bricks and marble are to stand. They have brought into happy companionship architectural suggestions of the North and of the South; and have wrought into construction and ornament in a hundred ways the art, the symbolism, the traditions, and the history of all the American republics; and they have made the building a true expression of Pan Americanism, of open mind and open heart for all that is true and n.o.ble and worthy of respect from whatever race or religion or language or custom in the western continents.

Nor should we forget the fine enthusiasm and understanding with which Mr. Borglum and Mr. Conti and Mrs. Farnham and Mrs. Whitney have brought sculpture to aid the architects' expression; nor the honest and faithful work of Mr. Norcross, the builder; nor the kind help of Mr. William Smith, of the Botanical Garden, who has filled the patio with tropical plants rare and strange to northern eyes, but familiar friends to the Latin American; nor the energy and unwearying labors of Mr. Barrett, the director of the bureau.

The active interest of President Taft and Secretary Knox is evidence that the policy of Pan American friendship, re-inaugurated by the sympathetic genius of Secretary Blaine, is continuous and permanent in the United States; and the harmony in which the members of the governing board have worked to this end is a good omen for the future.

This building is to be, in its most manifest utilitarian service, a convenient instrument for a.s.sociation and growth of mutual knowledge among the people of the different republics. The library maintained here, the books and journals accessible here, the useful and interesting publications of the bureau, the enormous correspondence carried on with seekers for knowledge about American countries, the opportunities now afforded for further growth in all these activities, justify the pains and the expense.

The building is more important, however, as the symbol, the ever-present reminder, the perpetual a.s.sertion, of unity, of common interest and purpose and hope among all the republics. This building is a confession of faith, a covenant of fraternal duty, a declaration of allegiance to an ideal. The members of The Hague conference of 1907 described the conference in the preamble of its great arbitration convention as:

Animated by the sincere desire to work for the maintenance of general peace.

Resolved to promote by all the efforts in their power the friendly settlement of international disputes.

Recognizing the solidarity uniting the members of the society of civilized nations.

Desirous of extending the empire of law and of strengthening the appreciation of international justice.

That is the meaning of this building for the republics of America. That sentiment which all the best in modern civilization is trying to live up to, we have written here in marble for the people of the American continents.

The process of civilization is by a.s.sociation. In isolation, men, communities, nations, tend back towards savagery. Repellent differences and dislikes separate them from mankind. In a.s.sociation, similarities and attractions are felt and differences are forgotten. There is so much more good than evil in men that liking comes by knowing. We have here the product of mutual knowledge, cooperation, harmony, friendship. Here is an evidence of what these can accomplish. Here is an earnest of what may be done in the future. From these windows the governing board of the International Union will look down upon the n.o.ble river that flows by the home of Washington. They will sit beneath the shadow of the simple and majestic monument which ill.u.s.trates our conception of his character, the character that, beyond all others in human history, rises above jealousy and envy and ign.o.ble strife. All the nations acknowledge his preeminent influence. He belongs to them all. No man lives in freedom anywhere on earth who is not his debtor and his follower. We dedicate this place to the service of the political faith in which he lived and wrought. Long may this structure stand, while within its walls and under the influence of the benign purpose from which it sprang, the habit and the power of self-control, of mutual consideration and kindly judgment, more and more exclude the narrowness and selfishness and prejudice of ignorance and the hasty impulses of super-sensitive _amour propre_. May men hereafter come to see that here is set a milestone in the path of American civilization towards the reign of that universal public opinion which shall condemn all who through contentious spirit or greed or selfish ambition or l.u.s.t for power disturb the public peace, as enemies of the general good of the American republics.

One voice that should have spoken here today is silent, but many of us cannot forget or cease to mourn and to honor our dear and n.o.ble friend, Joaquim Nabuco. Amba.s.sador from Brazil, dean of the American Diplomatic Corps, respected, admired, trusted, loved, and followed by all of us, he was a commanding figure in the international movement of which the erection of this building is a part. The breadth of his political philosophy, the n.o.bility of his idealism, the prophetic vision of his poetic imagination, were joined to wisdom, to the practical sagacity of statesmanship, to a sympathetic knowledge of men, and to a heart as sensitive and tender as a woman's. He followed the design and construction of this building with the deepest interest. His beneficent influence impressed itself upon all of our actions. No benison can be p.r.o.nounced upon this great inst.i.tution so rich in promise for its future as the wish that his enn.o.bling memory may endure and his civilizing spirit may control, in the councils of the International Union of American Republics.