There has been, especially in recent years, a very strong feeling that
the points which the American republics have in common greatly exceed
their differences and that stated conferences of the American republics
would not only tend to accentuate the points in common but would enable
them to take common action in matters of common interest, remove
unwarranted suspicions which often exist between and among peoples which
do not come into contact, and tend to lessen the very differences.
In 1881, the Honorable James G. Blaine, then secretary of state of the
United States, stated that in the opinion of the President of the United
States "the time is ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the good-will
and active cooperation of all the states of the western hemisphere, both
north and south, in the interest of humanity and for the common weal of
nations."[7] Mr. Blaine proposed on behalf of the President, that a
congress meet in the city of Washington. The congress or conference
actually took place in that city in 1889-1890, during the secretaryship
of state of Mr. Blaine. This is commonly called the International
American Conference. All of the American countries, with the exception
of Santo Domingo, were represented, and they agreed upon "the
establishment of an American International Bureau for the collection,
tabulation, and publication, in the English, Spanish, and Portuguese
languages, of information as to the productions and commerce, and as to
the customs laws and regulations of their respective countries; such
bureau to be maintained in one of the countries for the common benefit
and at the common expense, and to furnish to all the other countries
such commercial statistics and other useful information as may be
contributed to it by any of the American republics."[8]
This was the origin of the International Bureau of the American
Republics, out of which has grown the Pan American Union, "a voluntary
organization of the twenty-one American republics, including the United
States, maintained by their annual contributions, controlled by a
governing board composed of the diplomatic representatives in Washington
of the other twenty governments and the secretary of state of the United
States, who is chairman _ex officio_, and devoted to the development and
conservation of peace, friendship, and commerce between them all."[9]
Modestly housed at first, the success of the Union required larger
quarters for the performance of its work. Advantage was taken of this
need to erect the building which was to be the visible and worthy symbol
of Pan Americanism. Mr. Andrew Carnegie, a delegate on behalf of the
United States to the first Pan American Conference in Washington,
contributed $950,000 towards the construction of this building, the
United States contributed the land, and the other American republics
their respective quotas.
The circumstances under which the funds for the erection of this
building were obtained appear in the records of the Governing Board of
the Pan American Union, from which the following resolutions and
correspondence have been obtained:
_Resolution of the Third International Conference at Rio de Janeiro,
adopted August 13, 1906_
The undersigned, Delegates of the Republics represented in the Third
International American Conference, duly authorized by their Governments,
have approved the following Resolution:
The Third International American Conference _Resolves_:
1. To express its gratification that the project to establish a
permanent centre of information and of interchange of ideas among the
Republics of this Continent, as well as the erection of a building
suitable for the Library in memory of Columbus has been realized.
2. To express the hope that, before the meeting of the next
International American Conference the International Bureau of American
Republics will be housed in such a way as to permit it to properly
fulfil the important functions assigned to it by this Conference.
Made and signed in the City of Rio de Janeiro, on the thirteenth day of
the month of August, nineteen hundred and six, in English, Portuguese
and Spanish, and deposited in the Department of Foreign Relations of the
Government of the United States of Brazil, in order that certified
copies thereof be made, and forwarded through diplomatic channels to
each one of the Signatory States.
For Ecuador.--Emilio Arevalo, Olmedo Alfaro.
For Paraguay.--Manoel Gondra, Arsenio Lopez Decoud, Gualberto Cardus y
Huerta.
For Bolivia.--Alberto Gutierrez, Carlos V. Romero.
For Colombia.--Rafael Uribe Uribe, Guillermo Valencia.
For Honduras.--Fausto Davila.
For Panama.--Jose Domingo de Obaldia.
For Cuba.--Gonzalo de Quesada, Rafael Montoro, Antonio Gonzalez Lanuza.
For the Dominican Republic.--Emilio C. Joubert.
For Peru.--Eugenio Larabure y Unanue, Antonio Miro Quesada, Mariano
Cornejo.
For El Salvador.--Francisco A. Reyes.
For Costa Rica.--Ascension Esquivel.
For the United States of Mexico.--Francisco Leon de La Barra, Ricardo
Molina-Huebbe, Ricardo Garcia Granados.
For Guatemala.--Antonio Batres Jauregui.
For Uruguay.--Luis Melian Lafinur, Antonio Maria Rodriguez, Gonzalo
Ramirez.
For the Argentine Republic.--J. V. Gonzalez, Jose A. Terry, Eduardo L.
Bidau.
For Nicaragua.--Luis F. Corea.
For the United States of Brazil.--Joaquim Aurelio Nabuco de Araujo,
Joaquim Francisco de Assis Brasil, Gastao de Cunha, Alfredo de Moraes
Gomes Ferreira, Joao Pandia Calogeras, Amaro Cavalcanti, Joaquim Xavier
da Silveira, Jose P. da Graca Aranha, Antonio da Fontoura Xavier.
For the United States of America.--William I. Buchanan, L. S. Rowe, A.
J. Montague, Tulio Larrinaga, Paul S. Reinsch, Van Leer Polk.
For Chile.--Anselmo Hevia Riquelme, Joaquin Walker Martinez, Luis
Antonio Vergara, Adolfo Guerrero.
_Resolution of the Governing Board and letter of the Secretary of State,
Mr. Elihu Root, to Mr. Andrew Carnegie, approved at the meeting of
December 19, 1906_
Whereas, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the International Bureau
of the American Republics has laid before this, the said Board, the
following letter sent by him as chairman to Mr. Andrew Carnegie and has
asked for the approval thereof by the Board--that is to say:
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
WASHINGTON, December 4, 1906.
MR DEAR MR. CARNEGIE: Your active and effective
cooperation in promoting better communication between the
countries of America as a member of the commission
authorized by the Second Pan American Conference held in
Mexico, your patriotic citizenship in the greatest of
American Republics, your earnest and weighty advocacy of
peace and good will among the nations of the earth, and your
action in providing a suitable building for the
International Tribunal at The Hague embolden me to ask your
aid in promoting the beneficent work of the Union of
American Republics, which was established by the Conference
of Washington in 1889, continued by the Conference of Mexico
in 1902, and has now been made permanent by the Conference
of Rio de Janeiro in 1906. There is a general feeling that
the Rio Conference, the South American journey of the
Secretary of State, and the expressions of courtesy and
kindly feeling which accompanied them have given a powerful
impulse to the growth of a better acquaintance between the
people of all the American countries, a better mutual
understanding between them, the establishment of a common
public opinion, and the reasonable and kindly treatment of
international questions in the place of isolation,
suspicion, irritation, strife, and war.
There is also a general opinion that while the action of the
Bureau of American Republics, designed to carry on this work
from conference to conference, has been excellent so far as
it has gone, the scope of the Bureau's work ought to be
enlarged and its activity and efficiency greatly increased.
To accomplish this, a building adequate to the magnitude and
dignity of the great work to be done is indispensable. With
this view the nations constituting the Union have expressed
their willingness to contribute, and some of them have
contributed, and the Congress of the United States has, at
its last session, appropriated, to the extent of $200,000,
funds available for the purchase of a suitable site in the
city of Washington. With this view also the Conference at
Rio de Janeiro, on the 13th of August, 1906, adopted
resolutions looking to the establishment of a 'permanent
center of information and of interchange of ideas among the
Republics of this Continent as well as a building suitable
for the library in memory of Columbus,' and expressed the
hope that 'before the meeting of the next International
American Conference the International Bureau of American
Republics shall be housed in such a way as to permit it to
properly fulfill the important functions assigned to it by
this conference.'
Those functions are, in brief, to give effect to the work of
the conference; to carry out its resolutions; to prepare the
work of future conferences; to disseminate through each
American country a knowledge of the affairs, the sentiments
and the progress of every other American country; to promote
better communication and more constant intercourse; to
increase the interaction among all the Republics of each
upon the others in commerce, in education, in the arts and
sciences, and in political and social life, and to maintain
in the city of Washington a headquarters, a meeting place, a
center of influence for the same peaceful and enlightened
thought and conscience of all America.
I feel sure of your hearty sympathy in the furtherance of
this undertaking, so full of possibilities for the peace and
the prosperity of America and of mankind, and I appeal to
you in the same spirit that has actuated your great
benefactions to humanity in the past to provide for the
erection, upon the site thus to be supplied by governmental
action, of a suitable building for the work of the Union,
the direction and control of which has been imposed by our
respective Governments upon the Governing Board, of which I
have the honor to be Chairman.
With great respect and esteem, I am, my dear Mr. Carnegie,
Very sincerely yours,