_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 institution 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 documents of the
Bureau; and
2. That the text of these letters and the resolutions thereon be
artistically engrossed under the title 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 principal 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
association, 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 assistants 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 noble and beautiful public buildings record the achievements and
illustrate 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 noble 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 associate
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 noble 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 association 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 assertion, 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 association. In isolation, men,
communities, nations, tend back towards savagery. Repellent differences
and dislikes separate them from mankind. In association, 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 noble river that flows by
the home of Washington. They will sit beneath the shadow of the simple
and majestic monument which illustrates our conception of his character,
the character that, beyond all others in human history, rises above
jealousy and envy and ignoble 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 lust 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 noble friend,
Joaquim Nabuco. Ambassador 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 nobility 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
pronounced upon this great institution so rich in promise for its future
as the wish that his ennobling memory may endure and his civilizing
spirit may control, in the councils of the International Union of
American Republics.