But we of North and South America are nearer to one another commercially than we are intellectually or sympathetically; we have greater mutual trade than mutual understanding of each other. The mass of our people have little comprehension of conditions in the most advanced of the Latin American countries; and are incredulous when told that the most beautiful city of the American hemisphere is not in the United States, but in South America; that two South American cities have opera houses which in elegance and luxury surpass any in our own country; and that the most imposing public avenues of the new world are in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. From a business view it may be stated that the capital of Argentina has a more extended and magnificent system of stone docks than any North American port: it has a larger number of public taxicabs than New York and Chicago combined, and, no wonder, a higher cost of living. As for other matters, the leading South American countries take far better care of their immigrants than do we, while Argentina has a more liberal system of pensions for public school teachers than any in force in this country. It might be added that the largest and most powerful Dreadnaught in the world flies neither the Stars and Stripes, nor the Union Jack, but the flag of a South American Republic.

Many stories which illustrate the mutual lack of understanding are grotesque and amusing. Only a short time ago a New York millionaire remarked to a business man from Brazil that the Panama Canal would greatly shorten the distance between New York and Rio. This is exactly the same kind of a mistake, and just as bad, as placing San Francisco on the Atlantic Coast. On the other hand, not long ago the members of the reception committee of a South American capital, while preparing a most elaborate entertainment for a Chamber of Commerce delegation, were yet tortured by the fear that after all these business men from a leading North American city would not be acquainted with the usages of polite society.

We need to become acquainted with each other, we of the North and of the South. It is notable that the Latin Ameri

cans who have lived or studied in this country, have, for the most part, a warm-hearted admiration for our people and our institutions; while those who have been permitted to travel or reside in such progressive South American republics as Argentina, Brazil and Chile are never tired of telling of their culture, their charm and their open-handed hospitality. To discuss conditions in Latin America and the mutual interests of its countries and our own, there met together at Clark University last November, for a four days Conference, some forty men, from both North and South America, each of whom could speak with authority upon some aspect of Latin American affairs. The carefully prepared papers which they read during these sessions are published in the present volume. The University presents this to the public in the hope that it may help to create a more sympathetic appreciation of the history, the civilization and the problems of our sister American Republics, and may aid in determining the ideal diplomatic relations which should exist between them and our own land, a problem whose solution is our nation's most pressing diplomatic task.

CONTRASTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATION

ALITY IN THE ANGLO- AND LATIN

AMERICAN

By Señor Don Federico A. Pezet, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from Peru

I have chosen as my subject, a question that is most important at this time, when there is a growing tendency to know better and understand the peoples of the LatinAmerican nations; to get closer to them by establishing bonds of friendship through commercial relations based on mutual respect and confidence, as is evidenced by this conference, and by the recent utterances of the President of the United States in his memorable declarations at Mobile.

In order to determine properly the relative positions and conditions of the two great groups of individuals that people this American world, north and south of the Rio Grande and Gulf of Mexico, we must first study the contrasts in the development of nationality in these two groups that, for expediency, I shall denominate or class as "Anglo-American," and "Latin-American."

No man can truly appreciate another, if he does not know him. No nation can feel friendship towards another if it does not know it. But to know, should imply understanding, without which there can be nothing in common, and understanding is an essential to draw individuals together, and so it is with nations.

International relations are necessary, they are cultivated for many reasons, but they do not necessarily mean friendship. Nations, like individuals, live on good terms with their neighbors because it behooves them to do so, but this does not imply that they are friends, that there is any closer relation between them, other than one of courteous deference towards each other.

Such neighbors, whether they be individuals or nations, do not know each other, much less do they understand each other. There is consequently, no true friendship between them; no bond of union. Therefore, if such people wish to become friendly they must begin by knowing each other, becoming acquainted through intercourse and thus, discover their respective traits and characteristics, so that, in course of time, a sentiment of understanding is born, which, being reciprocal, eventually gives way to friendship, and in like manner to amity between nations.

Therefore, as a first essential to the study of the subject matter of these remarks, we must place ourselves in a position to perfectly understand the very peculiar conditions of settlement and growth of Latin America, before we can hope to obtain any fair estimate of present day Latin America.

These conditions were very different to those that have been found in Anglo America. This is a most important point and one that should be made clear to all who in this nation and elsewhere are trying to know and understand Latin America and its people.

When this point becomes apparent to all, then I shall expect to see another attitude towards our people. I contend, that the average Anglo-American does not appreciate us because he invariably wants to measure us by his own standards, regardless of the fact that those standards do not happen to fit our special type of humanity.

Physically, we are more or less similar, but in a moral sense, each has special traits of character that mark the peculiar idiosyncrasies in each. Therefore, if we reverse the process and we Latin-Americans measure you AngloAmericans by our standards, we likewise would find you as below par, according to our estimate, which proves my premises, that, firstly, secondly and lastly, we have to thoroughly understand each other, if there is to be any reciprocal appreciation, and it behooves us to be forebearing, generous and accepting the other's idiosyncrasies as absolutely exact traits of character, born with the individual or developed in

him through environment. In order to make this point clear I must ask you to consider two things: firstly, the relative conditions at the time of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus: both of the territories that constitute what is known today as the United States of North America, and of those that constitute what is considered as Latin America; secondly, the class and type of white men who became the first settlers in either section of America, (for expediency and clearness, I shall refer to each section, as yours and ours). Well, then, your territory, at the time of the advent of the white man from Europe, was more or less of a virgin territory, inhabited by savage and semisavage nomadic tribes, thinly scattered all over a very vast area. While our territory was to a very great extent organized into states in a measure barbaric but nevertheless semi-civilized, densely populated, and concentrated in a manner to make for cohesion. Mayas, Aztecs and Toltecs, Caras, Chimus, Incas, Aymaras, and Quichuas, and other tribes, less known, over-ran our territory and presented marked contrast with conditions in yours.

According as the news of the discovery of the New World invaded the European countries, two types, that were to mold the destinies of the wonderlands beyond the seas, were brought into play; the one formed of the oppressed and persecuted by religious intolerance, the other of the adventurous, soldiers of fortune, in quest of gold and adventures.

Both of these started out with set purposes, the oppressed and persecuted came to the New World to build up new homes, free from all the troubles left behind. While the adventurous came, bent on destroying and carrying away everything they could lay their hands on. So here we have the true genesis of the formation of nationality in Angloand Latin-America. In the two great classes, the permanent and the temporary, the one to build up, the other to tear down and destroy. The one came with reverence, the other with defiance. Both with an equally set purpose, but the one with humility in his heart, the other proud and