GENERAL SESSION OF SECTION VI.

SHOREHAM HOTEL,

Tuesday morning, December 28, 1915.

Chairman, JAMES BROWN SCOTT.

The meeting was called to order at 10 o'clock by the chairman. The CHAIRMAN. It is my very great pleasure on behalf of the congress to declare its sixth section in session. It is further my very great pleasure on behalf of the congress to welcome to the city of Washington our distinguished delegates and to express the hope that they may so discuss the problems of international law, of public law, and of jurisprudence, that by an exchange of views and by the conclusions which may be reached the cause of international law, of public law, and of jurisprudence may be advanced in this Western Continent, of which we are all happy at this moment, and at all times, to be a part.

The section has been divided into three sub-sections one devoted to the consideration of questions of international law, the president of which is Dr. Charles Noble Gregory, formerly dean of the State University of Iowa and now of the George Washington University, who has devoted a lifetime to the study of international questions. A sub-section has been created for the consideration of questions of public law which are believed to be of a kind, not merely to interest some of the countries, but all of the American Republics. This subsection will be presided over by his excellency Governor Simeon E. Baldwin, formerly chief justice of the supreme court of errors of Connecticut, whose titles to fame are not merely those of a jurist and of an expert in international law, but also those of an expert in the difficult questions of the conflict of laws, as well as in public law, in which broad domain he has had practical as well as theoretical experience.

The third section, devoted to jurisprudence, is presided over by Professor Eugene Wambaugh, of Harvard University, who will meet with those who care to discuss this subject, and who honor us by their presence, in the hope that in some way the principles underlying not merely international law but public law and law in general may be made clearer by discussion and an exchange of views than they have been heretofore to the publicists of the different American countries.

I desire with your permission to offer some observations of a general nature tending to show the importance that a meeting of this kind has, and that meetings of this kind must necessarily have, where representatives of different countries come together and compete in friendly rivalry.

The Second Pan American Scientific Congress will have official delegates from each of the 21 American Republics. These delegates will take part in the discussion of the important subjects of the program. The conclusions reached will be valuable and foundations will be laid for helpful cooperation in the future. Through the personal intercourse of the delegates, the friendships formed through cooperation in a common work, and the respect that can not fail to spring from personal contact, there will result necessarily a clearer view of the ability, the aims, and the purposes of the countries themselves.

But it is not merely official delegates that come together and meet upon a plane of equality. The institutions of learning and scientific bodies of all the American countries have been invited to attend the congress and to take part in its discussions through representatives of their own choice. Distinguished persons other than official delegates or the representatives of institutions and of scientific associations have been invited to honor the congress with their presence, so that it can be said that the congress through its personnel represents the countries, the institutions of learning, and the scientific and scholarly thought of the 21 free and independent States of the American Continent.

It will be observed that this is the second congress of this kind, and yet in a certain sense it may be called the first, because its immediate predecessor, which met in Chile, in the city of Santiago, December 25, 1908, to January 5, 1909, was in the nature of an experiment, which succeeded so admirably that another congress, which it is hoped will be a link in an endless chain, was determined upon to meet in the capital of the United States.

The congress that assembled at Santiago was not the first scientific body in which the Republics to the south of the United States were represented. It was, however, the first in which the United States was asked to participate. One had met in Buenos Aires in 1898, a second at Montevideo in 1901, and a third four years later at Rio de Janeiro; but the United States, its institutions of learning, its scientific associations, its scientists, were not invited. Undoubtedly our friends to the south would, with that delicacy of feeling and inborn courtesy which characterizes them, have replied, if asked why the United States was overlooked, that the congresses were meetings of Latin American scholars; that they were in the nature of experiments; that

they did not feel justified in inviting the United States officially to participate until it was seen whether the experiments were likely to prove successful; and that the experience already had with the three Latin American congresses having convinced them of the usefulness and the importance of such gatherings, the United States was invited to attend the congress in Chile. If this reply were made it would be true, for the Latin American countries have a certain hesitancy in inviting the great Republic to the north, with its different traditions, its different language, and its different ways of thought. But there are other reasons which are not quite so flattering to the people of the United States. The fact is that our southern neighbors have sometimes been in doubt as to our honorable intentions, even when we have been wooing them, as it were. They were very grateful for our recognition of their independence and for the Monroe Doctrine, which seemed to assure its continuance. The Mexican War of 1845-1848, which resulted in the defeat of Mexico and the loss of an important part of its territory, seemed to them unprovoked and ungenerous on the part of the United States. The Spanish-American War of 1898 excluded Spain from the Western Hemisphere and was disquieting to Latin America, which had long since cherished friendly relations with the mother country, whose language it speaks for the most part and whose traditions are also its traditions. And, finally, the acquisition of the Panama Canal by methods of which Latin America appears to have disapproved suggested the possibility that the United States considered the territory between the Rio Grande and the canal as merely held in trust for the great Republic until it cares to enter upon and to realize its imperial destiny.

The visit of Mr. Elihu Root when Secretary of State to South America, the series of addresses which he delivered during his visit, especially his address as honorary president of the Third Pan American Conference at Rio, and the interest which Mr. Root took in securing the representation of Latin America in the Second Hague Peace Conference and the postponement of that conference to such a time as Latin America could be represented, followed by the official visit of Secretary Knox to Central America and later by the unofficial visit of Mr. Robert Bacon to South America in the footsteps of Mr. Root, had led to a friendlier and a kindlier feeling on the part of Latin America. But love will not keep house with fear, and confidence is a plant of slow growth. There are many and competent judges in the United States who unfortunately feel that Latin America is not quite at its ease in diplomatic, political, or financial conferences in which the United States is represented, and that, if a trite classical allusion be pardoned, they fear the Greeks "et dona ferentes." There is, however, a broad field of endeavor and achievement open alike to all the American States

the field of scientific endeavor and of intellectual achievement. There, size is immaterial and numbers do not count, and the fear that might be latent, even if it did not show itself, in diplomatic, political, or financial conferences is excluded from a scientific congress. In this vast field, common to all alike, a large and important part thereof is occupied by international law, political law, and jurisprudence.

International law is a system in which every American Republic, irrespective of size, has an equal interest, and indeed it may be said that the weaker the State the greater its interest in international law, because justice is the shield, if not always the sword, of the weak. The great problem with which we are confronted is to base the relations of nations upon principles of justice, and there is a feeling very widespread that the 21 American States, separated from the rest of the world by two immense oceans, may in no uncertain sense of the word consider themselves as a unit for this purpose, and that its publicists can wisely and hopefully cooperate in the develop ment of an international law fitted to meet their needs, and there fore fitted to meet the needs of others.

In much the same way each American State is interested in questions of public law; for, although the system of public law may differ in each country, which is not and can not be the case with international law, nevertheless the fundamental principles of public law of the American countries have much in common and can only gain by an examination from different points of view, which would be the case in a discussion by representatives of the different countries. And, again, jurisprudence is a science common to all alike, and lending itself to a discussion by qualified representatives of the Republic, where the common law, and of the sister Republics, where the civil law sits enthroned. Therefore a section of the scientific congress is devoted to international law, public law, and jurisprudence, and the questions embodied in the program will be discussed by specialists from all the Americas.

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It is hoped that the discussion of the questions of public law and of jurisprudence contained in the program will be so fruitful and helpful that the publicists taking part in them will, after the adjournment of the congress, be encouraged to start societies in their home countries which will bring together those who are interested, and that the societies formed or to be formed in the different countries will communicate with the societies formed in other countries, so that there will be 21 incentives to continued work and continued cooperation.

In the field of international law these hopes are taking visible and tangible form and effect. Thus, a few years ago Señor Alejandro

Álvarez and the chairman of this section felt that the publicists of the American Republics should be encouraged to devote themselves more closely to the study of international law than had hitherto been the case, and that they should not merely study in the closet, but that they should consider international questions in societies formed for that express purpose. They therefore proposed to publicists in the various American countries that a society of international law should be established in the capital of each American country, and that each society should recommend a certain number, not to exceed five, of its members to form an international body, which could properly be called the American Institute of International Law, to cooperate with and in a certain sense to supervise the national societies of the different countries. At the present time a national society of international law, composed of leading publicists, has been formed in the capital of every American Republic. The American Institute was declared founded on the 12th day of October, 1912, and it is hoped that, composed as it is of five publicists, recommended by each of the national societies, it will hold its opening session at Washington in connection with and under the auspices of the congress, with a goodly number of the members of the institute in attendance.

And I am happy to inform you that the American Institute of International Law will be formally opened to-morrow afternoon at 3.30 o'clock, in the presence of the Secretary of State, the Honorable Robert Lansing, and of the president of the congress, his excellency the Chilean ambassador, and of Mr. Elihu Root, formerly Secretary of State of the United States, and president alike of the Society of International Law and of the American Institute.

Now, the importance of these national societies and of the American institute does not consist solely in the fact that through their successful operation international law may be developed so as to satisfy the needs of the American countries in their intercourse one with another. If this were the result, the formation of the societies and of the American institute would be amply justified; but something more is expected from them. The meeting in the institute and the exchange of views will tend to promote individual friendship and an understanding of the aims and purposes of the different countries, and the cooperation of the different societies in the development of international law and in the dissemination of its principles among the people will tend to draw closer the bonds of friendship and of good understanding, which, it is hoped, will not be one of the least important consequences of the congress. But even a greater result can be reasonably expected from the successful operation of the national societies and of the American Institute of International Law. One