PAN-AMERICANISM 1

ROBERT LANSING

MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: It is an especial gratification to me to address you to-day, not only as the officer of the United States who invited you to attend this great Scientific Congress of the American Republics, but also as the presiding member of the Governing Board of the Pan-American Union. In this dual capacity I have the honor and the pleasure to welcome you, gentlemen, to the capital of this country, in the full confidence that your deliberations will be of mutual benefit in your various spheres of thought and research and not only in your individual spheres but in the all-embracing sphere of Pan-American unity and fraternity which is so near to the hearts of us all.

It is the Pan-American spirit and the policy of Pan-Americanism to which I would for a few moments direct your attention at this early meeting of the Congress, since it is my earnest hope that "Pan-America" will be the keynote which will influence your relations with one another and inspire your thoughts and words.

Nearly a century has passed since President Monroe proclaimed to the world his famous doctrine as the National policy of the United States. It was founded on the principle that the safety of this Republic would be imperiled by the extension of sovereign right by a European power over territory in this hemisphere. Conceived in a suspicion of monarchical institutions and in a full sympathy with the re

1 Address of welcome by the Secretary of State, December 27, 1915, at the Second Pan-American Scientific Congress.

publican idea, it was uttered at a time when our neighbors to the south had won their independence and were gradually adapting themselves to the exercise of their newly acquired rights. To those struggling nations the doctrine became a shield against the great European powers, which in the spirit of the age coveted political control over the rich regions which the new-born States had made their own.

The United States was then a small nation, but a nation which had been tried in the fire; a nation whose indomitable will had remained unshaken by the dangers through which it had passed. The announcement of the Monroe Doctrine was a manifestation of this will. It was a courageous thing for President Monroe to do. It meant much in those early days, not only to this country, but to those nations which were commencing a new life under the standard of liberty. How much it meant we can never know, since for four decades it remained unchallenged.

During that period the younger Republics of America, giving expression to the virile spirit born of independence and liberal institutions, developed rapidly and set their feet firmly on the path of national progress which has led them to that plane of intellectual and material prosperity which they to-day enjoy.

Within recent years the Government of the United States has found no occasion, with the exception of the Venezuela boundary incident, to remind Europe that the Monroe Doctrine continues unaltered a National policy of this Republic. The Republics of America are no longer children in the great family of nations. They have attained maturity. With enterprise and patriotic fervor they are working out their several destinies.

During this later time when the American Nations have come into a realization of their nationality and are fully conscious of the responsibilities and privileges which are theirs

as sovereign and independent States, there has grown up a feeling that the Republics of this hemisphere constitute a group separate and apart from the other nations of the world, a group which is united by common ideals and common aspirations. I believe that this feeling is general throughout North and South America, and that year by year it has increased until it has become a potent influence over our political and commercial intercourse. It is the same feeling which, founded on sympathy and mutual interest, exists among the members of a family. It is the tie which draws together the twenty-one Republics and makes of them the American Family of Nations.

This feeling, vague at first, has become to-day a definite and certain force. We term it the "Pan-American" spirit, from which springs the international policy of Pan-Americanism. It is that policy which is responsible for this great gathering of distinguished men, who represent the best and most advanced thought of the Americas. It is a policy which this Government has unhesitatingly adopted and which it will do all in its power to foster and promote.

When we attempt to analyze Pan-Americanism we find that the essential qualities are those of the family-sympathy, helpfulness and a sincere desire to see another grow in prosperity, absence of covetousness of another's possessions, absence of jealousy of another's prominence, and, above all, absence of that spirit of intrigue which menaces the domestic peace of a neighbor. Such are the qualities of the family tie among individuals, and such should be, and I believe are, the qualities which compose the tie which unites the American Family of Nations.

I speak only for the Government of the United States, but in doing so I am sure that I express sentiments which will find an echo in every Republic represented here, when I say that the might of this country will never be exercised

in a spirit of greed to wrest from a neighboring state its territory or possessions. The ambitions of this Republic do not lie in the path of conquest but in the paths of peace and justice. Whenever and wherever we can, we will stretch forth a hand to those who need help. If the sovereignty of a sister Republic is menaced from overseas, the power of the United States and, I hope and believe, the united power of the American Republics will constitute a bulwark which will protect the independence and integrity of their neighbor from unjust invasion or aggression. The American Family of Nations might well take for its motto that of Dumas's famous musketeers, "One for all; all for one."

If I have correctly interpreted Pan-Americanism from the standpoint of the relations of our Governments with those beyond the seas, it is in entire harmony with the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine is a national policy of the United States; Pan-Americanism is an international policy of the Americas. The motives are to an extent different; the ends sought are the same. Both can exist without impairing the force of either. And both do exist and, I trust, will ever exist in all their vigor.

But Pan-Americanism extends beyond the sphere of politics and finds its application in the varied fields of human enterprise. Bearing in mind that the essential idea manifests itself in coöperation, it becomes necessary for effective coöperation that we should know each other better than we do now. We must not only be neighbors, but friends; not only friends, but intimates. We must understand one another. We must comprehend our several needs. We must study the phases of material and intellectual development which enter into the varied problems of national progress. We should, therefore, when opportunity offers, come together and familiarize ourselves with each other's processes of thought in dealing with legal, economic, and educational questions.

Commerce and industry, science and art, public and private law, government and education, all those great fields which invite the intellectual thought of man, fall within the province of the deliberations of this congress. In the exchange of ideas and comparison of experiences we will come to know one another and to carry to the nations which we represent a better and truer knowledge of our neighbors than we have had in the past. I believe that from that wider knowledge a mutual esteem and trust will spring which will unite these Republics more closely politically, commercially, and intellectually, and will give to the Pan-American spirit an impulse and power which it has never known before.

The present epoch is one which must bring home to every thinking American the wonderful benefits to be gained by trusting our neighbors and by being trusted by them, by coöperation and helpfulness, by a dignified regard for the rights of all, and by living our national lives in harmony and good-will.

Across the thousands of miles of the Atlantic we see Europe convulsed with the most terrible conflict which this world has ever witnessed; we see the manhood of these great nations shattered, their homes ruined, their productive energies devoted to the one purpose of destroying their fellow-men. When we contemplate the untold misery which these once happy people are enduring and the heritage which they are transmitting to succeeding generations, we cannot but contrast a continent at war and a continent at peace. The spectacle teaches a lesson we cannot ignore.

If we seek the dominant ideas in world-politics since we became independent nations, we will find that we won our liberties when individualism absorbed men's thoughts and inspired their deeds. This idea was gradually supplanted by that of nationalism, which found expression in the ambitions of conquest and the greed for territory so manifest in the