cation and bring home new methods and the latest and most approved systems. We frequently hear at the Pan-American Union of Latin Americans who have come to the United States or are coming here to take a post-graduate course in some science or profession, and others who are in this country studying and investigating school methods and appliances. At present there are over 1350 such students in the United States.

I think this is the proper occasion to urge upon American scholars and professors the necessity of encouraging the preparation in the English language of popular monographs for school use, written by responsible and unprejudiced men, on the history and geography of the LatinAmerican countries. So far as I know, there is not a single well-known school book in English giving in a concise, impartial manner the history of any one of the countries of Latin America. The history of the United States, on the other hand, is studied in Latin-American colleges and universities along with the modern history of France and England, Spain, Italy and Germany. Another point that deserves passing mention is the scarcity of good American books in Latin America, in the Spanish language, due to their enormous cost. France, Italy, Germany, and Spain especially, publish in Spanish hundreds of useful books on history, science, geography, literature, etc., at prices so low that no one can give excessive cost as an excuse for not having what is termed in Spanish "an economical library," that is, small volumes of several pages, well edited, bound in paper, which are worth from 20 cents up to 50 or 75 cents. An American work cannot be obtained at such prices. I can remember in my childhood days having learned to read from a series of books, edited in Spanish by a New York publishing firm, called "Libros de Lectura de Mandeville" (Mandeville's Readers). The school geography was also edited in Spanish by the same publishing house, if I am not mistaken, and was called "Primer Libro de Geografia de Smith" (Smith's (Asa) First book of Geography). If the sale of American printed books fails of success in Latin America, it is due mainly to the almost prohibitive prices.

With better means of communication and a desire to expand their trade with Latin America, United States merchants and travelers are visiting intelligently the LatinAmerican countries, and men of science and learning have, during the last few years, turned their eyes toward that continent, bringing to light the wonders of past ages buried by the sands of Time, and doing justice to a civilization until then little known, and only by a few. No better proof of the fact that Latin-American civilization is worthy of note could be had than the desire to exchange professors and students between certain universities of the United States and those of the leading South American countries.

Latin Americans have done much towards the progress of the world both intellectually and materially. Civilization may be divided into two great branches from which others spring: development of the intellectual forces of mankind, and development of the material resources for the benefit of all. Under the first head-as I have endeavored to show in the brief review of Latin-American history just made we have educational institutions to train and perfect the mind, which have existed in Latin America for centuries, and the result of this training has been great jurists, historians, orators, physicians, painters, sculptors, poets, musicians, playwrights, and others too numerous to mention, as we are dealing with twenty countries, but whose works might fill a good sized library. We have painters and sculptors of renown whose works have been admired, rewarded and commended in the leading art centers of the world, and in all the countries there are art schools from which the students go preferably to Italy or France, most frequently pensioned by the government, to perfect themselves and do honor to their motherland. We have musicians wedded to their art and a credit to the country and themselves; and composers, singers and players educated in our own conservatories or schools. We have theatres and opera houses not surpassed by any others in America or Europe, and the governments of many, if not all of the Latin-American countries, contribute to the musical education of the people by subsidizing opera troupes every season

or so, paying heavy sums to obtain the best singers. Many a celebrity who has come to New York has commenced his career in Latin America.

There is another phase of Latin-American civilization showing in an unquestionable manner a natural tendency towards the establishment of higher ideals-those ideals that are today being proclaimed by men of good will of all nations. I refer to arbitration, the recourse to which is the highest form of culture among peoples. Arbitration is not new with us. It is one of the basic principles of the foundation of our social structure, since it rests on the civil law of Rome, which provides for arbitration as one of the ordinary and usual means of settling differences between man and man. The principle of arbitration was first proclaimed on our continent by General Bolivar, the Liberator of South America as far-sighted and keen a statesman as he was a military genius. Bolivar was the originator of the idea of holding the first Congress of Nations of America in Panama in 1826, for the purpose, anong others, of adopting arbitration as a principle of American-that is to say, PanAmerican-policy.

In recent years we have had recource to arbitration and direct negotiations partaking often of the nature of arbitration, more frequently than in all the rest of the world. Our Latin-American wars have been civil wars for a political principle, and these mainly in countries where the military element predominates. We have never engaged in wars of conquest. In our international difficulties, arbitration has always been the keynote of our negotiations. It is a remarkable fact that in the history of our Latin-American republics, since they became independent from the mother country over one hundred years ago, we have had among ourselves only two wars which, if international in a sense, could be classed as national, since they were fought among members of our own family of republics. But these wars were not fought for territorial expansion nor in the spirit of conquest, although territory may have been gained as an indemnity. I refer to the Paraguayan war against Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, and the war of Chile and Bolivia against Peru.

On the other hand, who, looking at the map of Europe today, would recognize it as the same Europe of half a century ago? With one or two exceptions,-the Iberian and the Scandinavian peninsulas and the British Isles-there is not a single country that has not been remade at the cost of numberless lives and enormous bloodshed.

All our boundary disputes-and they have been manyhave been or are being settled by arbitration. Now, could any better proof be offered of the advancement of peoples who, while springing directly from a race of warriors, do not fear to work towards the ends of peace?

Another proof of this spirit of progress is the maintenance in the city of Washington, by all the countries of our American hemisphere, of a unique organization called the PanAmerican Union, the living embodiment of the idea which created the International Union of American Republics as a result of the first Pan-American Conference held in Washington over twenty years ago at the invitation of that great American statesman, James G. Blaine. The Pan-American Union represents the spirit of progress, the desire for a better understanding, the necessity for stronger ties of friendship, felt among the republics of the three Americas, by making them known to one another, by bringing to the attention of the American people the opportunities offered by the Latin-American countries, their civilization, their onward march towards prosperity, united in a single purpose of material and moral advancement.

There is another aspect of Latin-American civilization which deserves more than passing attention. It is their political life as members of the Pan-American fraternity of independent nations. Their first step towards higher ideals was their declaration of independence and their assuming the duties and exercising the rights of sovereign states. The transition from colonial dependencies to selfgoverning nations was fraught with difficulties unknown to the citizens of the original thirteen states of the North American Union, resulting from different conditions, due in the main to the spirit that inspired their complete emancipation. The original thirteen states separated from England

principally for practical reasons, while the Spanish American countries had to contend with an economic as well as a political problem.

After a period of evolution-or, if you prefer it, revolutions during which the several antagonistic interests were undergoing a process of amalgamation, or better still, clarification, there now exists, in the majority of Latin-American countries, stable governments whose sole aim is to maintain above reproach the moral as well as the economic credit of their respective nations, so as to attract foreign capital and energy, which will stimulate the development of home industries, and insure peace, prosperity and happiness to its citizens. Some Latin-American countries have been less fortunate, but every disturbance, every civil strife, has been a misdirected effort towards the attainment of a goal dreamed of by all and by all desired. Public education, foreign commerce, improved means of communication, greater development of the natural wealth of those countries are factors which have contributed and are constantly contributing to the establishment of a peaceful era which will eventually become normal and stable.

As to the material phase of Latin-American civilization, all I have to say is that communication with the other countries of the world is represented by over fifty steamship lines plying between European ports and those of Latin America, and about twenty-five lines running from the United States to the Atlantic, Caribbean and west coast ports of Latin America. The combined railway mileage from Mexico down to Chile and Argentina, including the island countries of Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, is estimated at 65,330 miles, Argentina leading with over 20,300 miles; next comes Mexico with over 16,000 miles; Brazil follows with about 14,000 miles; Chile, over 5,000; Cuba, nearly 2,200, and the other republics in lesser proportion. There is not one single country, however, that is not included in this total mileage. It may seem strange that in an area of about 9,000,000 square miles there should be only 65,000 miles of railway, but if you stop a moment to consider the enormous barrier extending along the west coast of South