V.eiXui.{ Ujako^x.U'*-^-^ 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 HONORABLE 
 
 JOHN BARRETT 
 
 w 
 
 Director General of the Pan American Union 
 
 and Former United States Minister to Argentina, Colombia 
 
 and Panama 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 ILLINOIS 
 STATE BAR ASSOCIATION 
 
 FEBRUARY 19, 1916 
 
3^^ 
 
 Distributed by the 
 PAN AMERICAN UNION 
 Washington, D. C, U.S.A. 
 
 JOHN BARRETT, Director General. 
 Francisco J. Yanes, Ass't Director. 
 
 THE PAN AMERICAN UNION is the international 
 organization and office maintained by the twenty- 
 one American Republics, controlled by a Governing 
 Board composed of the Secretary of State of the 
 United States and the Diplomatic Representatives 
 in Washington of the other American nations, 
 administered by a Director General and Assistant 
 Director chosen by this Board and assisted by a 
 staff of statisticians, compilers, trade experts, trans- 
 lators, editors, librarians and clerks, and devoted to 
 the development of commerce, friendly intercourse 
 and better acquaintance among all the American 
 Republics. 
 
 SPECIAL NOTE: While the utmost care is exer- 
 cised by the Pan American Union in the compila- 
 tion of the books, pamphlets, and reports issued 
 directly by it, and while also an earnest effort is 
 exerted to make sure of the responsibility of other 
 publications prepared outside of this office but dis- 
 tributed by it at the request of the various govern- 
 ments concerned, NEITHER THE ORGANIZATION 
 NOR ITS OFFICIALS CAN BE HELD RESPON- 
 SIBLE FOR INACCURACIES WHICH MAY APPEAR 
 
 THEREIN. . _. . /-y^'/y 
 
John Barrett 
 Director General Pan American Union, Washington, D. C. 
 

ADDRESS OF 
 
 HONOEABLE JOHN BARRETT 
 
 DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE PAN" AMERICAN UNION AND FORMER 
 
 UNITED STATES MINISTER TO ARGENTINA, 
 
 COLOMBIA AND PANAMA 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 ILLINOIS STATE BAR ASSOCIATION 
 
 FEBRUARY 19, 1916 
 
 President MacChesney: Gentlemen, I am sorry to break 
 in on your animated conversation, but the time has arrived when 
 I know you are all anxious to hear from Mr. Barrett. It seemed 
 to the committee, when thfey were arranging for this meeting, that 
 nothing could be of more interest to that part of the Bar who are 
 thoughtfully considering the foreign relations of the United States, 
 than the relation of the Monroe Doctrine to some of the problems 
 which we as a nation, together with all of Europe, are facing, and 
 it becomes important to us to know what the future of the United 
 States may be, and what relation the development of the other 
 Americans may have to our own development. Perhaps no or- 
 ganization has done more to bring that home to the American 
 people than has the Pan American Union. We have all heard a 
 great deal about the Monroe Doctrine for a great many years. 
 Some time ago it was thought it had gone out of fashion and 
 should be abandoned ; that the policy which had grown out of a de- 
 sire to protect the integrity of the South American nations had be- 
 come an affront to them, and an intimation of superiority which 
 was neither desired by them nor advantageous to us. But since 
 the European war began many people have reconstructed their 
 ideas upon this subject and are trying to think out what the 
 policy of this country should be. And certainly the great Pan 
 American movement, originating many years ago with Mr. Blaine, 
 who came out here with the Pan American Congress which I re- 
 
member as a lad attending with my father over at the old Grand 
 Pacific Hotel, down through the very constructive work of Mr. 
 Barrett, has formed a basis for development in Europe which 
 we hope somehow may give inspiration for a solution of their 
 problem so they may live upon some such basis as the countries 
 of the Americas have been able to do. And no man in this coun- 
 try knows more about the relations of the Latin American coun- 
 tries, or can give us a message which will be more worth listening 
 to upon the general subject of Pan Americanism or the Monroe 
 Doctrine, than Mr. John Barrett, the Director General of the 
 Pan American Union, and former United States Minister to 
 Argentina, Panama and Colombia, who will speak to you tonight. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 Mr. John Barrett : Mr. President, Members of the Illinois 
 State Bar Association, and Guests : I hope that I have shown my 
 appreciation of the honor which you have done me in inviting me 
 to speak tonight, by coming at a time when it is most difficult, as 
 you may readily understand, to get away from Washington, and 
 by the fact that this is one of only four or five invitations which 
 I have accepted out of nearly two hundred received for this and 
 the next month. The interest throughout the country is now so 
 great in all phases of the effects and influences of the European 
 war that it would seem as if every variety of organization, com- 
 mercial, social, civic and scientific as well as legal, were anxious 
 to know more about what might be called the present day Pan 
 Americanism and the status of the Monroe Doctrine as affected 
 by the European war. Eecognizing the notable character of this 
 organization, I accepted the invitation which was so earnestly 
 tendered through your amiable, diplomatic and persistent Presi- 
 dent! (Cries of "good.") And I am very glad that his amiability, 
 his diplomacy and his persistency won out in my case, for I have 
 looked over this audience, I have been told who the majority of 
 you are, and I feel as if I were being really honored by your pres- 
 ence here this evening. I recognize, however, that the honor is 
 not to me personally, but to the organization with which I am 
 connected, and to the cause in which I am engaged. I can say 
 this, however, that I do have, always, a real satisfaction in speak- 
 
3 
 
 ing to a representative audience of this city, this section and state. 
 As T remarked to a group of men earlier today, I honestly and 
 sincerely feel that, as far as public service for my country abroad 
 or in Washington could permit, this State has been, practically, 
 my residence for the last sixteen years. If I may be that personal, 
 I would add that, born and brought up under the shadow of the 
 green hills of Vermont, I betook myself, right after graduation, to 
 the Pacific Coast, never having been west of the Hudson Eiver 
 before, and was on the coast in the good state of Oregon when 1 
 was first appointed United States Minister. But later on my official 
 labors unavoidably separated me from the state of my adoption, 
 and I naturally sought to have a habitat in this State of Illinois 
 where I felt the greatest attraction, where the only sweetheart I 
 ever had lives, namely, my mother; and my brother also. 
 
 I have always found it to be true in my experience with 
 foreign affairs, first when fifteen years ago I discussed the Philip- 
 pines after some five or six years official experience in the Far 
 East, and again since then when I have been discussing Latin 
 American matters, that, if Chicago and this State get behind any- 
 thing, you can count upon it that the rest of the country is also 
 going to get behind it ! From watching, for example, the attitude 
 and the influence of the Chicago Association of Commerce and the 
 Illinois Manufacturers' Association in the great question of Pan 
 American trade, I am aware that they have been powerful factors 
 and influences in awakening all of the commercial organizations 
 throughout the country to the importance of that trade. I think 
 I can say without exaggeration — and I am glad Mr. Nickerson is 
 here to hear it — that the Chicago Association of Commerce re- 
 sponded more quickly and more actively to my first appeal which 
 I made all over the country nine or ten years ago for practical 
 and persistent effort and work towards the development of greater 
 trade between the United States and Latin America, than did any 
 other similar commercial organization in the United States. And 
 this interest has had its direct effect. Before the commercial or- 
 ganizations in New York City or San Frahcisco or even New 
 Orleans, had fully opened their eyes, so to speak, you here in 
 Chicago had seen the vision and acted upon it. Today New York 
 
is taking many leaves out of your book, in its efforts to get into 
 closer touch with the countries lying south of us. 
 
 I am well aware of what a busy State this is and of what a 
 busy city this is, and how busy are the members of this association. 
 You are not men of leisure, in the sense of having nothing to do 
 but to go to the Club or travel about, but you have great responsi- 
 bilities in your, profession ; or, if you are business men, you are all 
 constructive men of the hour and have not much time — and it is 
 no discredit to yourselves — to study the intimate phases of the 
 relations of the United States to and with its twenty sister Ameri- 
 can republics. You have been so occupied in making good to your 
 clients, you have been so occupied in extending the ramifications 
 of your respective businesses, that you have not had time, any 
 more than I have had time to- study your individual work, to 
 study the work of the Pan American Union and really to com- 
 prehend what kind of an organization that is down there in Wash- 
 ington which today is doing so much to develop and forward the 
 new Pan Americanism and to make, as it were, the Monroe Doc- 
 trine a Pan American doctrine or policy. ' 
 
 Some of you have heard me tell this story before, but it so 
 aptly illustrates what I want to say that I will run the risk of 
 repeating it. I might say that the majority of you are not much 
 more familiar with the development, history, resources and poten- 
 tialities of the Latin American countries, or with the real history 
 and the practical work of the Pan American Union plant, as I 
 might call it, in Washington, than I was familiar with Siam when 
 I had the honor of first being appointed Minister to that country 
 — I will not say how many years ago ! All of you men here were 
 well along; the ladies were still in swaddling clothes! But I was 
 so young that it would have been better if I had been spanked and 
 kept at home instead of being sent out as a United States Minister. 
 In those days I thought a man had to be at least President of the 
 Illinois State Bar Association , before he could qualify as Envoy 
 Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. I was in Washing- 
 ton. You know how men often go to Washington after the elec- 
 tion of a new President! I was there, and was hoping to arrange 
 some matters in my state that would be acceptable to all concerned 
 
when, just as I was about to say good-bye to the President, he 
 said : 
 
 "Barrett, I am looking for some young man who isn't afraid 
 of hard work and the tropics, who wants to make a reputation for 
 himself, who doesn't know much about the country, and therefore, 
 will not be prejudiced, to send out to Siam as United States Min- 
 ister, to settle an important case involving several millions of dol- 
 lars and the interpretation of our extraterritorial treaties." 
 
 The first thought that came into my mind was that he wanted 
 me to suggest or recommend somebody; that he had decided, in the 
 apportionment of his Ministers, that a Minister to "any old place" 
 like Siam might come from my part of the country, and I began 
 to think of some young man in my adopted state of Oregon whom 
 I would like to get rid of, who would go so far away that he would 
 never get back, or would die of the cholera ! And when I was try- 
 ing to think who were the most undesirable men upon my list, the 
 President looked at me and said : 
 
 "Barrett, I am thinking of appointing you Minister to Siam, 
 what do you know about that country ?" 
 
 Well, I was so surprised that I hadn't a thought for a moment. 
 To save my life, I couldn't remember whether Siam was in the 
 south Atlantic or south Pacifit3, in Asia or in Africa. But I re- 
 membered that he said he wanted somebody that did not know 
 much about the country, and so I thought that if I could impress 
 him with my knowledge I would escape the possibilities of cholera 
 in that part of the world. Then there came to me a childhood 
 memory ; I braced up and said : 
 
 "I know, Mr. President, all about Siam." 
 
 He replied: 
 
 "You do? What do you know about Siam?" 
 
 And I answered with an assumption of great knowledge : 
 
 "Siam is the country that produced the immortal Siamese 
 twins." (Laugher.) 
 
 Whereupon, with a twinkle in his eye,, he grasped my hand 
 and exclaimed: 
 
 "Well, I am glad, indeed^ to get hold of a man with such 
 abundant information." (Laughter.) 
 
6 
 
 Without going into the details of why I accepted, I can say 
 that, when I did go out there, my eyes began to open. Wlien I 
 touched Japan, later Korea, thence proceeded down the coast of 
 China to Hong Kong and then by the South China Sea around 
 Indo-China and up the Gulf of Siam to Siam itself, my eyes 
 opened so wide with astonishment and admiration that it was 
 at first difficult to close them. Wlien I had been a little time in 
 Bangkok, the capital of Siam, I found that I was in the most 
 progressive kingdom of Asia, next to Japan. I found that the 
 King of Siam was a most intelligent and highly educated mon- 
 arch; who was descended through a distinguished ancestry; who 
 spoke almost as excellent English as does- your presiding officer; 
 who lived in a palace equal in size and beauty to that of the 
 Emperor of Germany, or, that I may appear to be perfectly neu- 
 tral, to that of the King of England ! There I saw the first auto- 
 mobile in which I ever rode; there I saw the first electric street 
 car line ever constructed in all Asia ; there I saw the first electric 
 light plant that was ever built in a great Asiatic city ; there I saw the 
 first great woman's college erected by Asiatic money, by the King 
 himself, in which were teachers from America and Europe edu- 
 cating the young women of that land as they would the women of 
 our country. Then I remarked, as T wrote back to my friends 
 here, "How is it that you have been so extremely busy and occu- 
 pied back there that you allowed young men like myself to gradu- 
 ate from college without knowing of this great modern develop- 
 ment in Asia?" And during the five or six years that I spent in 
 the Far East I was continually striving to inform Americans 
 about that part of the world, little realizing that it presently would 
 befall me or be my next responsibility to aid in opening up an- 
 other part of the world to the knowledge of our people. 
 
 When I came back to this country sixteen years ago, one of 
 the first addresses that I had the honor of making on the Far East 
 and our vast responsibilities and opportunities there and in the 
 Philippines, I delivered in this city as the guest of honor at the 
 annual Washington's Birthday meeting of the Union League Club. 
 I remember that occasion as if it were yesterday. But I am not 
 going to talk more about the Orient, although I wish I could 
 
speak more of it, for it was my privilege to have had friendly 
 relationship with the present head of China, Yuan Shi Kai, and to 
 have been in close association with the men in other parts of 
 China who are figuring in its history and reorganization today. 
 I am not here tonight, however, to discuss that great Asiatic field, 
 with all its marvelous ramifications and potentialities — and mighty 
 powers for the world and for our own country ! 
 
 Now our characteristic ignorance of Siam is, I fear, charac- 
 teristic also of our acquaintance with a majority of the countries 
 lying south of us, but I hope when I am through tonight every 
 one of you will go out of this room feeling a sense of new interest, 
 a sense of new international responsibility that he or she has not 
 had before. Not because I say it, but because of the inherent 
 seriousness of 'the problem, involving the very life of this nation, 
 the very prosperity of this city, and the very greatness of this 
 state. I do not say that in a careless way, to make words, but I 
 say it, realizing who are the men to whom I am speaking. 
 
 To stand on, as it were, a proper platform of viewpoint and 
 to grasp this question, we should understand what is the Pan 
 American Union in Washington. In order that, from the very 
 start I may have your interest, not based upon my own opinion, 
 I am going to tell you the opinion of the Pan American Union 
 held by a great English statesman. This English statesman some 
 time ago stated that he was perfectly sure that if they had had in 
 London or Paris, in Berlin or Vienna, in Eome or Petrograd, a 
 "Pan European Union," an "All European" union, organized upon 
 exactly the same plan as the Pan American Union in "Washington, 
 controlled and directed in a similar way, with the same kind of 
 inspiration, there would never have been a European war! 
 
 Now, honor bright, gentlemen, do you want any greater com- 
 pliment to the practical value of the Pan American Union than 
 the statement that this greatest of all wars, greatest in its de- 
 struction to the ideals of civilization, greatest in its cost, greatest 
 in its loss of life, could have been avoided if they had had a 
 duplicate of the Pan American Union in the form of a Pan Europ- 
 ean Union in one of the capitals of Europe? And now I believe, 
 having your interest, not on my own testimony, but on that of 
 
8 
 
 this English statesman, you want me to tell you why he had a 
 right to make this observation. 
 
 I wish that I could transport you all bodily, this nioment, to 
 Washington, and escort you. to the foot of Seventeenth Street, at 
 the entrance to Potomac Park — past the White House, past that 
 wonderful southern outlook of the White House which is, in my 
 opinion, one of the most inspiring vistas in the wide world; past 
 the Corcoran Art Gallery and the new building of the Eed Cross 
 and the home of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and 
 show to you all that beautiful Palace of Peace and Commerce 
 and Comity among the nations of the western hemisphere, that 
 building which is literally — and think what this means — the Capi- 
 tol of the western hemisphere in the national Capital of the United 
 States, a description that applies to no other building in the wide 
 world, in any capital under the sun ! 
 
 And then I wish I could take you within its portals, past those 
 noble groups of statuary, one representing North America and the 
 other South America, through those great bronze grilled doors, past 
 that exquisite exotic patio, the piece de resistance, in many respects, 
 of the architecture of the building; then up the grand stairway, 
 past the busts of the George Washingtons of the southern republics, 
 into the Stately Hall of the Americas, which has been described as 
 the most perfect room, architecturally, of the western hemisphere ; 
 and then I would bring you finally to the Governing Board room, 
 and then, as you stood there I would say to you, without any mis- 
 use of the term: 
 
 "Mr. Member of the Illinois State Bar Association, you are 
 now standing in the unique room of the world." 
 
 That often misused word is not misused in that sense, because 
 there is no other room like having to do with the relationship of 
 nations anywhere in the world. 
 
 On the first Wednesday of every month, by international agree- 
 ment and by official enactment, there assemble in that room, around 
 a mahogany table of majestic beauty, the plenipotentiaries of 
 twenty-one nations, the envoys of one hundred and eighty millions 
 of people. There at the head of the table sits your Secretary of 
 State, Robert Lansing; upon his right sits the Ambassador of 
 
Brazil, Senor Domicio da Gama; upon the left sits Senor Don 
 Eduardo Suarez Mujica, the Ambassador of Chili and late Presi- 
 dent of the great Pan American Scientific Congress; then again on 
 the right of Ambassador of Brazil sits Dr. Eomulo S. Naon, 
 Ambassador of Argentina; then on the left of the Ambassador of 
 Chile is the Minister of Bolivia, Senor Don Ignacio Calderon, and 
 so on, each man having his seat according to rank, as fpllows: 
 Senor Don Carlos. M. de Pena, Minister of Uruguay ; Senor Don 
 Joaquin Mendez, Minister of Guatemala; Senor Don Frederico 
 Alfonso Pezet, Minister of Peru; Senor Don Julio Betancourt, 
 Minister of Colombia; Senor Don Hector Velazquez, Minister of 
 Paraguay; Senor Don Eusebio A. Morales, Minister of Panama; 
 'Senor Don Emiliano Chamorro, Minister of Nicaragua; Senor 
 Don Gonzalo S. Cordova, Minister of Ecuador; Monsieu Solon 
 Menos, Minister of Haiti; Senor Don Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, 
 Minister of Cuba; Senor Don Santos A. Dominici, Minister of 
 Venezuela; Senor Don Eafael Zaldivar, Minister of Salvador; 
 Senor Don Manuel Castro Quesada, Minister of Costa Pica; Senor 
 Don Armando Perez Perdomo, Minister of the Dominican Eepub- 
 lic; and Senor Don E. Camilo Diaz, Charge d' Affaires of Hon- 
 duras. Senor Don Eliseo Arredondo, Ambassador-elect of Mexico, 
 has not yet presented his credentials, but upon doing so will take 
 his seat around this historic board. Around that table there is 
 not a man who by his brain ability would not be fitted to occupy 
 a seat in the Cabinet of the President of the United States, and 
 many of them fitted to sit upon the Supreme Bench of your State; 
 all of them men who would be, if lawyers, qualified to join this 
 Association; from their mentality, nearly all of them big enough 
 to be the Presidents of their own lands, masters of history, stu- 
 dents of diplomacy, scholars, philosophers, and in many cases, 
 wonderful orators; — there, around that table once a month from 
 one hour to two or three hours, those men talk about the affairs of 
 the republics and the Pan American Union with as much friend- 
 liness and frankness as the directors of this organization would 
 consider its welfare around a friendly table, or as the members of 
 your family would discuss your family affairs. Around that table 
 now for two years these twenty-one representatives of the western 
 
10 
 
 hemisphere, from the United States on the north to Argentina 
 on the south, have sat, shoulder to shoulder, keeping the Pan 
 American bond unbroken and preventing the flame of the Europ- 
 ean war reaching with its disastrous scorching fires the shores 
 of the western hemisphere. And today, if there is any one thought 
 that inspires the meetings of that Governing Board, it is that the 
 Americas must stand together now as they have never stood before 
 in the history of this hemisphere. And when I tell you that 
 during the nine or ten years in which I have had the honor to be 
 the executive ojBBcer of that organization, it has helped to prevent 
 several international wars upon the western hemisphere, you will 
 realize that it is not an impractical, a theoretical organization. 
 
 Now, on the practical side: In that building is a staff of 
 trained men, assisted by competent stenographers and clerks, who 
 are experts in international law and commerce and statistics, also 
 editors, compilers, translators, who are in touch with the whole 
 western hemisphere, conducting a great international bureau of 
 information, and carrying on a correspondence averaging three 
 or four hundred letters a day. And we publish a monthly Bul- 
 letin — I have with me here' the English edition — in English, Span- 
 ish, Portugese and French, having more pages of reading matter 
 and illustrations than any one of the popular magazines that you 
 buy upon the news stand and, being official, can not have, of course, 
 advertisements, but, in actual reading matter and illustrations, 
 exceeding the average popular magazine. It is published, mind you, 
 in Spanish in French and in Portugese, as well as in English, 
 and the demand for it nearly four or five times greater than we 
 are able to supply. It is a magazine which, before the war broke 
 out, the German Emperor described as the most interesting, in- 
 structive publication in the world. 
 
 In that building we have the Columbus Memorial Library, in 
 which there are now thirty-five thousand volumes of up-to-date 
 Americana; which, by the international regulations, is made the 
 repository by every government of its. official documents, and 
 which has one hundred and sixty thousand index cards. In our 
 reading and map rooms are all the principal newspapers and 
 magazines of Latin America, as well as maps and atlases and 
 
11 
 
 directories and every other kind of published informative matter 
 which will spread the knowledge of Latin America throughout the 
 United States and a knowledge of the United States throughout 
 Latin America. 
 
 That organization, defined in a sentence, before I conclude 
 my observations upon it, is the official, international organization 
 of the twenty-one American republics — the United States, and its 
 sister Latin American republics — controlled by a Governing Board 
 made up of all the plenipotentiaries of the Latin American countries 
 in Washington, and the Secretary of State of the United States, 
 who is Chairman, ex-officio ; maintained by their joint contributions, 
 each government paying just that part of the annual budget of 
 expenses that its population is a part of the total population of 
 the twenty-one republics; and administered by a Director Gen- 
 eral and an Assistant Director who are not appointees of the 
 President of the United States in any sense, except that he has a 
 one twenty-first vote, but appointed by all the Presidents of the 
 western hemisphere, expressed through these representatives upon 
 the Governing Board. Therefore, I have the honor, as I stand 
 before you tonight, of being the only international officer upon the 
 western hemisphere. And there is no other officer in the world 
 that is thus elected to serve as the executive officer of an organiza- 
 tion of a large group of nations such as ia the Director General 
 of the Pan American Union. This is said without egotism, for 
 it was, and will be, equally true of, respectively, my predecessor 
 and successor. 
 
 What I say to you tonight, therefore, is not based alone upon 
 my experience and my patriotism as a citizen of the United States, 
 but upon my knowledge of all those countries lying south of us 
 acquired by my traveling through them, by my studying them, by 
 my trying to get behind, as it were, their thoughts; by my en- 
 deavoring to read the mind of the Latin American and think 
 as he thinks. With my experience as your Minister in three of 
 those countries — Argentina, Colombia and Panama — and my ten 
 years' experience as the executive officer of the Pan American 
 Union, I feel as if I had reached a point now where, whenever I 
 talk to a Latin American, he has the feeling that he is talking 
 
12 
 
 to one whom he understands just as well as he understands his 
 own countrymen; and where I have the feeling, when I talk to an 
 Argentine, a Brazilian, a Colombian, a Chilean, a Mexican, a 
 Guatemalan, a Cuban, a Venezulean, or a man of any other Latin 
 American Nationality that I have when I am talking with any of 
 my friends or my kin here in the United States. 
 
 Now then, with that platform, as it were, to stand upon, 
 with the eyes of the Pan American Union to look through, we 
 come to the next and a very important phase of the evening's dis- 
 cussion. When I accepted this invitation, I said such an or- 
 ganization is worthy of some particular message that represents 
 my real thought at this moment; and I weighed my thoughts very 
 carefully. I went over this message, time and time again, and 
 ■finally I boiled it down into a few words, comparatively speaking. 
 I did not want to trust to extemporaneous utterance. It will take 
 me only a few minutes to read it, and I hope it will sink deep 
 into your minds, because it is inspired by a phase of the present 
 situation that I do not think we have considered as carefully as 
 we should have. 
 
 The air has been full of talk about preparedness, not only in 
 organizations lik:e this, but at social dinners and even in the 
 cabarets. Everywhere preparedness has been talked about, and 
 yet not one speech in .a hundred, not one conversation in a thousand 
 has come down to the basic question: Why this preparedness? 
 Now, naturally, the answer is, unpreparedness ! Of course, I 
 admit that, but on what ground is any country going to test the 
 , preparedness of the United States? That is the question, and 
 there is only one answer, absolutely, and that is the Monroe Doc- 
 trine ! There is no other possible great basic question in our 
 relations with the nations, not only with those across the Atlantic 
 but with those across the Pacific. With that thought in mind I 
 wrote these words — concerning which I make only one reservation, 
 as I do for all I say in this address, and that is that they of course 
 express my personal views only and do not in any way commit 
 the attitude of the members of my Governing Board: 
 
 "Illinois has a most direct concern in the present Pan Ameri- 
 can situation. No other state, unless it be New York, has an 
 
13 
 
 ernial interest. The vast manufacturing, financial and agricultural 
 development of Illinois will be surely affected in the future by 
 the growth of commercial, financial and political relations between 
 the United States and each one of the twenty Latin American 
 Eepublics that they cannot be blind to their responsibilities of 
 this very hour. 
 
 "Speaking with the sincerity, first, of one who for fully 
 fifteen years has regarded Illinois as his home state, although 
 obliged in humbly serving it abroad and in Washington to be 
 absent much of the time, and, secondly, of one who by his official 
 position as United States Minister in several Latin American 
 capitals, and later as the only international officer of all the Ameri- 
 can governments in Washington, has been unavoidably brought 
 more intimately than possibly any one else into close touch with 
 Pan American affairs, I appeal to you lawyers, representing the 
 whole state, and, through you, to the men and women of all call- 
 ings, to realize that the United States is today face to face with 
 an extraordinary crisis which may determine forever whether it 
 will he an honored leader or a despised laggard among the nations 
 of the western hemisphere and hence throughout the world, and for 
 which it must prepare, 
 
 "The ominous possibilities of what may happen at the con- 
 clusion of the European war involving, first, a final test by Europe 
 or Asia of the real meaning of the Monroe Doctrine, and, second, 
 an unprecedented and merciless competition of Europe and Asia 
 with the United States to regain and enlarge their lost trade in 
 Latin America, must be fully realized and prepared for! Illinois 
 has too much at stake directly and indirectly in the outcome of 
 such portentous development to sit by quietly for a moment and let 
 the procession pass on. 
 
 "Illinois must realize what Latin America means to the United 
 States and what the United States mean to Latin America. Illi- 
 nois must grasp the fact that the very life and integrity of this 
 great nation may depend upon preserving the integrity of each 
 and all of the Latin American Eepublics against conquest at the 
 hands of an European or Asiatic foe. Illinois must know that if 
 European commerce driven by the war to desperation to recover 
 
14 
 
 its former vigor and position, gains the upper hand in Latin 
 America after the war, it will be a question of long and exhaust- 
 ing years before the United States will be able to achieve leader- 
 ship, 
 
 "While all Americans throughout all America — Pan America 
 — from the United States south to Argentina and ,Chile, hope, 
 pray and even believe tliat no European or Asiatic nation, or group 
 of nations, will dare or be inclined to test the Monroe Doctrine 
 through war with the United States and its sister American re- 
 publics, and while it would seem a convincing argument that no 
 victorious or defeated nation or group of nations will have the 
 temerity, strength or desire to engage in another conflict with 
 a fresh foe of such vast potential resources as the United States 
 and its sister neutral countries of America, yet there is no such 
 thing as absolute security in this grave situation. 
 
 "We cannot forget the cold blooded fact that now stares Pan 
 America in the face : Whichever way the war ends, there may be 
 no love on either side for the United States and its sister neutral 
 American republics. The victors may say that they won in spite 
 of the United States and the other American republics ■ the los&rs 
 may say that they lost because of the United States and Latin 
 America. The present serious diplomatic differences between the 
 United States and both warring factions, the tone of the press of 
 both sides, and the reports of newspaper correspondents and other 
 Americans returning from Europe confirm beyond question this 
 statement. 
 
 "Now then, the passions aroused by the war may be so terrible 
 and lasting, the feeling of resentment on the part of the conqueror 
 and conquered may be so keen and persistent, and the overwhelm- 
 ing sense of power that will result from the possession of 'a mighty 
 veteran army of trained soldiers and a great armada of ships and 
 sailors, and, again, the lust for the unimpoverished wealth and 
 resources of the United States and Latin America to aid in paying 
 the debts of the war and in recouping from its effects may be so 
 appealing and impelling to the passions of the all-powerful victors 
 that no man, no matter how sincere and earnest a pacifist, can 
 confidently for a moment declare that the United States and Latin 
 
15 
 
 America are absolutely safe against such dangers. 
 
 "It is the knowledge of such possibilities that should inevitably 
 evolve the Monroe Doctrine into a Pan American Doctrine, he- 
 longing as much to Latin America as to the United States. With 
 the Monroe Doctrine more alive than it has been since its declara- 
 tion in 1823, the European war is forcing All America, in spite 
 of the critics of the doctrine, in spite of its opponents and tra- 
 ducers, in spite of itself and its friends, and even in spite of 
 whether Latin America wants it or not, to nail the standard of the 
 doctrine to the mast of the Pan American ship of state and to stand 
 by it now and hereafter as a Pan American doctrine and principle 
 of international as well as of national integrity and defense. This 
 should mean that for their own individual and collective salvation 
 the governments and peoples of Latin America would stand with 
 all their moral and physical power and with all their resources for 
 the sovereignty of the United States if it should he attacked hy a 
 European or Asiatic foe as quickly as the United States would 
 stand for the integrity and sovereignty of any or all of the Latin 
 American republics if they should be assailed by an enemy from 
 beyond the eastern or western seas. 
 
 "Eealizing this extraordinary situation, let there be inaug- 
 urated in Illinois a widespread Pan American movement which 
 will educate its people to the importance of the political and com- 
 mercial relations of the United States with Latin America. Let 
 Illinois develpp a new appreciation and knowledge of our sister 
 American republics and peoples. Let Illinois in its universities 
 and colleges, in its public and private schools, and in its com- 
 mercial, professional, social, fraternal and labor organizations, take 
 up the study of our sister republics, their history, their commerce, 
 their resources, their civilization, their language, their literature, 
 and their institutions. Let Illinois stand for the new Pan Ameri- 
 canism which means the development of a solidarity of permanent 
 interest, an interdependence of commerce, finance and trade, an 
 exchange of ideas and knowledge, a unity of political and eco- 
 nomic-purposes, a common preparedness and defense that will make 
 Pan America and Pan Americanism forever the chief factors in 
 world progress, world civilization and world peace. 
 
16 
 
 "If what I have said arouses further interest in the Pan Ameri- 
 can opportunity and responsibility, I ask you to communicate with 
 me at the Pan American Union in Washington, where that great 
 organization, devoted to the development of commerce, friendship 
 and peace among the American republics, is always ready to pro- 
 mote, through the spread of reliable information, the cause of 
 practical Pan Americanism." 
 
 I thank you for bearing with me so kindly while I read that 
 message to you. I realized that while I read that many of you 
 were thinking: Mr. Barrett, have you not exaggerated? Have 
 you not exaggerated the meaning of Pan America? Have you 
 not exaggerated the power of Pan America? 
 
 Now, let us see, what does Pan America mean? Literally, it 
 means just what it says. All America. But in the definition of it 
 today we do not include Canada or the other dependencies of 
 European countries. Therefore, by Pan America we mean the 
 twenty-one republics that reach from the United States and Mex- 
 ico and Cuba on the north, to Argentina, Uruguay and Chile on 
 the south. Do you realize that those twenty-one countries have an 
 area of twelve millions of square miles, or nearly three times the 
 area of Europe, almost as great as the area of Africa, and two- 
 thirds that of Asia, without including the four million square 
 miles of Canada? Do you realize these twenty-one countries have 
 a population of one hundred and eighty millions. Do you realize, 
 for we say "commerce is the life blood of nations," that these 
 twenty-one republics in the last year before the war, 1913, con- 
 ducted a foreign trade with the rest of the world and with each 
 other valued at eight thousand millions of dollars; in other words, 
 eight billions of dollars ? That is Pan America ! 
 
 ISTow let us segregate Latin America from the United States, 
 to see what the power of Latin America means. "Latin America" 
 is the correct term to use in describing the countries that reach 
 from Cuba and Mexico south, not "Spanish America." We should 
 never use the term "Spanish America" unless we wish to differen- 
 tiate the rest of Latin America from Brazil. Brazil, which is 
 almost equal to a third of the total area of Latin America, is 
 Portugese in origin and language. Latin America is the correct 
 
17 
 
 phrase to use in describing this entire field south of us. Latin 
 America comprises twenty countries, with a population of eighty 
 millions, or eight-tenths of our population, which is increasing 
 more rapidly than our own population, and which ojff from the 
 great eastern and western routes of travel, and before the Panama 
 Canal was in full operation, conducted an annual foreign trade 
 of three thousand millions of dollars, or, in other words, three 
 billions of dollars. And that, in turn, represented an increase of 
 one billion of dollars, or one thousand millions of dollars in the 
 last ten years ! 
 
 Now, honor bright, if these countries to which we have given 
 such little attention can build up a trade of three billions of dol- 
 lars before this war, and increase that trade one billion of dollars 
 in ten years, no matter what you may have thought of them 
 before, are they not deserving of your closest attention and study? 
 
 As we look upon this great field, however, do not let us lump 
 it all together. Do not let us put it in, so to speak, one mass, any 
 more than we would put all Europe together. There are greater 
 differences between groups of Latin American countries than there 
 are between Great Britain on the one hand and the Balkan States 
 on the other. There is more apartness between Argentina and 
 Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia, on one side, and Central America on 
 the other hand, than there is between England and Germany and 
 France on the one side and the Balkan States and Russia on the 
 other. This comparison is made with no reflection whatever on 
 either grouping. And yet we are in the habit of lumping them 
 all together, and we forget that each one of the Latin American 
 countries is sincerely proud of its own individuality. The great- 
 est mistake you can make is to call an Argentine a "Spaniard," 
 or call a Cuban or Colombian a "Spaniard," You would not 
 call an average man of any Latin American country a "Spaniard" 
 any more than you would call a man who had lived in this country, 
 or whose ancestors had been in this country one hundred years 
 ago, a "German," an "Englishman" or a "Frenchman," You 
 .would call a "Spaniard" only the man who had kept his citizen- 
 ship in Spain, And there are as great differences between the 
 present up-to-date Argentine and Chilean and the old Castillian 
 
18 
 
 Spaniard as between the average American today and his ancestors 
 of Great Britain or Germany. That should be borne in mind al- 
 ways when you meet these men or engage in trade with them. 
 
 There are three great and interesting segregations of Latin 
 America. The first comprises Mexico, the five Central America 
 countries, and Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, the Domini- 
 can Eepublic and Haiti which are largely tributary to the Gulf of 
 Mexico and the Carribean sea. They form a group that has nearly 
 thirty millions of population, and an annual foreign trade of over 
 seven hundred millions of dollars, which represents an increase of 
 nearly one hundred per cent in the last ten years. And every port 
 of their Atlantic coast line of nearly six or seven thousand miles 
 is less than eighteen hundred miles from the average port of the 
 Gulf coast of the United States. Nearly three-fifths of the com- 
 merce of this section is with the United States; hardly two-fifths 
 with Europe. Today over two-thirds of the travel of these coun- 
 tries is back and forth with the United States instead of with 
 Europe. Think of the enormous potentiality of these countries, 
 covering an area equal to all that portion of the United States 
 east of the Eocky Mountains, within eighteen hundred miles from 
 the average Gulf port of the United States, or less than the dis- 
 tance, almost, from the city of Chicago to San Francisco ! Under 
 the influence and the example we have set at Panama in mas- 
 tering and conquering the tropics, one of the most wonderful 
 changes the world has ever known has been wrought along the 
 low-lying, pest-ridden line of Central America and South America 
 on the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, which was formerly 
 only the home of incipient revolutions, and has now become the 
 home of prosperous cities and progressive peoples; and a vast 
 area that no man penetrated is being made literally into gardens 
 to supply the food products that the United States needs, in the 
 form of bananas and other fruit foods. 
 
 The second great segregation is that western coast of South 
 America that has five thousand more miles of coast line from 
 Panama to the Straits of Magellan upon the Pacific Ocean, in- 
 cluding the coast line of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, with 
 Bolivia tributary through Peru and Chile. , There we have a popu- 
 
19 
 
 lation of fifteen millions of people and an annual foreign trade 
 of over five hundred millions of dollars, which it conducted before 
 the Panama Canal was opened, in spite of the difficulties of ap- 
 proach through the Straits of Magellan. As you sail up and down 
 that western coast line it looks barren and disappointing, but if 
 you travel back into the interior you will find it possesses Just as 
 great potentialities for development as had California, Oregon 
 and Washington, when they were first tapped by the railroads 
 from the east and aided by the capital and emigration from the 
 eastern part of the United States. Now, with the Panama Canal 
 in full operation, as we hope it soon will be, and that coast made 
 accessible to our commerce and our capital, there is no reason in 
 the world why it should not go forward to just the same kind of 
 marvelous development as California, Oregon and Washitigton and 
 the states back of them, tributary to the Pacific coast, all enjoy. 
 
 The last of these mighty segregations is on the eastern side 
 of South America, including vast Brazil, great Argentina, and 
 little but resourceful Uruguay and Paraguay. Here we have a popu- 
 lation of thirty to forty millions of people ; an annual foreign trade 
 of one billion, six hundred millions of dollars; an area of over 
 four million, five hundred square miles, or greater than the entire 
 area of the United States by a million and a half square miles, and 
 yet still in the infancy of its development! 
 
 Now you possibly say: "Mr. Barrett, you are impressing us 
 with these facts, but we want to ask you one or two questions." 
 And I am very glad you thought of those questions, because they 
 are natural, and I always believe that it is not fair to any audience 
 for the speaker to have it all his own way ! So, as you are asking 
 those questions in your minds, I am going to answer them. 
 
 You say: "Now, Mr. Barrett, this is interesting, we admit, 
 but what about the instability of those governments? What about 
 revolutions ?" That is the first bogey ! I am not good at destroy- 
 ing bogey at golf, as the majority of you, I presume are, but there 
 are some bogeys in regard to Latin America that I love to kill, 
 and the first one is in regard to revolutions. It is unfortunate that 
 we have this prejudice because of sad conditions in one or two of 
 these countries, and have not realized the interesting fact that 
 
20 
 
 three-fourths of all Latin America in area and population has 
 known no revolution whatever in the last twenty-five or thirty 
 years ! 
 
 Honor bright, then, gentlemen, on what ground shall we be 
 so unfair as to speak of them, as to segregate them all in one 
 mass as revolutionary lands? While we are speaking of revolu- 
 tions, let me say this: Latin America may have had many in- 
 ternal or civil conflicts, but the continent of Europe has had three 
 times as many international wars, which are really the test of 
 meanness and hatred, than have had the twenty Latin American 
 countries during the last one hundred years ! These revolutions 
 .have been evolutions rather than revolutions. Seventy-five per 
 cent of the revolutions of Latin America have been evolutions into 
 an improved condition ! Some of them have been serious and ter- 
 rible trials; some of them have not been evolutions into better 
 conditions ; but the majority of them, as history tells us by careful 
 study, have been in that direction. 
 
 Then you say : "Yes, supposing you destroy that bogey, what 
 of the climate? They are all tropical countries, Mr. Barrett, they 
 are under a hot sun where great races can not develop." I am 
 glad you asked that question, because I remind you, with all due 
 respect, that God thought all that out before ever this Association 
 had it in its mind ! 
 
 First, we must bear in mind that all the great southern end of 
 South America is in the south temperate zone. Southeastern Brazil, 
 off of Uruguay, practically all of Argentina, part of Paraguay 
 and practically all of Chile and, you might say, a large part of 
 Bolivia because of its altitude, are in the south temperate zone. 
 In other words, there is an area down there equal to all that sec- 
 tion east of the Eocky Mountains, in the south temperate zone, 
 with the same kind of climate that we have here in the United 
 States. And how many of you realize that Argentina has a 
 greater reach from north to south in the temperate zone than 
 has the connected area of the United States of North America? 
 
 "Well," you say, "I can not deny that you have answered that 
 question, but what of the great tropical belt itself?" Again, I 
 answer, the wisdom of the Maker of all things settled that ques- 
 
21 
 
 tion before we thought it out. I do not know how many of you 
 have traveled much through the tropical countries of Latin Amer- 
 ica, or how many are familiar with the delightful and wonderful 
 experience of becoming intimately acquainted with a mule's back! 
 It was my privilege to make a journey of over two thousand miles 
 through the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, 
 and I learned more ways of getting on and off a mule than there 
 are days in the year! It is sometimes a good way to get ac- 
 quainted with these countries. All through Colombia and Ec- 
 uador and Venezuela and Peru and in the Central American 
 countries there are remarkable plateaus averaging from twenty- 
 five hundred to ten thousand feet in altitude and right under the 
 Equator, but they have a climate the year around, practically, 
 such as they have in New England or in northern Illinois in June 
 or in September. 
 
 When I had the honor of being your Minister in Bogota, the 
 Capital of Colombia, almost within a stone's throw of the equator, 
 I never saw the thermometer in my library go above 79 ; and every 
 night in my sleeping room it went down to 59 or 60. And that 
 is only one of a half dozen of such plateaus throughout that won- 
 derful country. In time, when railroads are built from the coast 
 line into the interior; when these great plateaus are made fully 
 accessible; when foreign population and commerce come in, you 
 are going to see a mighty change that will harness the almost 
 immeasurable wealth of those mountains. The great water power 
 of the Andes will be harnessed and irrigate those vast plateaus, 
 bringing about a change which will astound the world. 
 
 The next bogey you throw at me is : "But why can't we do a 
 bigger trade down there?" Now, I love to see that bogey thrown 
 at me, because I do like to hit it with all my might ! 
 
 Do you know that there is no greater error today, absolutely 
 widely prevalent throughout this country, from the President of 
 the United States down, than that the United States has not been 
 doing a big commerce in Latin America, and that we are behind 
 Germany and Great Britain ? For the life of me, I can not under- 
 stand why so many Senators and Congressmen, so many editors, 
 so many so-called authorities on Latin America, will look straight 
 
22 
 
 at the blackboard, see the exact facts and figures that can not be 
 denied, and still say, what a pity that we do so little business in 
 Latin America, and that we don't know how to build up our trade ! 
 Ninety-nine per cent of the men saying those things are still look- 
 ing through the glasses of eight, nine and ten years ago, and they 
 have the temerity, every now and then, to quote speeches which 
 I made eight and nine years ago when those conditions were true ! 
 
 Here is a fact for every one of you to put in his pipe and 
 smoke over: In the year 1913, the last peaceful, average year 
 before this war, before any of its influences could make trade 
 greater or less, what happened? The total value of products ex- 
 changed between the United States and these twenty Latin Amer- 
 ican countries approximated eight hundred and ten millions of 
 dollars. The total value of the products which Great Britain 
 exchanged with these twenty countries south of the United States 
 approximated six hundred and fifty millions, or one hundred and 
 fifty million dollars less than our trade. How about Germany, of 
 which we hear so much? The total commerce of Germany with 
 the twenty Latin American countries in 1913 was approximately 
 four hundred and ten million dollars, or practically only half of 
 the total trade of the United States ! I say, honor bright, why 
 therefore all this talk, running down American manufacturers, 
 criticising American commercial efforts, condemning American 
 commercial methods? I will tell you why. It is because we take 
 the isolated case of the man who doesn't know the field; we take 
 the isolated case of the man who names the few countries where 
 we 'are led by Germany and Great Britain, and puts these before 
 us with such prominence that we forget the truth as to the entire 
 field ! 
 
 Which would you prefer, to have eight hundred and ten mil- 
 lions of dollars of trade with all Latin America and be beaten 
 out by Germany in two or three of the twenty, or have only four 
 hundred and ten millions of dollars in all Latin America and let 
 Germany have eight hundred and ten millions? 
 
 It is true that in three or four of the countries of South Amer- 
 ica we are led, decidedly, by Germany and Great Britain in certain 
 respects. But why should we pick out those few countries and draw 
 
23 
 
 that conclusion for all Latin America proper? South America 
 proper has ten of the twenty countries of Latin America. We are 
 led only in a few by Germany and Great Britain. But here is the 
 fact that is most convincing of all : During the last ten years the 
 United States has increased its trade in volume and value in those 
 countries, even in the countries where we are beaten out by Ger- 
 many and Great Britain, faster than have either of those countries. 
 
 This does not mean that we shall not make a supreme effort, 
 just the same. It does not mean that the Chicago Association of 
 Commerce, and all the other Illinois organizations, shall do every- 
 thing in their power to educate our people in the trade of that 
 part of the world, This wonderful development we have had is 
 due to the remarkable efforts of manufacturers, exporters and im- 
 porters, many of whom are right here in Chicago, and deserving 
 of splendid credit for what they have done. You are drawing 
 conclusions without thinking of numerous manufacturers here in 
 this State and neighboring states and in this and other cities, who 
 for years have been doing a growing trade in Latin America and 
 know conditions down there perfectly. The thing is to get the 
 average manufacturer and the average business man to go ahead 
 on the same basis that these other men have done and build up a 
 trade that will distance all Europe so that it will be impossible 
 for it ever to displace the United States from its position. That 
 is what, today, I am urging upon the American manufacturers to 
 consider. 
 
 The final bogey is this : You say, "Mr. Barrett, what of this 
 distrust, what of the dislike of the Monroe Doctrine?" That is a 
 very foolish idea. The trouble is, again, that here we draw a con- 
 clusion from isolated cases. If one writer or editor down in 
 Argentina comes out with an article or editorial against the 
 Monroe Doctrine or the United States; if one editor inveighs 
 against them, it is repeated up here by all of our papers and 
 statesmen as the opinion of all Latin America. Very likely not 
 one of the greatest authorities of that country said anything to that 
 effect. Not long ago the late President of Argentina wrote a book 
 against the Monroe Doctrine, and many people here threw up 
 their hands and said : "Look at that ; I told you so !" But it 
 
24 
 
 didn't create a ripple in Argentina. You read the editorials of 
 some of your Chicago and New York papers, iand you think that 
 he apparently voiced the sentiment of all Latin America! They 
 overlook what Mr. Eomulo S. Naon, that able, progressive young 
 Ambassador of Argentina is preaching over this country. They 
 listen instead to a man that was already half in the grave when 
 he wrote his Anti-Monroe doctrine book. They listen to the 
 sophistries of Anti-American orators but pay too little heed to the 
 words of a leader like Eduardo Suarez Mujica, the Ambassador 
 of Chile, who knows the sentiments of these countries more than 
 these men who seek only popular favor. 
 
 If I had time I could read to you parts that I have picked out 
 from a chapter of a book that I am now writing on Pan Ameri- 
 canism, and I could prove to you beyond question that not a word 
 of credit should be given to talk against the Monroe Doctrine. 
 The Monroe Doctrine was born in the spirit of Pan Americanism. 
 It was born in the spirit of the relationship among the nations 
 of the western hemisphere. Pan Americanism was a mighty in- 
 fluence in this country twenty-five years before the Monroe Doc- 
 trine was declared. I could quote here, if I had the time, the 
 words from that great character of Venezuela, Miranda, in 1788, 
 which were almost as remarkable as those of Monroe. And then 
 I could quote to you the words of Simon Bolivar, the George 
 Washington of Northern South America, who pointed out the 
 necessity of Pan American co-operation along the very lines that 
 the Monroe Doctrine specifically brought out. When Bolivar made 
 the call for the first great Pan American Conference which met 
 in Panama in 1826, he repeated sentiments that he had uttered a 
 score of times during the past twenty years. 
 
 Juan Pablo Vizcardo y Guzman, a Peruvian patriot and priest, 
 in a paper he left with the United States Minister in London, 
 where he died in 1798, urging independence for his countrymen of 
 South America said: 
 
 "The recent acquisition of independence by their neighbors 
 in North America has made the deepest impression on them." 
 
 Dean Gregorio Funes, an Argentine patriot, wrote in 1819 : 
 
25 
 
 "The Forth American Revolution, and the recent French 
 one, revived among us the natural rights of man/' 
 
 The President of Chile, when he received Joel Roberts Poin- 
 sett, as United States Consul General, on February 24, 1812, said: 
 
 "That power (the United States) attracts all our attention and 
 our attachment. You may safely assure it of the sincerity of our 
 friendly sentiments.'^ 
 
 In the famous ".Declaration of the Rights of the Chilean 
 People," made by Juan Martinez de Rosas about 1810, he gave 
 expression to the following remarkable Pan American sentiments, 
 which might apply almost as well today as they did then: 
 
 "1. The people of Latin America cannot defend their sov- 
 ereignty single-handed; in order to develop themselves they need 
 to unite, not in an international organization, but for external 
 security against the plans of Europe, and to avoid wars among 
 themselves. 
 
 "2. This does not mean that the European states are to be 
 regarded as enemies; on the contrary, the friendly relations with 
 them must be strengthened as far as possible, 
 
 "3. The American states must unite in a congress in order 
 to endeavor to organize and to fortify themselves * * * rpj^g 
 day when America, united in a congress, whether of the two con- 
 tinents, or of the South, shall speak to the rest of the world, her 
 voice will make itself respected and her resolve would be opposed 
 with difficulty." 
 
 Think of it! Every Latin American country approved of 
 those sentiments then, to unite Pan America not in an inter- 
 national organization, but for external security against the aggres- 
 sions of Europe and to avoid war among themselves. Do you 
 ever want better Pan Americanism than those sentiments expressed 
 'one hundred and six years ago, by the people of Latin America? 
 
 Pan Americanism does not mean that European states are to 
 be regarded as enemies. There is nothing in Pan Americanism 
 that is antagonistic to Europe unless Europe so desires to construe 
 it. On the contrary, the friendly relations with them must be 
 strengthened as far as possible. 
 
 Do you know that in 1811 President Madison sent a message 
 
26 
 
 to Congress that embodied almost the words of the Monroe Doc- 
 trine ? Then again Samuel Mitchell, member of Congress from 
 Hew York, on December 10, 1811, introduced a resolution, which 
 was unanimously approved by Congress, and contained practically 
 all the sentiments of present day Pan Americanism and also of 
 the Monroe Doctrine. In 1812 John C. Calhoun announced his 
 conversion to the cause of Pan Americanism, and the necessity of 
 the United States standing with the Latin American countries in 
 their efforts to gain their independence. You know the hold 
 on this country that the great Jefferson had. In 1808 he wrote to 
 Governor Claiborne, at New Orleans, in reference to the Cuban 
 and Mexican war : "Consider their interests and ours as the same, 
 and the object of both must be to exclude all European influence 
 from this hemisphere." Thomas Jefferson said this in 1808 ! 
 And yet they try to make us think that England and Canning 
 deserve the credit for inspiring the Monroe Doctrine, declared in 
 1823 ! Jefferson, again in 1820, three years before the declaration 
 of the Monroe Doctrine, expressed those same sentiments. Down 
 in Buenos Aires, in 1810, they discussed the necessity of Pan 
 American action to defend the new sovereignties which were aris- 
 ing in the western hemisphere. 
 
 You know the trouble we are having today with Colombia, 
 and yet Torres came from Colombia as the first diplomatic repre- 
 sentative of Latin America and in 1816 demanded of the Ameri- 
 can people that they should write a Monroe Doctrine. He did not 
 call it that, but urged that they should express sentiments to the 
 same effect. 
 
 And so I might go on, quoting and quoting. I have only 
 touched a few of the high places, in order that you may realize 
 that what we are trying to do today is only carrying out what 
 was started long ago. And do you stop to think that there is no 
 greater Pan American in all American history than Henry Clay? 
 Do you realize that when Henry Clay died he said that he believed 
 his greatest service, or the one that would last the longest in 
 history, was what he did for the republics of Latin America? The 
 greatest speeches Henry Clay delivered in Congress were those 
 of 1816, 1817, 1819 and 1820, in behalf of the Latin American 
 
27 
 
 countries. It was he who responded to Bolivar's appeal for a Pan 
 American Congress at Panama in 1826, and who sent delegates 
 after the United States Congress had three times refused to make 
 an appropriation, although they arrived too late. Just before 
 Bolivar died he wrote a wonderful letter to Henry Clay and 
 invoked the praise of future ages upon him for making the inde- 
 pendence of the Latin American countries possible. 
 
 And what of Daniel Webster? His greatest service in his 
 later years was his allegiance to the Monroe Doctrine inspired by 
 the spirit of Pan Americanism which it carried. 
 
 These are things we must weigh carefully and surely, when we 
 are studying this great Pan American situation and are trying to 
 understand relationship of the Monroe Doctrine to the present. 
 
 Today there is this great thought in the minds of nearly all 
 Latin American statesmen: We are coming back now to Just 
 where we started the Monroe Doctrine; that today, in 1916, it is 
 just as necessary, and perhaps more necessary than it was in 1816, 
 only extended and unfolded until we have a mighty oranization 
 of twenty-one governments to stand back of it and make the 
 world respect it, whereas then there was only one independent 
 nation in the western hemisphere that could stand for it. 
 
 Gentlemen, Latin America objects not to the Monroe Doctrine 
 in itself, because the study of history will not permit it. What it 
 objects to is the interpretation that so many of our statesmen 
 and essayists and writers and authorities on international law have 
 given it, upon their own authority. Latin America objects to the 
 idea of superiority and patronage on the part of the United 
 States. Latin American nations are ready to accept the Monroe 
 Doctrine as a Pan American policy which recognizes their equality 
 with the United States. 
 
 I wish I had time this evening to take you, so to speak, for a 
 birdseye view of some of the remarkable features of Latin America. 
 I could tell you how we could put all of the connected area of 
 the United States inside of Brazil, and still have room for Illinois 
 twice over. I could tell you how, out of the Amazon Eiver every 
 day flows a greater volume of water by five times than out of the 
 Mississippi and its tributaries, plus the Columbia; how Eio de 
 
28 
 
 Janeiro, its famous capital is located on the most beautiful harbor 
 in the world and has a population of one million two hundred 
 thousand. How Uruguay, which is an ambitious state to the 
 south of Brazil, has a capital, Montevideo, with four hundred 
 thousand population, and has expended ten million dollars on a 
 great harbor for the growing trade of the Atlantic Ocean, I wish 
 I were an orator that I might do justice to that fair land of 
 Argentina, where I was once your minister. You could put nearly 
 half of the United States inside of Argentina. Buenos Aires, its 
 capital, is the largest Spanish speaking city in the world ; the larg- 
 est city in the world south of the equator; the second Latin city 
 of the world, ranking next to Paris; the third city in the western 
 hemisphere, ranking after ISTew York and Chicago; a city which 
 today has a population of 1,750,000; a city that thought little of 
 spending twenty-five millions for a great subway system; forty 
 millions for a great system of docks and wharves; and twenty 
 millions for a broad avenue through the heart of the city. It 
 possesses the finest club in the world the finest opera house in 
 the Americas, and, with all due respect to the News, the Herald, 
 the Tribune, the Post, the American and the Journal, it possesses 
 the finest newspaper plant and building in the wide world! 
 
 Then I would like to take you over the great railway systems 
 of Argentina, and into the interior, to realize its possibilities, but 
 I have not time. 
 
 So across the Andes we fiy, and come to remarkable Chile. We 
 do not stop to think that we could put the whole Atlantic coast, 
 from Maine to Florida, inside of Chile; that, if we put the south 
 end of Chile down at San Diego on the Mexican line, the north 
 end of Chile would not stop at Oregon, at Washington, at British 
 Columbia or at the Alaska line, but reach away up into the heart 
 of Alaska! We do not stop to think that Chile is a country with 
 nearly three hundred thousand square miles, often called the 
 Yankeeland of South America, in the south temperate zone, di- 
 rectly south through the Panama Canal. We do not stop to think 
 that Santiago, its capital, sometimes called the Paris of the Andes, 
 has a population of five hundred thousand, and that at Valparaiso, 
 Chile's port, a city of two hundred and fifty thousand, they are 
 
29 
 
 building a great artificial harbor that will be the finest of its kind 
 upon the Pacific. 
 
 We do not stop to think that into Bolivia we could put Texas 
 twice over and then add this wonderful state. Into Peru we could 
 put the whole Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia. And we for- 
 get that down there in Lima, its capital, they had a university one 
 hundred years old, before John Harvard or Eli Yale thought of 
 founding the universities which carry their names. 
 
 And then there are Ecuador and Paraguay. I might speak 
 of them, but I have not time. In either of them you could put 
 Illinois twice over and a little more. And then: Colombia and 
 Venezuela. Just think of it ! From the most southern port on 
 our coast line, Key West, to the nearest point of Colombia or of 
 Venezuela is less than the distance from New York City to Kansas 
 City ! Into Colombia, with four hundred miles of coast on both the 
 Atlantic, or Caribbean, and the Pacific, you could put the entire 
 German Empire and France. In Venezuela you could include the 
 greater part of France and Spain. 
 
 And so I might go on describing Panama, the five Central 
 American republics, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and 
 Haiti, but I have not time, beyond reminding you of a few general 
 facts. 
 
 Do not think for a moment that I speak of Latin America 
 as being an El Dorado; it has its shortcomings. There are serious 
 difficulties facing our commerce and our trade. There are real 
 discouragements ahead of us before we shall have all of the con- 
 ditions that we desire. But what would our country be, what 
 would Chicago be, what would this great Mississippi Valley be, 
 if it had not been for the- fight that our ancestors had to carry 
 on to evolve present conditions? What would our own Pacific 
 coast be, and our mountain country, except for the overwhelming 
 difficulties of all kinds that our ancestors fought and mastered 
 before those sections reached their wonderful, present day civiliza- 
 tion and progress? We must not expect that in a twinkling of 
 an eye there is any magic that can suddenly transform Latin 
 America into an ideal part of the world. It will take time to 
 evolve its new life. But the United States must lead the way. 
 
30 
 
 Upon the Pan American future depend our life and our pros- 
 perity. Let us hope that when the European war is over, there 
 may not a line go up and down the Atlantic Ocean with Europe 
 and Asia on one side and Pan America on the other? And, fear- 
 ful though the thought may be, let us pray that there may not 
 a line go up and down the Pacific, with Japan and China on one 
 side and Pan America on the other? But we must think of these 
 things even if they seem remote possibilities. If, then, a line 
 were drawn east and west, cutting off Latin America, with all 
 of her resources and relationships, and finally another line, cutting 
 off. Canada, for we know her allegiance would be with another 
 land, the United States would become the greatest Belgium in the 
 war history of the world ! 
 
 These are thoughts we must consider. They are not the words 
 of an alarmist. They are not sensational sentiments. They are 
 our sound suggestions, as we study the situation. As I go away 
 I want to leave a kindly thought in your minds. I realize, from 
 my experience in this world, that after all, the great controlling 
 influence to weld nations together, just as it is the great con- 
 trolling influence to weld men and women together, is sentiment; 
 we may call it love ! the most wonderful thing in the world. That 
 same love is going to be the most powerful factor in holding the 
 nations of the western hemisphere together in the future, for love 
 among both human beings and nations is founded upon mutual 
 confidence, upon trust of one in another, and upon the intimate 
 association of those concerned. Now, then, how many of you have 
 stopped to think of the great tie of sentiment that binds Latin 
 America to us, without reference to what may be your thoughts 
 about the commerce of the United States with those countries? 
 How many realize that every one of these twenty countries lying 
 south of the United States wrote its Declaration of Independence 
 upon the Declaration of the Independence of the United States, 
 not upon any document of Spain, of Portugal, of Prance, of Ger- 
 many, or of Great Britain? How many of you realize that every 
 one of these countries wrote its Constitution, not upon the Con- 
 stitution of any European land no matter how close the ties of 
 blood and language, but every one of them wrote its Constitution 
 
31 
 
 upon that of the United States. Great Britain, Germany, Etance, 
 have no such ties as these with any group of nations in the world. 
 These are ties before God, that we can never break, because they 
 are part of absolute history. And, no matter what may be the 
 trend of future events, there are the facts as great mainsprings 
 of inspiration for our interest in those lands and for their interest 
 in us. 
 
 Then again there is the influence of the immortal Washington. 
 The other day, when I went down to Richmond and into the 
 rotunda of its old capitol, I almost fell upon my knees to worship, 
 so to speak, the statue of Washington, because it was the figure, 
 the original bronze, that Houduin himself wrought, in the very 
 time of Washington. And as I gazed at that figure of Wash- 
 ington, wrought when Washington was alive, I felt as if I were in 
 touch with that mighty man of the early days of our land, and I 
 was tempted, inspired, to say to him that I brought the homage 
 of all Latin America, because history tells us this fact, that nearly 
 every great general and patriot of Latin America, who fought for 
 the independence of his land, at one time or another stated that 
 he was inspired to make the struggle for the liberty of his coun- 
 try, by the example of the immortal George Washington ! 
 
 I have now led up to the final picture that I want you to have 
 in your minds when you go away; the contrast of the civilizations 
 of Europe and of Pan America, as a reason why all of you should 
 go out of this room tonight as sincere Pan Americans, not merely 
 as citizens of this State and city and section, but as citizens of all 
 the United States and of Pan America, with a responsibility 
 greater than you have ever known before. 
 
 The operator turns the reel, the curtain rises, and the films 
 move on. It is Europe? No, it is hell! We see nothing but 
 armies, men and women, children, dynasties, civilizations, pouring 
 over the brink of war's despair into the pit of hell ! We see the 
 mighty civilization of thousands of years being destroyed under 
 the withering fire of the greatest conflict of forces that the world 
 has ever known, and before long our eyes are closed in sheer 
 weariness at the sight of destruction and death and ruin on every 
 hand. 
 
32 
 
 Then this curtain goes down, to rise again on another scene. 
 The operator again turns the reel; the films move on; they por- 
 tray Pan America and we see the marvelous picture of sister 
 nations working harmoniously together; we see the great Pan 
 American Scientific Congress in Washington, the greatest inter- 
 national gathering that Washington has ever known, the greatest 
 Pan American gathering which ever met upon the western hemis- 
 phere, when two hundred official delegates, representing every 
 country of the western hemisphere, with their wives and children, 
 assembled under the shadow, as it were, or under the light, of the 
 Capitol of the United States, and there sang the songs and told 
 the stories of peace and love and friendship and concord and 
 concert, as never before have been sung and told there in the his- 
 tory of this western hemisphere. 
 
 Finally the operator gives us one dissolving noble view, a 
 Godly scene — a scene of prayer and thankfulness. It takes us 
 down the Cordillera, down through Central and South America, 
 far south to the dividing line between Argentina and Chile. 
 There, fifteen thousand feet above the sea, with its snowy Andean 
 peaks for a background, the rolling plateaus of Argentina on one 
 side and the mountains of Chile on the other, we see standing 
 high a heroic figure of the Christ, the Savior of men, erected there 
 some fifteen years ago by Argentina and Chile, when, with greater 
 cause for war than have had the countries of Europe, but inspired 
 by the principles of Pan Americanism, inspired by the ideas of the 
 civilization of the western hemisphere, inspired by a desire to set 
 an example not only to Pan America, but to all the world, they 
 settled their difficulties by arbitration and built this bronze figure 
 of Christ, with arms outstretched over Chile and Argentina as if 
 to bless them with everlasting peace; and then they inscribed upon 
 its base an immortal sentiment which will always be an inspiration 
 to all nations of Pan America and eventually of the world, to this 
 effect: "Sooner shall these mountains crumble to dust 'than shall 
 Argentina and Chile go to war." 
 
 (Long and continued applause.) 
 
 President MacChesney: This completes our programme, 
 but Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I may assure our guest of the 
 
33 
 
 evening that I express our common opinion and common hope 
 that we will leave this room with a larger appreciation of the 
 importance, both of the extent and resources of South America 
 and of our need to know The" Other Americans more intimately, 
 and that the relations of the countries of both North and South 
 America^ may continue to be increasingly cordial, standing solidly 
 together for the integrity of the "Western hemisphere and its com- 
 mon purpose to serve and promote our common republican ideals. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS^ 
 
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