Ta VY1 - srTii Inter-American Cultural Relations https://archive.org/details/interamericanculOOcomm Inter-American Cnltnral Relations Addresses delivered at the Annual Dinner of the Committee on Cooperation in Latin x^merica, January 9th, 1928, New York City. Inter-American Understanding Page 3 His Excellency Dr. C.vrlos Davil.a, Ambassador oj Chile to the United States. Cultural Peaks in Contemporary South America Page 8 Dr. John xA.. Mackay, South American Lecturer, Young Men’s Christian Association ; former Professor, Universidad de San Marcos, Lima, Peru. Practical Pan Americanism Page 14 Dr. Samuel Guy Inman, Secretary, Committee on Cooperation in Latin America; Instructor International Relations, Columbia University. Published by Educational Advance in South America 419 Fourth Avenue. New York City. 0 no s B ^ M y O . _ < 2 = E <3 0 y) 1^* C a a S = s o- -2 C/) 3 4) 4) C trt 5 3 E UJ ^ - ^ t*: c/j 4 i * *715 ■g .2 E ^ 0 y ^ CC \Jm M M ^ Q Tf to O N 1. i. s s i i 00 0 U) c s< u n 3 1. -fi 73 BO S' ■ ■“ > .2 c 4) 0 Q H 0 S3 V) U) 4) y 4) _0 c bA rs X *? C .£ u (0 U 12 ' lA ;/) 4> X 0 Dr IS 1 1. Ok i 1 N s> ^ h .0 »> 4; a 3 ^ 2 ® « -c ^ yj • oa H CS 05 ^ c b 3 OJ .0 — t 0. 4) 0 4) M ■^15 1 e oi s: 0 5 I • “ E u - o . < ^ a. !S S Q S a in ro <-■ O) (>• 10 3 Inter- American Understanding by His Excellency, Dr. Carlos Davila, Ambassador of Chile to the United States I wish to thank you, ladies and gentle- men, with all my heart for the high distinction which you have extended to me in making me your guest of honor in this your annual reunion, where, united in friendly banquet you periodically reaffirm your faith in the destinies of a continent and renew the pledge which you have so generously undertaken, to continue lending your self-sacrificing cooperation to the work of uniting, by the ties of spirit and culture, the peoples who, separated by dif- ference of race, stretch forth their arms for a closer communion in the future. And I thank you especially because 1 do not fail to realize that your kind invi- tation has a deeper significance than merely to offer a cordial welcome to a diplomat who represents one of thr countries whose friendship interests you and to whose future you are not indifferent; that it is, in fact, a way in which you have undertaken to give prominence to the sowing of the new seed of friendship between the United States and my country, which may unite our peo- ples in soul, in mind, and in heart, to which you know I have devoted the best part of my life as a journalist. You, as I, feel that there is a silent chord in the instrument of harmony between the two Americas. You, as I, believe that the prosperity of the political idea of Pan Americanism and the strong development of our economic relations cannot, by them- selves alone, realize the hope of solidarity of a hemisphere. And you and I have the right of pointing out to the consideration of our fellow citizens of the Americas this open breach in the structure which it in- terests us to fortify. You and I are soldiers in the front rank — and perhaps the most disinterested of all — in the battle to convert into links of affection the obstacles that still are raised in the highway of a loyal understanding betw'een this people and the peoples of Latin America. A little w’hile ago this city witnessed the homage in which justice \ms rendered to a life exemplarily consecrated to the service of his country, a worthy coronation of the career of the enlightened statesman and eminent citizen, Elihu Root. Those mani- festations, although they were a generous and sympathetic recognition of merit, did not reveal the personality of this illustrious jurist — I judge only by the versions of the press — in one of its most signal aspects, which should give it imperishable memory in the American hemisphere. A generation of Americas of the North and of the South has grown to maturity since Mr. Root, as Secretary of State of the LTnited States, accomplished a tour of fraternity through the Republics of the South. I belong to that generation. I was a youthful witness of the demonstrations which that emissary of friendship aroused in South America, and you must pardon the impulse w’hich guides me at this moment in recalling in w'hat manner our appreciation of the results obtained then by Mr. Root has survived the years and how' it has borne fruit. South America has not forgotten this illustrious guest of 1906, the highest personal representative w’hich the LTnited States until that time had sent on a mis- sion abroad. Our countries had lived — why should we not recognize it? — through moments of apprehension and doubt, culti- vated by the persistent voices of warning against the eventualities which the future policy of the United States in this hemis- phere would offer. At this precise instant Mr. Root entered upon the rostrum of the Third Pan American Conference at Rio de Janeiro, and his friendly hand encountered 4 in the hands of the other Americas the clasp of understanding and friendship. But it is not this alone which attracted to this man a special consideration on the part of South Americans. It was his profound faith in the destinies of this continent, in the capacity of the peoples that formed it to achieve its future great- ness. And it was in my country, crushed then in its richest and most progressive regions by a seismic catastrophe which had reduced our principal port to ruins, where Mr. Root most eloquently defined this strong faith in the future of our America. Alluding to a prophecy formulated by Lord Grey, who had said that as the nineteenth century had been the century of the LTnited States so the Twentieth Century would be the century of Canada. Mr. Root said, in the government palace of my country. “The twentieth century will be the century of South America.” He e.xpressed moreover, on this occasion, envisaging the magnitude of the disaster which had wounded the Republic, his pro- found faith in the capacity of the people of Chile to react against adversity. A splendid new and enterprising city is raised today on the ruins of Valparaiso, which was smoking in 1906, and wherever one may e.xtend his vision in South America, he will find the sons of the Tberian republics zealously engaged in the task of developing their economic heritage within the human family. We are preparing to make true, in the not far distant future, Mr. Root’s prophecy. It may be said that from that date com- menced the vigorous life of the Pan Ameri- can idea in South America. The visit of Mr. Root was judged to have this tran- scendent importance by men with whom he had personal contact, who were — to re- call only a few — Rio Branco, Nabuco and Ruy Barbosa in Brasil; Hrago, Mitre and Figueroa Alcorta, in Argentina; Battle and Zorrilla de San Martin, iri LTruguay; Ries- co, Hunneus and, later, Barros Borgoho, in Chile. Concerning the manner in which it has been judged in the L’nited States, let us hear the words of President Roosevelt who, in his message to Congress of De- cember 3, 1909, said: “In many parts of South America there has been much misunderstanding of the attitude and purposes of the United States toward the other American republics. An idea had become prevalent that our asser- tion of the Monroe Doctrine implied, or carried with it, an assumption of superiority and of a right to e.xercise some kind of protectorate over the countries to whose territory that doctrine applies. Nothins could be farther from the truth. VTt that impression continued to b^ a serious barrier to good understanding, to friendly inter- course, to the introduction of American capital and the extension of American trade. The impression was so widespread that apparently it could not be reached by any ordinary means. “It was part of Secretary Root’s mission to dispel this unfounded impression, and there is just cause to believe that he has succeeded. In an address to the Third Conference at Rio on the thirty-first of July — an address of such note that I send it in, together with this ruessage — he said: “ ‘We wish for no victories but those of peace; for no territory except our own; for no sovereignty except the sovereignty over ourselves. We deem the independence and equal rights of the smallest and weakest member of the family of nations entitled to as much respect as those of the greatest enipire, and we deem the observance of that respect the chief guaranty of the weak against the oppression of the strong. We neither claim nor desire any rights or privileges or powers that we do not freely concede to every American republic.’ “These words”, President Roosevelt con- tinued, “appear to have been received with acclaim in ever}^ part of South America. They have my hearty approval, as I am sure they will have yours, and I cannot 5 be wrong in the conviction that they cor- rectly represent the sentiments of the whole American people”. Since then the word “Pan Americanism” has run a rapid course, and in truth it must be recognized that Pan Americanism has made the greatest progress of any idea of continental, international solidarity in the history of the world. At least I do not recall another. Five conferences and then eighteen congresses on the most diverse subjects celebrated since 1911 under the tireless impulse of the Pan American Union, and a constant preoccupation of statesmen, publicists and people of the entire world on the pro and con of this idea, have made it one of those which mark a deep trail in the history of civilization. .\nd if this Pan American idea, which essentially is the aspiration to tie closely the United States with the Latin countries of the South, has made a great advance as an orientation of governments, as a concept of international policy, even more surpris- ing is the consecration which it has had as a formula for the economic relationships between the Americas. The commerce between the United States and Latin America, which in 1910 was about 690 million dollars, is at present considerably more than two thousand mil- lions annually. The commerce between the United States and South America was only about 215 millions at the time of Mr. Root’s tour; it was about 302 millions in 1910 and now fluctuates around 1100 millions. The case of Chile is especially signifi- cant; in 1910 our commerce with this country amounted to 38 million dollars; now it reaches appro.ximately 150 millions. The American investments in Chile, which were of no importance in 1906, came to 15 millions in 1910, and in 1927 were near- ly 500 millions. The United States sells in the Latin Republics of America more than Great Britain, France and Germany together. covering about 30 per cent of the imports of those republics, and placing in their markets about a fifth of the total exports of the LInited States. The total American investments in Latin America have increased in the last ten years from 1250 millions to 4800 millions, ac- cording to statistics of the last year, but to much more than 5000 millions according to unofficial estimates. If it is understood that this avalanche of American investments in Latin America is necessarily augmenting day by day its power as producer and buyer, one may calculate then the prospects of development which are offered by tb^ commercial ex- change, with which figures I have perhaps already tired you a little, if factors of another order are not raised in the path of this prosperity. It would be childish to attribute solely to a Pan .American international policy this formidable development of economic rela- tions within the Western Hemisphere. The opening of the Panama Canal and the Great War are, by themselves, factors capable of creating new commercial cur- rents and, in fact, have done so; but it cannot be denied that the trend of confi- dence and friendship between the govern- ments of the Americas, which had its origin in the dawn of the century, has been of importance sufficient not only to create this new world of business but to maintain it after the temporary factors such as the Great War, have disappeared. Referring to the opening of the Panama Canal, which, in his conception would separate the two continents materially but unite them spiritually. President Wilson said in 1913: “Interest does not tie nations together; it sometimes separates them. But sympathy and understanding do unite them ... It is spiritual union which we seek.” I take the liberty to dissent from this opinion; I believe that interests do unite covmtries. I have no doubt that they are 6 what draws nations most rapidly together, but 1 believe that I interpret the exact thought of President Wilson when I think that interests alone could not create ties of permanent union and that the “spiritual union” is the one which can give definite foundation to a real understanding among the nations. So I have come, Ladies and Gentlemen, to the dead side oj Pan Americanism, to the aspect of this idea which makes a rude contrast with that which 1 have thus far shown. Let us think for a moment how your people and ours would know and esteem one another if the ties of spirit and culture had followed the same proportion in which the ties of interests have developed, and we will have in sight the picture of the abandonment in which this idea has been left and of the magnitude of the task which awaits those who, like ourselves, are strug- gling to fill the abyss of miscomprehension which separates the great masses of these peoples. And perhaps it will not be too venture- some to think that until this work is accomplished, that of the statesmen, diplo- mats, and business men '. ill be fatally in- complete, because there will not have been created the motive which will give consis- tency in time to the Pan American aspira- tion: the continental mind. I know the efforts toward this end which are being made by the Pan American Union, the Carnegie Endowment, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Chile-Amer- ican Association, the Rotary Clubs, the American news services, certain universities and centers of culture, and very especially the agencies w'hich support the American scfiools in South America, where they are training the commanders for this cause in the future — speaking only of those with which 1 have had a personal contact. But I do not blind myself to the fact that the task requires a much wider collaboration and, above all, requires a more exact com- prehension of the problem, which can be stated thus: the interpenetration of cul- tures, the creation of a loyal friendship and confidence, the better understanding of character and psychology, in a word the spiritual union between the United States and the Latin peoples of America is yet to be accomplished. 1 have always believed that the strongest element in the greatness of the United States has been its moral structure, its powerful spiritual forces, which gave the faith, the self-control, the discipline, the sincerity and the simplicity to the moulders of this great Republic. And if this is an example of how the spiritual forces make a great nation, it will be necessary that the people of this coun- try with even greater logic than in our own, appreciate that spiritual forces of double strength will be indispensable to give reality and permanent base to an idea of solidarity between the nations of a con- tinent. There has been a growth which seems to obey a high design in the unfoldment of America and which, certainly, has had an enormous influence, superior to the factors generally considered when one speaks about the economic relations be- tween the United States and the Latin coun- tries of the South. It is the circumstance that South America may be said to have arrived at the first stage of the modern economic organization of nations at the time when the United States had just pass- ed out of it. The Lhiited States which had been during more than a century a country for invest- ments of foreign capital and which w^as organizing its production, with the most exemplary strength which the countries know, left that stage to enter that of a country with accumulated capital, wath industry of exportation and with need of raw' materials, in the precise years in which South America emerged triumphantly from her economic lethargy to an active life as 7 a producer of raw materials, as a field of investments for foreign capital, and as a factor of trade importance, as a buying power of the products oi manufacturing industry which it has not yet built. In this period the two continents are exact com- plements to each other. That which one offers is exactly what the other needs. But the moment will arrive in which South America will advance its economic evolution until it will have accumulated its own capital, will have an industry suf- ficient for its own provisions of manufac- tured goods, will be in a position to move with its own capital and media its great sources of wealth and will consume and elaborate its own raw materials. In that moment the interests which today unite may become points of conflict and the difficulties which may arise will be un- controllable to the extent that there has been neglected the task which occupies you who hear me: — that of creating between our continent and the ITited States the bonds of friendship which will unite above the political idea of governments and beyond the chains formed by economic interests. The diplomatic action which guides the international policy does not always cor- respond to a general public sentiment. The men who make its course are in the end clarivoyant and triumphant only when they are able to put public sentiment behind their policy; if they do not succeed they have no right to maintain it; the day of their downfall arrives and that which might have been a success helpful for their coun- tries will be abandoned and thrown in the face of its promoters as a failure. And that which is said of the interna- tional policy of the countries may be said also of their economic relations. It is pos- sible, even more, it is frequent that com- mercial relations may develop between countries above all consideration of nation- al sympathy; the force of interests, the foresight and the effort of some business leaders, geographical conditions or special circumstances which complement the eco- nomic activities may do it and have done it. But also we have seen how an adverse public sentiment can finally undermine the firmest consolidation of international eco- nomic interests. It erupts when one least expects and what then is believed the result of a momentary agitation may be in reality the result of an inveterate negligence — I would say, of a culpable neglect to build along with the bonds of interest, the bonds of sympathy, of comprehension, of confi- dence and of affection. Behind the pioneers of diplomacy and business there must go the moulders of public sentiment, educators, publicists, who may be called visionaries of the spirit but who bring the indispensable keystone to the arch of rapprochement between peoples. Public sentiment is by this concept the definite factor in international life and it is, even though it seems strange to say so, an inescapable economic factor. And public sentiment can only be reached on the plane of the intelligence, of the spirit, of culture, of ideas, and through education, mutual understanding, and loyal, sincere convic- tion, which create in the heart of peoples the affection which makes for confidence and leads to an amity free from prejudice, to a true binding together of nations. 8 Cultural Peaks in Contemporary South America by Dr. John A. Mackay I T is extremely unfortunate, I think, that the person chosen to treat this subject should not be a Latin or at least a citizen of the American continent. The present speaker is not only a citizen of any one of the three Americas, but he does not have, so far as I know, a single drop of Latin or Saxon blood in his veins. And yet there is perhaps a kind of symbolic appropriateness in the fact that this subject should be assigned to me. I happen to be a Celt, and part of the historic mission of the Celtic race has been to form the ethnic link between Latindom and Anglo-Saxon- dom. A section of that race united ages ago with Anglo-Saxons and Danes to form the British people, in whom English speak- ing North America has its chief roots. Another section fused its blood with Ro- mans and Iberians to form the modern French and Spanish peoples. I rejoice in the thought that part of my mission in life should be that of continuing the historic tradition of my race, serving as a kind of interpretative link betw'een the Latin and .Anglo-Sa.xon people of America. But, apart from this romantic motive which affords me such intimate satisfaction, I love the South American people for their own sake as well as for my fathers’ sake. The passion that I feel for those southern lands is equalled only by my passion for the heathered hills of Scotland. That being so, I am particularly honored this evening by being invited to become their interpreter to you. The culture of a people is the e.xpression of its spirit. By “cultural peaks”, I mean those characteristics and tendencies that express most faithfully what a people is or aspires to be. While it is true that the peaks do not form the w'hole landscape, yet they dominate it. No one can ap- preciate the details of the latter without focussing them from the lofty perspective of the peak. 1 ask you to ascend with me some of the peaks of South American cul- ture. We shall be able to focus the diver- sified panorama beneath us. W’e shall enjoy there the thrill of the bracing air and the clear vision that are experienced when people stand w'here great ideas, great emotions or great souls cast their spell over the present and prepare the future. Not all, alas, of those who have visited South America have been interested in scal- ing the peaks. \’ery many have gone there as to a treasure mine or a curio-hunters’ paradise. They have gone to speculate or to exploit, and they have been able to do so to their great advantage, or under the lure of the uncommon they have gone in search of rare plants, rare animals, rare people, rare sights, rare archeological re- mains, rare social, political and religious facts; and they have found them. But how often in their passion for the exceptional have they missed the obvious. They have generally acquired knowledge but too in- frequently attained understanding. They have given too much time to the mysterious caverns and slummy places and too little to the peaks. Let it be said with utter frankness that South America has become nauseatingly accustomed to the visits and speeches and books of those who have the monomania of the abnormal and sensatio- nal, an appetite which can be glutted in other lands besides those beneath the Southern Cross. For, after all, the only things of real intrinsic interest that any land contains are the universal elements 9 in its life and thought, those elements that link it to the main current of spiritual progress, and that constitute at once the harbinger and the dynamic of its future. I want to refer to four such universal elements in the life and thought of con- temporary South America, to four “cultural peaks”, as I have called them. The first is the peak of International Idealism. There has developed in South .Aimerica what Keyserling would call a new ecumenical sense. The most idealistic phrase ever minted by an American states- man is undoubtedly that of the .A.rgentine President Saenz Pena, “America for hu- manity”. A great North American gave democracy its classic definition; a great South American crystallized the function and destiny of true democracy in America. The international idealism to which I have alluded manifests itself in a variety of ways. It has its roots in a great ethnic fact: South America is the world’s greatest crucible of race fusion. No race is e.xcluded from entering this crucible on ethnic grounds; where e.xclusion exists it is due entirely to economic reasons. There is fundamentally no such thing as racial an- tagonism. Inter-marriage between the four ethnic families has gone on and continues to go on. Take some representative cases. The most beautiful monument in the city of Lima is the gift of the large and in- creasingly respectable and influential Chinese colony in Peru. The late lamented librarian of the University of St. Alark’s, Lima, the man who brought the library of that old University up to date, was the son of a Chinese father and a Peruvian mother. One of the most distinguished lady writers in contemporary Peru has Chinese blood in her veins. Now cross the continent to Brazil. I met last year in the great city of Sao Paulo a former General Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. in Tokio. He told me he had just arrived from Japan in one of three ships that brought to Brazil twelve hundred Japanese irnmigrants. The number of Japanese in that country now number 70,000. An American sociologist who visits South America from time to time remarked recently that each time he lands in Bahia, the town in northern Brazil where the population has been predom- inantly Negro, the colored population ap- pears to be whiter. Roosevelt called atten- tion to the fact a number of years ago that the color problem in Brazil was being solved in a purely natural way, by gradual absorption of the Negro into the lowest stratum of Brazilian society. A keen student of South American sociology, Sr. Jose Vasconcelos, the distinguished Minis- ter of Education during the Obregon administration in Ale.xico, has entitled his latest study of the Southern continent; “The Cosmic Race”. His thesis is that South America is the sphere where a new “cosmic” race, a fifth member of the ethnic family, is being evolved, to whose forma- tion the white and black, the red and the yellow races of the world shall make their contribution. This would be the true ecu- menical race of the future. A second aspect of this international idealism appears in the keen judicial sense South i\merica possesses of international right and justice. The South American republics were originally organized along the same lines of demarcation that sepa- rated the several divisions of the Colonial territory of Spain and Portugal. Speaking generally, the sanctity of national territory has been a recognized principle and ideal in intercontinental relations in South Amer- ica. The main problem has been to estab- lish the original boundaries of each terri- torial division. The application of this principle has given rise to episodes which would honor the history of any continent. After Argentine and Brazil had defeated Paraguay in war, neither of the victors appropriated a square inch of Paraguayan territory. When a serious boundary dispute between Chile and Argentina was brought to a happy issue by the arbitral decision 10 of King Edward VII these countries raised a statue of the Christ on one of the high passes of the Andes at the foot of the eternal snows, on which they engraved the words: “Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than Argentina and Chi- le break the pact that they have sworn at the feet of Christ the Redeemer.” We have an extension of the same principle to the sphere of continental comradeship in the famous principle formulated by the Uru- guayan President Brum during the late war, when he laid down that when any Amer- ican nation is engaged in a righteous war with a non-American country, that country should be regarded by other American States as a belligerent. Idealism of a similar character appeared in the attitude of the Argentine Republic to the League of Nations. The same country that had expelled the German Ambassador for a misdemeanor during the war, refused to remain in the League of Nations as soon as it was clear that Germany was not to be immediately incorporated into that body on a basis of absolute equality with other members. A little reflection upon this attitude of mind will make clear how it is that South America possesses some of the great- est international jurists, and why it is that the South American republics are consist- ently opposed to the intervention of one country in the internal affairs of another. From a South American point of view, the great question is not whether such inter- vention may do good or not, but whether it has any right to take place. It should also be clear that a group of nations who possess so strongly the sense of right and equality will never be satisfied with any kind of continental doctrine or organiza- tion which does not admit that equality. If I interpret South American sentiment aright, nothing but a League of equal and independent American Nations will be an adequate and permanent solution of inter- continental relations. A nascent sense of destiny is a third element in South America’s international idealism, and one which transfigures the whole. The war and the chaos that follow- ed brought disillusionment to South Amer- ica and with it a new self-consciousness. Spengler’s book “The Decadence of the Occident” has had a very great influence in the thinking of the younger generation of the Southern republics. Europe is about to say her last word. America’s time is coming. If so, she must get ready. I know young South Americans who look forward with Messianic passion to the dawning eve of America and whose ambition is to elimi- nate from South American soil the dregs and entail of a cycle that is passing. I know also a sacred spot on the Uruguayan coast where for many years past students of several South American lands have gather- ed in an international camp to discuss the principles of love, justice and peace which they wish to see fulfilled on American soil and to inspire one another to live for their realization. A student who attended one of those camps was some years later a mem- ber of the Chilean Government that pro- posed to submit to arbitration that coun- try’s long quarrel with her sister republic of Peru. Let me now refer to another “peak”, the peak of intellectual comprehensiveness. A sense of wholeness is a constitutive trait of South American mentality. The Anglo- Saxon mind is empirical, the South Amer- ican architectonic. The former begins with the perception, the latter with the idea. The former is practical, the latter is logical. The character of the South American press offers a first illustration of what I mean by intellectual comprehensiveness. A great South American daily attempts to give its readers each morning a synthesis of happenings through the world in the last twenty-four hours. I feel safe in say- ing that the two great dailies of Buenos Aires publish each morning from three to four times more foreign news than either the New York or London Times. One cannot take up one of these papers without looking the whole world in the face. The great headlines have an informational, not a sensational value. A visit to a great South American book store, a “book palace” as it is called in the capital cities, provides another illustration. There you will find a digest of the world’s thoughts mediated through Spanish, Por- tuguese, French and Italian publications. Engli.sh publications are much less com- mon. It may astonish some of you to know that Spengler’s great work was translated into Spanish four years before it appeared in an English translation. The four vol- umes are now in Spanish, whereas only two are in English. A Spanish translation of Otto’s epochmaking book, “The Idea of the Holy” was published almost simulta- neosly with the English translation. Keyserling’s now famous book “The World that is Being Born” has been in Spanish for a considerable time, while no English translation is yet available. If English is the gateway to knowledge in the Orient, it is not so in South America where only a small minority of the intellectual class are familiar with it. Thus a passion for up-to-dateness in every form is characteristic of the South American mind. It not only feels but thinks ecumenically. As regards the student class, the average South American student possesses, in my judgment, a wider though less profound culture than the average student in a British or North American University. A third “peak” worthy of mention is that of a neiv social passion, which has appeared in recent years in South Amer- ica. In the past everything, including education, tended to exist for a privileged class. Even now the great problem of South .\merican education consists in how’ to de-professionalize it, giving it a new social value. But the socialization of the educational system is rapidly taking place. It is being recognized that the great aim of education is to prepare the pupil for life not merely for a profession. One of the most distinguished pioneers of this new educational ideal is Dr. Antonio Sagarna, the present Minister of Public Instruction in the .Argentine Republic. Sagarna is re- volutionizing the spirit of education in that great republic. One of his chief endeavors is to fire the minds of the future citizens of his country with the ideal of living e.xemplary lives and of devoting their ener- gies to perfecting some aspect of the nation’s life. The thoughts of girlhood are being turned to a new type of female excellence, to new vocations that women can fulfill, to new home ideals. The atten- tion of boys is being directed to the dignity of manual labor, to the claims of industry, to the appeal of the pampas. Great insti- tutions for the education of young delin- quents have been organized. A North .American educator who visited recently one of those institutions remarks that it was unsurpassed by anything he had ever seen in his own country. The spirit of the boys was so marvellous and the work they did so varied and so splendid. The primary school teacher is rapidly acquiring a new dignity in South .Amer- ica. The greatest contemporary poet of the Spanish tongue, the Chilean Gabriela Mis- tral, herself began life as a humble school mistress in a little country school. I know of no more moving piece in present-day literature than Gabriela Mistral’s “Prayer of a School-Mistress”. At last this long despised class has become vocal and begun to see a vi.sion of the importance of its vocation. Who can measure the social re- sults of this renaissance? Equally interesting and significant is the youth movement which first appeared in South .America about ten years ago. In its beginning it took the form of a veri- table students’ revolution in many of the leading South American universities. The students demanded certain fundamental 12 reforms, including the resignation of many incompetent professors, and the moderniza- tion of the matter and methods of teaching in many of the subjects taught. It was necessary, they claimed, that the univer- sity should adapt itself to the needs and spirit of the new era. But in some uni- versities the students did not limit their activities to securing greater efficiency on the part of their teachers; they themselves became teachers of the masses. I have never been in contact with a nobler, more idealistic and more efficient movement than that inaugurated by a group of Pe- ruvian students for the education of the working men and women of Lima. Students who had formerly lived an idle, sensual life, became transformed into apostles of pop- ular education. They devoted their even- ings to educating and moralizing the pro- letariat, achieving the most marvellous re- sults. At the present moment there are student groups w’ho meet once a week throughout the South American continent to study some of the most fundamental problems connected with the social organi- zation in their respective countries. Social justice is one of their watch words. They are determined to give their lives for the cause of the oppressed. Never before in South America’s history have the hearts of blue blooded South Americans beat in unison with the groans of the e.xploited poor. The next ten or twenty years will witness many startling changes, as the fires of this great new passion begin to consume the stubble of a withered social order. Last of all I wish to refer to the cultural “peak” of a neiv spiritual vision, the loft- iest and most significant of all. Within the last few months two distinguished citi- zens of the Argentine Republic, both presidents of universities, have written books in which they refer to the religious problem of the continent. One of these, Dr. Juan B. Teran, president of the Uni- versity of Tucuman, has made this remark in his book entitled “The Health of Spanish America”. If religion means, he says, the soul’s aspiration to have communion with the supreme cause of the universe, an ex- perience which e.xpresses itself in ethical conduct, then South America is that part of the western world which is most ir- religious. Instead of speaking of the re- ligion of South America, he devotes a whole chapter to what he calls its “irreligion”. Religion, he affirms, has never really con- stituted an experience but a cult. There has been a complete divorce between re- ligion and morality. South American men have regarded religion as essentially wom- en’s affair, and have taken up tow'ard it a position of “benevolent neutrality”. They have not been atheists; they have been simply indifferent. In the dark background painted by Te- ran, the book of his colleague, Ricardo Rojas, president of the University of Bue- nos Aires, stands out like a snowxapped summit of the .\ndes, gold-flecked by the morning sun. Lor the first time in the history of South .American literature has a first line literary man written a serious book on Christianity. The most venerated fig- ure in Argentine literature has given to the world a book called “The Invisible Christ”. It takes the form of a dialogue between the author and a bishop. Rojas tells of his spiritual guest. His first effort was to discover among all the collections of re- ligious art an authentic portrait of Jesus. He wandered through the art galleries of Europe seeking the authentic face of Christ, but he came to realize that there was none such. He then sought spiritual satisfac- tion in philosophy but found none. Later, in the yogas of the Orient he thought he had found the peace and light he craved, but he woke up to the fact that his re- ligion was of a purely aesthetic character. His heart was unsatisfied still. At length he found in the Gospels what he craved. His statement regarding the essence of Christi- anity is among the loftiest of our time. A Christian, he says, in effect is one in 13 whom the Invisible Christ of souls creates a Bethlehem for his birth and a Calvary for his resurrection. He is one whom Christ animates and who reproduces in his per- sonal life the traits of the great Master. “I see you are a Protestant”, the Bishop says to him. “I am not”, he replies. “And you are not a Catholic?” “No”. “Nor a Theosophist?” “No”. “Then what are you?” “If you must give me a name, call me a plaui Christian." Rojas is an ecu- menical Christian, the silvern mouthpiece of a considerable number of men and wom- en in South America who are unattached to any religious denomination but who are Christian in the most absolute and ecu- menical sense. Here is a new phenomenon in South American life, a new mount of vision thrown up by spiritual forces, a vantage ground from which to survey the present dream of the future. Rojas himself dreams. He dreams of the activity of the Invisible Christ as a trans- forming spiritual and social influence. He dreams of the Christianization of America in order that it may fulfill its true Mes- sianic destiny of realizing the hitherto un- realized dream of Europe and of Christia- nity. “The association of citizens”, he says, “in a democracy like ours, can form a reli- gious brotherhood in the fullest sense of the word. The afflicted world is awaiting amid the darkness a message of hope, and how great w’ould be our joy if that mes- sage should reach it from this Latin Amer- ica of ours, a call to the whole of Chris- tendom”. If I have interpreted aright the true spirit of contemporary South America, certain conclusions become perfectly clear in re- gard to ways and means of linking North and South together in one great continental fellowship. Let me make some practical suggestions: (i) The time has come when a repre- sentative committee composed of citizens of North and South America should pro- mote the translation of the best North American literature into Spanish and Por- tuguese, and of the best South American literature into English. It is not enough to give whole libraries of English books to South .American universities. \'ery few peo- ple ever read them. In view of the fact, moreover, that South Americans and North Americans at present drink at totally dif- ferent fountains of culture, it is absolutely necessarv, in the interests of continental relations, that the chief cultural influences should be shared in common. (2) Steps should be taken to promote a greater interchange of representative students and teachers between the Amer- icas. (3) It should be made possible for groups of representative and independent citizens of all .American countries to meet at some point of the continent once a year for the purpose of discussing in a frank and friendly manner their common prob- lems and aspirations. (4) This great country of North .Amer- ica. which continually makes such munifi- cent gifts to the countries of the Orient and of Europe, should at least establish in each South .American country an educa- tional institution worthily e.xpressive of its spirit and culture. It would not be the function of such institutions to aim at airing North .American cultural superiority nor of imposing an e.xotic system of educa- tion upon South .America. It would be their function rather to put the best that North America has at the service of each South American country in order that, with the cooperation of national educators and with the necessary adaptations to national ideals and requirements, all that is best in the spirit and content of North American edu- cation might be appropriated by her south- ern neighbors if they so desired. .And let me say, in closing, that there are certain qualities common in this country which the most idealistic among South .America’s citizens prize and covet. In doing so, I will quote once again from the 14 book of Ricardo Rojas already referred to. Rojas says that, if it be indeed the case that many aspects of North American life and character appear inexplicably absurd to South America, he has observed two qualities among North Americans which he admires and would fain see transplanted into his own continent. These are, first, the mystic passion with which many North Americans pursue wealth, their sole object being to have money to give away to great human objects; and secondly, the practice which he has observed in many public men of North America of not being ashamed to introduce the words and principles of Christ into their political utterances and conduct. He cites very especially, in this connection, the great figure of Wilson. It seems to me that here are two qualities which patriotic and idealistic South Amer- icans would desire to take root in the soil of the Southern continent, just as much as patriotic idealistic North Americans would desire to introduce into their country some- thing of that rich ecumenical sense that inspires some of the great souls who live beneath the Southern Cross. Practical Pan Americanism by Dr. Samuel G. Inman M y duty is not to make an address but to bring to your attention the belief of the Committee on Co- operation in Latin America that we will never have the right kind of political and commercial relations until we have the right kind of spiritual relations. It is for this reason that the Committee has, on the eve of the opening of the Six^h Pan American Conference in Havana, iri/ited this repre- sentative group of people to publicly re- gister an emphasis on the development of these educational and spiritual exchanges so necessary to development. We could not have possibly brought be- fore you better representatives of diplo- macy, commerce, education and Christian leadership than we have on our program this evening. We are most grateful to them for coming here. Our distinguished Am- bassador from Chile did not become dis- tinguished when he was made Ambassador — he was made Ambassador because he was distinguished. As editor of LA NACION, he was a fighter for righteousness and justice. He is the new type of diplomat, fortunately not qualifying under the old definition — “A diplomat is a man who lies abroad for his country”. Our honorary guest of the evening said in his farew'ell address to the Rotary Club of Santiago: ‘‘Some of us believe with all our hearts in the efficacy of spiritual forces and that we can help each other by invoking them. For that reason I earnestly beseech all such to keep me constantly in mind.” May we assure our friend, the Ambassa- dor, that he is tonight among those who take his same position in the belief in spiritual forces and assure you that w'e will have continued fellowship with you in that higher spiritual realm. In our genial Chairman, Mr. Irving T. Bush, we have one of those outstanding representatives of business who has seen much beyond a mere exchange of goods and has become a contributor to literature as well as to the practical upbuilding of in- ternational friendship. In Dean Russell we have, not only the representative of the institution that today has trained more educational leaders than any other, but a young man w'ho has himself made distinct contributions to international friendship 15 through education. In Dr. Mackay we see e.xemplified, as much as in any living man, a demonstration of how a Christian leader can so identify himself with the people among whom he lives that he is accepted as one of their own and elected, as no foreigner was ever before, to the particu- larly difficult chair of Philosophy in the oldest university in America, San Marcos of Lima, Peru. What are the outstanding facts about our relations with our neighbors on this hemi- sphere? There are four: 1. Our rapidly multiplying economic interests in Latin America. 2. The growing extention of the polit- ical influence of the U. S. in these south- ern countries. 3. The paucity of spiritual and cultural interchange. 4. The natural consequence of growing misunderstanding and suspicion. All the material interests of the L^nlted States in Latin America have growm re- cently. This was dramatically illustrated a few weeks ago when a great procession of armoured cars moved for hours through armed guards, from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York across the ferries to steamship piers in Hoboken, carrying one of the largest shipments of gold ever made in the world’s history. Hundred of kegs of twenty dollar gold pieces were going to Brazil to help stabilize her exchange. Similar shipments to Argentina, during the last four months of this year, have totalled $62,000,000. New loans for Latin Amer- ica are announced every few days in New York’s financial circle. The total invest- ment of the United States in Latin America on June the ist, 1927, was $4,800,000,000 0*" 40% of our total foreign invest- ments. In 1919 we loaned to Latin Amer- ican governments $20,900,000. In 1926 we loaned them fifteen times that much, that is $317,708,200. As for the extension of the political in- fluence of this country in Latin America, the present crisis in Nicaragua is a suf- ficient reminder. This growing tendency to establish protectorates in the Caribbean region has led President Coolidge to de- clare recently: “Toward the governments of the coun- tries which we have recognized this side of the Canal we feel a moral responsibility that does not attach to other nations.” In spite of this rapidly extended eco- nomic and political domii'.ance over Latin America, we are doing less to share our educational and spiritual heritage with them than we are for any other part of the world. We have spent millions of dollars in establishing splendid schools and universities in the Orient. During the last few years more than a hundred million dollars have been given for Near East Relief and colleges in the Near East. One is astounded at the largeness of the gifts of Americans, as he reviews those of the year just closing, which include many millions for libraries, cathedrals, clinics, Shakespeare Memorials, for Europe, to say nothing of China, Japan and other oriental nations. But for Latin America, one looks in vain for such gifts. I believe I am correct in saying that never in our history have we made one single gift of as much as $100,000 to any school, hospital or elee- mosynary institution in all of Latin Amer- ica. In Buenos Aires people will point out to you the newest and most imposing build- ing of that city as the home of the First National Bank of Boston. They will then take you out into the suburbs and show you a residence where is housed the only North American school above the primary grade in Argentina, crowded to the doors with classes held from cellar to dome and the playground with sufficient room only for the 250 boys to stand in line. That the towering bank building represents our in- terest in commerce and the ill equipped re- sidence represents our interest in education, 16 is the natural conclusion of the Argentine. That the American business men are beginning to realize their responsibility in exporting something more than automobiles and other manufactured articles and bring- ing out of these countries something more than sugar, oil, copper and bananas, is illustrated by the following which the presi- dent of the American Chamber of Com- merce in Havana, Cuba, recently said: “American investments in Cuba amount to one billion five hundred million dollars. All the profits produced by this immense investment come to us. We complain be- cause Spain took away all the profits and put nothing back, but what universities have we provided, what hospitals have we built, what asylums have we established?” Not only for South America, but for the sake of our own souls, this emphasis must be changed. We dare not let our dividends from trade go piling up so rapidly and our gifts for Christian service remain so nig- gardly. A number here tonight have helped to inaugurate a movement which intends to correct this situation. This movement is called the South American Educational Advance. It is in process of raising $2,500,000 to enlarge North American schools in South America and to send certain specialists in public health and in social service, and provide for an inter- change of lectures and the publication of some of our best literature in Spanish and Portuguese. Eight hundred fifty thousand dollars of the total has now been raised. Tonight we are permitted to announce three important gifts. The most remark- able thing is that two of them come through Latin Americans, alumni of two of these American schools. One is a direct gift of 100,000 Chilean pesos by a former mayor of Santiago to his Alma Mater, Instituto Ingles. The other is an anony- mous gift secured by a graduate of San- tiago College, now living in this country. This gift is for $100,000, providing a similar amount be raised for the same school. The third gift of $25,000 has just been received from a North American for Colegio Americano at Buenos Aires. Since the starting of South American Educational Advance, organizations repre- sented in the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America have begun other similar projects, the Y. W. C. A. just now is beginning a fund for a building in Buenos .\ires, and the Board for Christian Work in Santo Domingo a fund for a hospital in that needy land. The Brazilian Ambassador to the United States on learning of the Educational Advance in South America, which proposed to enlarge the usefulness of our North American educational institutions in South America, wrote as follows: “It has been with the greatest interest as well as with keen delight that I have learned of your plans for the development of close spiritual and cultural relation- ships between North and South America. These have met with my warm approval insofar as Brazil is concerned, having no doubt that my colleagues of the other countries of South America have felt that the subject and your aims appeal to their sense of patriotism. “This ‘Educational Advance in South America’ which proposes to enlarge the work of a number of North American schools in South America, and to provide for a large inter-.\merican spiritual ex- change, should have far-reaching results. “No doubt the business men of your country will see that you are contributing in a large way to that fehowship and con- fidence on which alone can be based a permanent exchange of goods as well as of friendships.”