SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. LETTER FROM THE ACTING SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, TRANSMITTING A COMMUNICATION FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE SUBMITTING DECEMBER 31, 1914.-Referred to the Committee on Appropriations and ordered TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, The Secretary of State in his communication explains the reasons Respectfully, BYRON R. NEWTON, The SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. HD-63-3-vol 107- -2 DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 29, 1914. SIR: In the estimates for foreign intercourse for the year ending June 30, 1915, I submitted an item of $50,000 to enable the Government of the United States suitably to participate in the Second Pan American Scientific Congress, to be held at the city of Washington in October, 1915, for necessary expenses incidental thereto, and for the entertainment of delegates. Congress, in the Diplomatic and Consular appropriation act for the fiscal year 1915, appropriated $35,000 for the purpose mentioned and authorized the Secretary of State to invite the Governments of the American Republics to be represented by delegates at the said conference. In pursuance of this authority, official invitations in the name of the Government of the United States were duly extended to the Governments of the American Republics and the invitations have been generally accepted. No government has declined. It appears from the remarks of the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, when the bill making appropriations for the Diplomatic and Consular Service for the fiscal year 1915 was under consideration in the House of Representatives (Congressional Record, 63d Cong., 2d sess., p. 9468), that the Committee on Foreign Affairs in considering my request for $50,000 "thought as this Congress did not convene until October of next year, we could appropriate the $35,000 now, which would permit the extension of the invitation now and that we could in the next bill appropriate the additional $15,000." As before stated, no Government has declined the invitation extended by the Government of the United States, and it is expected that the second congress to be held at Washington will far exceed in attendance the first congress at Santiago. For that congress the Government of Chile expended nearly $146,000. A careful estimate of the expenses of the Washington congress would indicate that the $50,000 originally asked for will be inadequate and that at least $75,000 will be required if the Government of the United States is not to suffer in comparison with the warm-hearted and generous hospitality accorded to the first congress by the Government of Chile. I have the honor to request that you will submit to the House of Representatives the following item for inclusion in the deficiency appropriation bill: To enable the Government of the United States suitably to participate in the Second Pan American Scientific Congress to be held at the city of Washington in October, 1915, and for the necessary expenses for clerks, printing (including the publication of the proceedings of the congress in English and Spanish), stationery, and supplies and other incidental expenses, including rent in the District of Columbia, and for the entertainment of the delegates, $40,000 in addition to the $35,000 appropriated for the same purposes by the act entitled "An act making appropriations for the Diplomatic and Consular Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1915," approved June 30, 1914, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of State. As a result of the deliberations of the Santiago conference, important contributions were made to our knowledge of subjects of general interest to the Republics of the Western Hemisphere, and substantial progress has resulted through personal cooperation of their representatives in bringing into closer relationship the people of the United States and of the Latin-American countries. It is believed that the second conference at Washington will result in the fostering of still greater intellectual and commercial ties between the United States and those countries; for the transactions of the forthcoming congress at Washington will not, I am informed, be restricted to abstruse science, but will embrace subjects of pure and applied mathematics, the physical sciences, the natural sciences, anthropology, and ethnology, engineering, medicine, hygiene, jurisprudence, sociology, pedagogy, philosophy, agricultural and animal industry; and it is thought that the scope of the deliberations of the congress, especially in their bearing upon matters of economic and applied science and their influence upon the constantly expanding trade relations between the several countries, will be sufficiently comprehensive to command the interested attention of the people of the United States. The delegates who will attend the congress will be gentlemen preeminent in their countries for culture and learning, and too much stress can not be laid upon the important bearing which the acquaintanceship of such men with our institutions and people will have upon the relations of those countries with the United States, especially when the time is so opportune for us to cultivate with those countries closer relations and more intimate intercourse. These gentlemen, coming as they will as the representatives of their Governments in response to the official invitation of the Government of the United States, will be guests of the Nation. The dignity of the United States would require that a generous hospitality should be accorded to them, somewhat in keeping with that extended by the Government of Chile, and the Governinent of the United States should not be niggardly in providing means for their entertainment and for enabling the officers of this Government to give them as thorough a knowledge of this country as their short sojourn will permit. I sincerely hope that proper provisions to these ends will be made by Congress and that the item I now submit will receive the favorable consideration of that body. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, The SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. O W. J. BRYAN. |