The Washington herald., 1906-10-09
BUREAUS SCOPE ENLARGED.
Director Fox, of international
Bureau, Tells of Its work.


one Of the most important results OF
the recent International conference OF
American States at Rio de Janeiro viii be
the Increased efficiency and usefulness Of
the International Bureau. located in
Washington. according to William c. Fox,
its director. who has just returned from
Brazil.
The scope Of the bureaus work has been
greatly enlarged and its authority en-
HANGED with a view 10 making It more
effective and centraHzing the work of the
union Hereafter the work Of executing
is far as possible the plans of the Con-
ference viii be entrusted to 4 supervising
committee OF three, working with the
director.
This committee will be elected by the
governing board of the international
union at its meeting the first Wednes-
day of November, when Director Fox will
make his report on the conference Mr.
Fox. who represented the bureau at the
second conference in Mexico in 1901. as
we'll as At Rio, outlined the work accom-
pished by the convention, as follows:
That the third international confer
/ ence has been a most important event IN
Z
the several countries has been demon
strated in many ways. The work before
il was accomplished with such expedi-
tion that It's sessions occupied but slight
ly over one month. whereas the pTeced-
ing convention took up four months, and
The first over six months. The reasons
for this are not hard to see. All the
delicate work of preparing the programme
and the rules OF procedure was done IN
advance and was accepted by the con-
ference without debate. In only one in
stance did the conference change u rule
and that was when 1t voted unanimously
to admit the press to the floor.
Another important feature. and one
which saved a great deal of time. was
the fact that all of those who represented
the United States were able to fglly COM
prehend the Spanish language. On this
account the chairman Of the delegation
was able to announce to the conference
that the use of the English language
would be waived. The Brazilian dele
CATION then announced they would dis
pense with the use Of the Portuguese
language. This practically put the in
terpreters out of business.
The concession to the newspaper men
was generous in the extreme. inasmuch
as they had their desks upon the floor
/ IN easy reach of any delegate.
without doubt one of the most I'm
portant pieces of work accomplished was
that with regard to the international
Bureau. Its sphere Of influence has been
enlarged In several directions. In the
| first place, provision was made that the
/ bureau shall assist IN obtaining the ratiti-
cation OF the resolutions and conventions
adopted by the conference. Heretofore
! these matters have been referred by the
proper authorities In the country where
! the conference was held to the several
| governments, for such action as they
/ might see fit to take This mode Of pro-
cedure will continue, but in addition /;
will be the duty OF the bureau to keep
| track of the actions taken. and to facili-
tate In every way judicious and proper
! in securing favorable attention by the re-
| spective governments.
/ As an aid to the bureau, the proper au-
4 thority in each country will be requested
| to appoint committees. responsible to the
/ Minister Of Foreign Affairs, and COM
| posed Of persons who have been delegates
| to international American Conferences,
/ for the purpose Of furnishing the bureau
with such information as will aid It in
| securing ratification of the resolutions
| The Importance Of the new work entrust-
| ed to the bureau will be more fully ap-
preciated when il is considered that while
the simple coming together Of an aggre-
CATION of prominent men from all Amer
/ lea is in itself of the highest import
/ ance, If what they accomplish in their de-
| liberations becomes law by ratification.
| the highest expectations win have been
realized"