Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-31
TALKS Of BUREAU
OF REPUBLICS
NEW DIRECTOR WILL SPEAK
TONIGHT
Hon. John Barrett, Former Minister
to Colombia, viii Deliver Mes.
sage to Business Men and
Financlers

Hon. John Barrett, former minister
to Colombia and during the present
month chosen director of the Bureau of
American Republics. arrived in Los
Angeles yesterday on his way to WASH
ington to assume his new duties.
He registered at the Angelus and i'm
mediately after lunch went to Pasa-
dena, where he was the guest during
the AFTERNOON and evening of G. NJ.
Daggett.
This morning committee of mem
bers of the Union League club COM
posed of G. G. Johnson, M. s. Gregory,
julius Black, Lee c. Gates, Sherman
Pease and Mr.. Daggett, will show Mr..
Barrett about the city. At 12 o'clock
lunch will be taken at the Union
League club and at the o'clock din
ner Mr. Barrett will deliver a speech
which, 1t has been announced will be
In the nature of a message to the busi-
ness men and financiers of Los Angeles
and relating to trade expansion in
South and Central America.
Twenty-one republics cooperate in
maintaining the Bureau of American
Republics, of which Mr. Barrett has
just been elected a director.
Discusses Work of Bureau
In an interview with The Herald
yesterday Mr.. Barrett said:
My heart is in the work of the Bu-
reau of American Republics and have
devoted much time and attention to the
matters which will come under my
jurisdiction. Under the practice of the
International Union of American Re-
publics, which maintains the bureau,
the director is appointed by the secre-
tary of state of the United States and
confirmed by the board of directors of
the union.
1.-THE bureau has been for some time
dignified, useful and effective, but it's
powers and resources have been some
what more limited than the needs de-
mand. At the recent conference at Rio
1t was decided to enlarge greatly the
scope of the work and place the bureau
on much stronger footing than it has
ever been before.
My first work will be in the nature of
reorganization. 1t will be necessary to
maintain a much larger clerical force,
and one of my earliest duties will be to
arrange for the construction of the
beautiful $250,000 building authorized
by the last conference. While 1 shall
be so fully employed for the next year
that 1 shall remain closely at my post
in Washington 1 have later to visit all
of the twenty Latin-American repub-
lies which are members of the union
and to travel extensively throughout
the United States.
lone of the chief satisfactions that
the appointment brings to me is the
belief that 1 shall be able to do much
more for the Pacific coast country than
I should have been able to do as min
lister or ambassador to any one coun-
try. 1 shall be brought in direct touch
with commercial affairs and one direc-
ton in which expect to extend the
scope of the bureau is to bring the COM
mercial bodies of the sister republics
into close connection In this way
shall be in a position to render espe-
cial service to Los Angeles in particular
and California in general"
The position of director af the Bu-
reau of American Republics is non
political, and the term of office is in
definite. The salary at present is $4,000,
but it is proposed to increase this to
$4,000 within the near future. The
director has the official rank of a min
lister plenipotentiary. The purposes of
the bureau of which he is the executive
head are:
To complete and distribute CONNER
cial information and prepare CONNER
cial reports.
To complete and classify information
respecting the treaties and conventions
between the American republics and
between the latter and non-American
states.