Evening star., 1926-04-04
Pan-American Journalists Aims
Point to Unity in Culture Of West

of problems which happened To he
most vexinG at the time AS result
uf Blaine's activities another Pan
American conference met in 1889.
Chief of. the many problems before
il were the preservation of peace ana
the promotion of prosperity. In adj
dition, there were the establishment
of copyright laws and patent ana
trade mark regulations: the adoption
of some form of frequent and regular
communication between the countries,
consideration of some definite plan
for the arbitration of disputes, and
other minor matters. At this con
ference all the governments Of the
continent were represented with the
exception Of the Dominican Repub-
lie Out of II grew two SignlhCant
decisions: To hold further confer
ences at stated intervals and to es-
tablish 3 permanent office TO func-
ton as the organ of the conference.
**
/ IN 1So0 was established an Inter
national Union of American Repuh-
lies" The purpose of this union was
to collect and distribute commercial
data and information. The union was
to act through a bureau called the
Republics" which was TO serve as a
| medium to dispense information re-
garding the commerce of the nations
| of North and South America. The
| bureau was at first under the control
of the Secretary of State Of the United
| States but il was found that this prac-
| tically nullified the international char
acter of the bureau. Accordingly. a
| special committee in 1896 authorized
the creation of an executive commit
tee to act as supervisor and admins
traitor of the bureau. The Secretary
of State of the United States was
permanent chairman of this body and
the four other members were taken
| in rotation from the Latin American
countries In 1899 this committee was
given power to name director of
the bureau and other officials.
This was the first real orga tion
of the Pan-American Union. In its
formation one of the chief aims of
Bolivar was forgotten. however. 1t
was purely commercial bureau. de
signed to aid in the establishment of
better commercial relations, and little
or no thought was given to the Cul
tural side of the organization, sid"
which seemed to Bolivar. and which
now is generally admitted, to be of
equal importance with, If not of
greater importance than, the COM
mercia1.
AT the second international con-
| ference this omission was recognized.
and the name of the bureau was
changed to "the International Bu-
reau of the American Republics.
Another great change made at this
conference was to provide for gov
erning board composed of the Sec
retary of State of the United States
and the diplomatic Representatives ot
| the other member republics. This
is the present personnel of the board
of the Pan-American Union.
The next conference, held in 1910.
| further enlarged the scope of the or
ganizat ation 10 include activities of
every sort, and changed the name to
"the Pan-American Union" At this
conference II was realized that not
only commercial ties had TO be made,
but also the cultural life of the va
rious countries had to be made as
standardized as possible. The union
was to seek this. 1t was to endeavor
to bring about a better understand
! ing among the nations and to seek
| the development of an American
| consciousness AS result of it's
activities along this line there has
now developed a spirit of solidarity
i and an atmosphere of good feeling
which has been of inestimable value
| in preserving the cordial relations
| between the countries of North, Cen
| tral and South America.
At this conference it was planned
| to bring about as soon as possible
gatherings which would tend to pro-
mote the establishment of closer ties,
and although no mention was made
| of a newspaper congress. there has
been a feeling that the calling of
this congress has been in direct con-
| formlty with the aims of the union
as outlined at this conference.
X 4 X
THERE are FIVE broad fields which
the activities of the Pan-Ameri-
can Union cover. Although they are
not all directly associated with the
! press, it will be seen that none could
be adequately covered were it not for
the assistance of newspapers. The
first of these fields in securing the
ratification of the treaties adopted by
the Pan-American conferences and
giving effect to them. One of the
gravest dangers confronting all inter
national conferences is the absence of
some body to give effect to its conclu-
sions. In this respect the PanAmeri-