e referred to were political or diplomatic in
character. There have been held two Pan-American Scientific Congresses
in which the United States participated, one at Chile in 1908 and one
at Washington, December, 1915, to January, 1916. A very important
Pan-American Financial Congress was held at Washington in May, 1915.
These congresses have accomplished a great deal in the way of promoting
friendly feeling as well as the advancement of science and commerce
among the republics of the Western Hemisphere.

The American Institute of International Law, organized at Washington in
October, 1912, is a body which is likely to have great influence in
promoting the peace and welfare of this hemisphere. The Institute is
composed of five representatives from the national society of
international law in each of the twenty-one American republics. At a
session held in the city of Washington, January 6, 1916, the Institute
adopted a Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Nations. This
declaration, designed to give a solid legal basis to the new
Pan-Americanism, was as follows:

I. Every nation has the right to exist and to protect and to conserve
its existence; but this right neither implies the right nor justifies
the act of the state to protect itself or to conserve its existence by
the commission of unlawful acts against innocent and unoffending states.

II. Every nation has the right to independence in the sense that it has
a right to the pursuit of happiness and is free to develop itself
without interference or control from other states, provided that in so
doing it does not interfere with or violate the rights of other states.

III. Every nation is in law and before law the equal of every other
nation belonging to the society of nations, and all nations have the
right to claim and, according to the Declaration of Independence of the
United States, "to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's God
entitle them."

IV. Every nation has the right to territory within defined boundaries,
and to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over its territory, and all
persons whether native or foreign found therein.

V. Every nation entitled to a right by the law of nations is entitled
to have that right respected and protected by all other nations, for
right and duty are correlative, and the right of one is the duty of all
to observe.

VI. International law is at o