k your
aid in promoting the beneficent work of the Union of
American Republics, which was established by the Conference
of Washington in 1889, continued by the Conference of Mexico
in 1902, and has now been made permanent by the Conference
of Rio de Janeiro in 1906. There is a general feeling that
the Rio Conference, the South American journey of the
Secretary of State, and the expressions of courtesy and
kindly feeling which accompanied them have given a powerful
impulse to the growth of a better acquaintance between the
people of all the American countries, a better mutual
understanding between them, the establishment of a common
public opinion, and the reasonable and kindly treatment of
international questions in the place of isolation,
suspicion, irritation, strife, and war.

There is also a general opinion that while the action of the
Bureau of American Republics, designed to carry on this work
from conference to conference, has been excellent so far as
it has gone, the scope of the Bureau's work ought to be
enlarged and its activity and efficiency greatly increased.

To accomplish this, a building adequate to the magnitude and
dignity of the great work to be done is indispensable. With
this view the nations constituting the Union have expressed
their willingness to contribute, and some of them have
contributed, and the Congress of the United States has, at
its last session, appropriated, to the extent of $200,000,
funds available for the purchase of a suitable site in the
city of Washington. With this view also the Conference at
Rio de Janeiro, on the 13th of August, 1906, adopted
resolutions looking to the establishment of a 'permanent
center of information and of interchange of ideas among the
Republics of this Continent as well as a building suitable
for the library in memory of Columbus,' and expressed the
hope that 'before the meeting of the next International
American Conference the International Bureau of American
Republics shall be housed in such a way as to permit it to
properly fulfill the important functions assigned to it by
this conference.'

Those functions are, in brief, to give effect to the work of
the conference; to carry out its resolutions; to prepare the