An "All-American" Conference

1900

Arrangements are in progress for the assembly at the City of Mexico next year of a general congress of all the independent governments on the American continent. The gathering will be similar to the "Pan-American Conference" which met at Washington in 1889. One result of that conference was the formation of an International Union of American Republics, with a "bureau" of general information. The bureau, which includes in its membership all of the republics, is taking up the preliminary work of the proposed congress. The replies which Secretary Hay has received to his letter suggesting the new conference indicate that all the American republics will be represented.

The conference will have no political aims. It will consider questions of trade, facilities for transportation by rail and sea, banking systems and customs methods, and perhaps it will discuss the feasibility of a permanent tribunal of arbitration to settle disputes among the republics without recourse to war.

There were apprehensions, when the first Pan-American Conference was called, that its usefulness would be impaired by the suspicions and jealousies of some of the governments represented. This did not occur. The new conference should strengthen the ties of common interest among the American republics. If, as is hoped, similar conferences can be held in the future once in two years, or even oftener, at the different capitals, these results may be made permanent. — Youth's Companion.