President of the International Peace Bureau, with headquarters at Berne, that the world chiefly owes a debt for the laborious compilations and the mass of material which make the Bureau at Brussels an invaluable clearing-house of information for the expert and a powerful factor for the promotion of good-will and justice between nations.

In the marble palace of the Pan-American Union in Washington is splendidly housed an organisation devoted to the development of peace, friendship, and commerce between the twenty-one republics of the western hemisphere. It is the creature of the four International Conferences held in Washington, Mexico, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires, between 1889 and 1910. This union is thus far a voluntary organisation, existing by common consent and co-operation, which focuses here the various political, social, and commercial interests of one hundred and sixty millions of people who occupy an area three times as great as Europe.

It is difficult for us of English descent, proud of an inheritance of many centuries of parliaments, to realise that the young American republics, which less than a century ago threw off the yoke of Spain, are subjects for very serious consideration. Our solicitude and help in the time of the Holy Alliance have singularly enough not been continued by great commercial interchange or intelligent appreciation. Not until Secretary Root's notable

tour around the southern continent did we open our eyes to realise the potentialities and progress of Latin America. Our press and our business men had grossly neglected it, leaving rich markets for the clever German while we went far over seas and spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Asiatic possessions in hope thereby of winning trade with the impoverished Orient, whereas our trade is in no wise dependent on our owning any land beyond San Francisco. We have entered now upon a new era, and are no longer astounded at pictures of noble edifices in Uruguay or Costa Rica, of miles of shipping and grain elevators in Buenos Aires, and cathedrals and opera-houses that equal any which our rich land can boast. We are beginning to comprehend that revolution is no longer in most southern republics the order of the day, and that for fifteen years, at least two thirds of these republics have had none of any consequence. We have discovered the necessity of sending a different type of American to deal with these more courteous and somewhat suspicious people to the south-drummers who know the language, who carry schedules and send bills of lading in the tongue and coinage of the country, who leave behind them brusqueness and "hustle, and learn to give credits and have patience. We are now sending consuls who do not disgrace us and are showing ourselves more appreciative and friendly. Not a little of this recent change has been due to the enthusiasm of Mr. John Barrett,

View through the Arches, Showing Section of Patio of the New Building of the International Bureau of the American Republics at Washington.

(Courtesy of Hamilton Holt, Esq.)

who since 1906 has been Director-General of the Pan-American Union, during which time the correspondence and publications of the Union have increased tenfold. The monthly magazine, published in two editions, one in English for circulation in the United States, the other in Spanish, Portuguese, and French sections for circulation in South America and Europe, is a constant revelation of a new world of marvellous interest to every student of human progress. The Columbus Library, housed in the capacious new building in Washington, comprises 20,000 volumes upon the republics; these, with daily newspapers, monthly reviews, maps, gazettes, and monographs, furnish a mine of information and, together with the constant work of all the officials, serve to create a mighty influence to bring about that mutual understanding which is essential to the justice that produces peace.

The Union has led to the improvement of passenger service in steamship lines to South America, has increased travel, and has started the study in many educational institutions of Spanish and Portuguese and of Latin-American economic, industrial, and political conditions. From time to time special representatives are sent throughout the twenty-one republics to collect the latest information. The magnificent Washington structure, largely the gift of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, is placed in spacious grounds, which are eventually to be transformed into beautiful gardens with