[Untitled]

To the Diplomatic Officers of the United States in Latin American Countries.

Gentlemen: The First Pan American Scientific Congress which held its sessions at Santiago, Chile, in 1908–9, designated the city of Washington as the place of meeting for the Second Congress. This unsolicited and voluntary action of the First Congress, evidencing, as it did, on the part of its members a desire to cultivate closer intellectual and cultural relations with the United States, gave to the Government of the United States intense gratification; and the scientific gentlemen who attended the First Congress as delegates of the Government of the United States, greatly impressed with the cordial reception and hospitable treatment that had been accorded to them at Santiago, were glad to interest themselves in arranging for the Second Congress. These gentlemen having determined that an appropriate time for the holding of this Congress would be in the month of October, 1915, the Congress of the United States, in the Diplomatic and Consular appropriation act, approved June 30, 1914, has been pleased to authorize the Secretary of State to invite the Governments of the American Republics to be represented thereat by delegates, and has made suitable provision for the expenses of the Congress and for the entertainment of the delegates.

You are accordingly instructed to extend to the Governments to which you are respectively accredited an official invitation to be represented by delegates in the Second Pan American Scientific Congress to meet at Washington in October, 1915.

In communicating the invitation you will express the pleasure with which the Government of the United States will learn of its acceptance by the invited Government and of the intention of that Government [Page 12] to appoint delegates to represent it in the deliberations of the Congress which it is confidently hoped will mark an important step in the development of closer intellectual ties between the United States and the Republics of Latin America.

In furtherance of this purpose I have appointed the following named gentlemen as an executive committee charged with the duty of formulating the program of the Congress and the perfecting of arrangements preparatory to the assembling of the Congress:

The Honorable William Phillips, Third Assistant Secretary of State;

The Honorable P. P. Claxton, Commissioner of Education; Brigadier General William C. Gorgas, Surgeon General, United States Army;

John Barrett, Esquire, Director General, Pan American Union;

Mr. William H. Holmes, Head Curator, Smithsonian Institution;

Mr. George M. Rommel, Chief, Division of Animal Industry, Department of Agriculture;

Professor L. S. Rowe, University of Pennsylvania;

Dr. James Brown Scott, Secretary, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

I am [etc.]

W. J. Bryan
.