The death of Leo S. Rowe has been deeply mourned as a deplorable loss for all Americans. We feel that one peculiarly our own has disappeared, for he inspired never-failing liking and admiration in all men throughout the Americas. His tragic end deepened this sentiment, and set in relief his whole worth as a man in whom the twenty-one nations he loved and served with such unswerving fidelity saw themselves reflected and personified. Lives of quiet endeavor are like great rivers, which flow along silently and reveal their true might only when they come to a sudden precipice.

Imposing indeed is this tribute of a whole continent gathered here in spirit to honor the memory of one for whom every American feels that gratitude and affection which generous lives inspire, a tribute which is enhanced by the presence here tonight of the Chief Executive of this great nation.

The embodiment of exceptional human qualities at the service of the Pan American ideal-this will be the judgment of posterity on Leo S. Rowe.

He was truly a man of wisdom and discernment, who knew how to judge events and their inner meanings; who could guide gently and tactfully; who was goodness incarnate, instilling virtue where it was lacking or was found but scantily; and who had that most rare ability to understand with the heart "the many reasons that reason does not understand."

His human virtues stand out in high relief for us to admire. As for his achievement, it is easy to bear witness to the fullness and excellence of his knowledge; to his painstaking labor and unfailing courtesy; to his many-faceted will to service;

and to that nice balance between a wellrounded personality and an intelligence whose directness of approach enabled him to solve simply and forthrightly the most far-reaching, delicate, and complex problems presented to him.

It was rather surprising to discover the clarity and simplicity of his mind, because his career was not marked by those sharp contrasts, those sudden leaps forward, that distinguish the course of dramatic personalities. And the fact is that clarity and simplicity denote the zenith of the human spirit. The evolution of the spiritual life proceeds from the complex to the simple, from the confused to the clear and precise. Technology, science, art, law, higher politics, good diplomacy, all attain their perfection in simplicity. Euclid will ever be the unexcelled master of mathematics. And in ethics, as in Euclidean geometry, wisdom lies in the straight line. It is most fitting, then, to describe as Euclidean the life, work, and personality of Leo S. Rowe.

Many hold that diplomacy is the art and science of deceiving by means of suave courtesy, and others think of it as a bitter struggle waged over glasses of champagne or at fashionable gatherings. But the statesmen, the diplomats of greatest insight, consider diplomacy to be none other than the application of law in its purest forms. Instinctively, Dr. Rowe was a man of this school. Exact as every man of action, precise as a logician, straightforward as every true believer, he condemned duplicity as worthless and inept. What serious achievement of lasting significance ever survived if founded upon falsehood? For him law was the expression of justice and the highest form of life. By means of law justice is done, for justice consists of

determining what should be the rule and then applying it in every case. Hence the jurist has to be, by the very nature of his profession, a fundamentally fair and understanding man, and the juridical sciences have as their real and innate basis the sense of balance inherent in living organisms. He who would convert law and diplomacy into instruments of deccit falls. into irremediable error as a jurist and as a diplomat. At times, it is true, such a one seems to triumph, but he suffers the same inevitable and disastrous fate as he who puts his trust in the fallacious gift of drugs. By knowledge, by experience, by the application of logic, by intuition, Dr. Rowe always based his policies on honesty. He knew, as the biologist and the historian know, that all things work together for the noble and honorable spirit.

One remarkable and important phenomenon, a characteristic par excellence of Dr. Rowe's accomplishment, was that for a quarter of a century he succeeded in directing the Pan American Union without a slip, in leading it along firm and lofty paths without straying from the course that his sound instinct charted for it. During that time he led the twentyone nations as though they were an orchestra, without discord or conflict; all was harmony and concert among them, in spite of diverse interests, divergent aspirations, infinitely varied circumstances. To obtain this result his notable qualities naturally contributed much: his clear intelligence, his cordial good will, his discretion in action. But the achievement of avoiding mistakes for so long a time and on so vast a stage requires a broader explanation, since it is one of man's attributes to err, or at least to be in unstable equilibrium, requiring constant correction. Some underlying power or principle must have been responsible for so impressive a record.

The marvelous flexibility of Pan Ameri

canism and of the century-old form of the inter-American system harmonized very well with Dr. Rowe's wise and sure instincts. We should note that Pan Americanism is completely lacking in dogmatism, as he was; that it attracts rather than repels; that by its nature it rejects extreme ex-cathedra definitions, since definitions are necessarily cramping; and that it avoids an ironclad statement of principles, which would also check any desire for advancement. The ideology of Pan Americanism and the means by which it accomplishes its ends are truly the fruit of experience rather than of dogma.

For example, the sense of solidarity, which today is so firmly rooted in the collective conscience of the American nations, is as old as the independence of these republics. But for more than a century it had no opportunity to crystallize as a Pan American principle, partly because of the political conditions at the time when Bolívar tried to express it juridically, partly because of the erroneous application that deformed the Monroe Doctrine until it became a source of suspicion and antagonism rather than of united aspirations. These errors made it necessary to wait until the ideal germinated in the collective conscience of America, so that in the fulness of time the principle, first expressed as nonintervention and later enlarged as the Good Neighbor policy, was generated. Only then could there be a universal acceptance and approval of Roosevelt's sublime concept.

Leo S. Rowe lived through the last three stages of the evolution of that Pan American aspiration. When he assumed the Directorship of the Pan American Union in 1920, the possibility of a generous interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine was completely discredited. With the faith of a true believer, he hoped and labored for the adoption of the principle

of nonintervention, and was a prophet and a practitioner in advance of the Good Neighbor methods and policy.

In that policy he saw his beliefs triumph, and it was a source of satisfaction that gave him great peace of mind. And just as the spirit of the inter-American system is adaptable, so Dr. Rowe's was open-minded and generous. Everywhere from his position of leadership in the Union; at interAmerican conferences; in his written and his spoken word; in his unceasing cooperation as a friend; in his resolute will to service he was sustained by the enthusiastic faith of those whose inner eye dis

cerns spiritual truths. Although everything he did had an Anglo-Saxon efficiency, and his policies were imbued with a sense of present realities, his acts had the merit of anticipating the turn of events.

America today represents in the field of international life the projection of the fundamental ideas and the sense of vitality that Christianity brought to civilization. Our concept of international policy and of international law stems from that sincere, pellucid, and simple state of soul which permeates the words of Christ. We want simplicity to inspire and to be the standard for the judgments of governments and the

COMMEMORATIVE CEREMONY President Truman and other dignitaries came to the Pan American Union on February 5, 1947, to attend the commemorative ceremony in tribute to Leo Stanton Rowe, for twenty-six years Director General of the Union.

annihilating war are caused by a mistaken evaluation of genuine values.

There was, then, a cordial harmony between Dr. Rowe's pure, modest, and sympathetic soul and Pan American ideals. It would be hard to conceive of any ideal with which Dr. Rowe would be more in sympathy than the Good Neighbor policy. Once things are looked at with cordial affection, their real nature and their secrets are disclosed, and they appear in their true guise; experimental science begins when intelligence looks sympathetically at the world of the senses; art is achieved and becomes creative power when man penetrates nature with love.

To educate, too, is an activity based on understanding. Dr. Rowe's devotion to education as the surest way to comprehension, to unity, and to continental peace, was an obsession during his life and a legacy after his death. The estate left at the end of his generous life was magnanimously bequeathed to serve as the fertile seed of inter-American affection and love. The conjunction of Anglo-Saxons and Latins, the transmutation of two great groups of humanity into the organic unit of Pan Americanism, is something that cannot be fully realized without the spontaneous participation of the people, in the school room and by means of travel. That is the spirit of Bolívar, of Sarmiento, of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The active friendship and loyal solidarity of our nations must be entrusted to the generous soul of youth, a fount from which they must drink freely as must all healthy organisms to maintain their vigor. Let

understanding and sympathy. For us Americans, honorable friendship and heartfelt sympathy for others are the beginning of wisdom and the highest expression of intelligence. Each nation has a personality, and our highest moral duty is to respect and strengthen it. We have only to understand and know another to feel how necessary it is not to embitter him, not to despoil him, not to belittle him. So we appropriately feel that oppression and