Droit International Public, had accused Pan Americanism and the Pan American Union of being the only international body which had no technique and no true legislative procedure. The position of the United States delegates themselves had been set straight from time to time, as happened in the case I have mentioned, when Dr. Rowe asked that the institution over which he presided be eliminated from the complex projects devised by the American Institute of International Law in 1927. He explained again, at the Sixth Pan American Conference, the position of the United States in the matter of its participation in a system of private international law, participation complicated by the incompatibility of the Bustamante

Code with the United States federal system. As Arthur P. Whitaker has said in a recent paper, it cannot be denied that the inter-American system has been loosely put together, while the situation of the Pan American Union has been practically the same, guided only by resolutions of conferences with no foundation in an international statute. Until now it has been without political powers, since the scope of those powers provided by the Act of Chapultepec and delimited at San Francisco will not be finally decided until the Pan American conferences at Rio de Janeiro and Bogotá.

The flexibility of the system will perhaps have to be continued, in view of the complexity of many problems still awaiting

us. There will have to be a reinforcement of solidarity in defense and cooperation in the face of dangers which still confront us, and in the face of a state of war which has not actually ended, as long as Europe is still far from recovering its equilibrium and its normal life. Now that German aggression has been overcome, another threatening prospect is arising on the steppes of Russia. In the years ahead the world will be a new Oedipus. Like the traveler arriving at the gates of Thebes, we shall have to solve the Sphinx's riddle of a possible new conflagration. It will not be a mere question of giving a continental character to the old Monroe Doctrine. In future days the great nation of the north must not only stand guard at the oceans, but also face the more serious problem of defending our democratic political system from the threatened resurgence of nazi, fascist, and communist totalitarian regimes, subversive and hostile to freedom.

We shall have to work out a formula for the difficult but indispensable equation which can bring our inter-American regional system into harmony with the great world organization, whose vitality is so important to us all. But in so doing we must undertake the delicate task of reconciling the imperative equality of the sovereign states of our continent with amenability inside the world order to the force of gravity exerted by the great powers; it is a dilemma not contemplated in the Monroe Doctrine. Until we can return to happier times, there will have to be a sustained effort to foster toleration and understanding; but in our search after conciliation and harmony we shall now be without the quiet, wise advice, the warm

personality, and the generous spirit of our ill-fated friend.

When the broad avenues laid out for our Pan Americanism began to branch, we came to a bend in the road, marked by the conferences of Lima, Habana, Panama, Chapultepec, and San Francisco. These must have brought anxieties to the spirit of the matchless director of the Pan American Union. But happily he could feel that his labors were recognized when, at the session of March 6, 1945, the InterAmerican Conference on Problems of War and Peace tendered him by unanimous vote its special and heartfelt appreciation of the notable services he had rendered to the furtherance of continental harmony.

A news item telegraphed from New York tells us that Dr. Rowe left a will setting forth his last wishes. He is said to have bequeathed most of his fortune to the Pan American Union to be used for educational ends; and with his other praiseworthy legacies he made bequests to various universities with which he had been connected during his teaching career. That is in keeping with his upright life. I can see him now, as I have so often seen him, piloting a procession of cordially welcomed travelers on their expeditions to historic sites or monuments, and to the splendors of New York City; or again, surrounded by those visiting students who sought his kindly counsel and his timely guidance in their search for the schools best adapted to their chosen careers.

Let us hope that some record is to remain of his generous life, something inscribed upon the wall of a stately chamber, or immortalized in an image which shall preserve him from the flight of the years and from the short-lived memory of mankind.

Leo S. Rowe

HELIO LOBO

Minister Plenipotentiary of Brazil

THE death of Leo S. Rowe was a great loss to the cause of inter-American understanding. Rowe had a long and brilliant experience in dealing with the problems of the hemisphere and, what was also essential, the intelligence necessary for the consideration and solution of those problems.

One of the causes of a certain failure on the part of the United States to understand the rest of the continent is that it is guided by its own mentality although everything is different below the Rio Grande.

Leo S. Rowe saw us with our own eyes, as we are and not as we ought to be. This was the secret of his success in the delicate mission that was entrusted to him for so long a time.

His humble companion for many years at meetings in Rio de Janeiro, in Washington, and at continental conferences we both attended, I always found in him the admirable qualities of his fellow citizens, enriched by his experience in working with the people of the other New World countries.

When the history of Pan Americanism is written, his tactful, persevering, modest, and fruitful labors will stand out. I bow before his grave, sorrowing for the loss of a perfect friend and a Citizen of the Americas whom we all trusted.