past fifty-eight years. It is easy to see how one idea is repeated over and over, changes at times, and then returns to its original form, as if it were a mandate to the people themselves rather than an agreement among governments. There are periods of timidity, of reserve, that are suddenly offset by tremendous advances. At other times the idea retreats on what turns out to be the wrong road. Thus, only after fifty-eight years of these trials and experiments in living together have we decided that it is time to draw up a written constitution for the Inter-American System.

This entire juridical process is in itself the best example of collaboration by the two modes of thought and action typical of the two great groups of people comprising the System. The Anglo-Saxon influence has made Pan Americanism live and unfold without a strict written law for more than half a century. But at the same time, whenever a principle has been defined, clarified, and written out, it has had the unquestioned authority associated in the Latin American mind with legislation.

At Bogotá the Charter of the InterAmerican System will finally take shape. Organs that have been functioning uninterruptedly for fifty-eight years will see their orbits defined, their relationships with other organs delimited, their fields of activity bounded and in many cases extended. In addition, all the efforts made so far in the field of the solution of controversies or conflicts among the American States are to culminate in a single treaty, which will embody those procedures that have been proved good, and guarantee that there will be no dispute that cannot be settled by peaceful means. Besides, the Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance is already meeting the need for defensive action against aggression of whatever kind. The Organic Pact of the InterAmerican System will provide the mech

anism by which the principles and obligations arising from the two treaties can be fully carried out. The Pact, in addition, recapitulates the fundamental principles of the System, gives the reason for its existence, explains its aims. After the Bogotá Conference anyone, simply by reading its conclusions, will know the Inter-American System thoroughly, without need of studying its previous history. It will be a great work of summary and synthesis that could not have been accomplished until decisive steps such as those taken at the Conferences of Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro had prepared the

way.

The transformation of the Pan American Union, fifty-eight years after its founding, will also be radical. According to the plans discussed by the representatives of the American republics on the Governing Board, it will be the central organ of the System. Anticipating this action, the governments have already approved, first, reorganization of the administrative offices of the Union, and next, at one of the most recent sessions of the Board, the budget for 1948-49, which is raised to $2,130,000. The Pan American Union, headed by the Governing Board, will be the secretariat of the System and will have agencies for each fundamental activity of inter-American cooperation.

Because of these accomplishments, which may appear to have occurred suddenly in a single year, but which are only the climax of processes long under way, this April 14, Pan American Day, will mark a new stage in our history. It represents the final decision of the nations of America, conclusively ratified, to live together in peace, to defend their pacific way of life against any threatening contingency, and to create an international order of law on bases different from those that still prevail in other parts of the world.

THIS month the whole world is looking at Bogotá. There, in the highland capital of Colombia, the Ninth International Conference of American States, members of the Pan American Union, is being held. It is appropriate, therefore, that we too look at Bogotá.

Since its founding on August 6, 1538, by the illustrious conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, the settlement has grown from an isolated village of twelve rude huts and a chapel to a modern city of about half a million population.

After traveling inland four hundred miles from the Caribbean Sea and climbing nearly nine thousand feet above sea level, Jiménez de Quesada found himself on a plateau now called the sabana of Bogotá. On the sabana, with its salubrious climate, were settlements of the Chibchas, an indigenous people advanced in art and industry. Remarkable examples of their decorative work are on display in the famous Gold Museum, one of Bogotá's main points of interest. Slightly changed, the name of a Chibcha chief, Bacatá, has been perpetuated in the name of the city. Almost immediately after its founding Bogotá became important as the center of a wide territory, gradually made larger by exploration.

For more than two and a half centuries, the Kings of Spain sent their representatives to govern the colony. With the colonists and the authorities of the Crown and the Church came the customs, language, art, education, and religion of

By special arrangement with the publishers, this article is based on a portion of Chapter I of Dr. and Mrs. Judson's latest book, Let's Go to Colombia, to be released in the late summer by Harper and Brothers, Publishers. The illustrations, however, are different.

Spain. As in other parts of Spanish America, the colonists were strongly tied to the mother country, which decreed what goods they could import, including books, and regulated many details that influenced their daily lives. Nevertheless, the colonists built a civilization and democratic outlook that made Bogotá, as Baron von Humboldt called it at the time of his visit in 1801, "the Athens of America." society was from the earliest days cultured and select, marked by its appreciation of letters and, towards the end of the colonial regime, by a lively interest in science.

Its

During those centuries, Bogotá gradually but constantly expanded as architects and artisans erected more and more buildings--colonial buildings which stand today as testimony to the fidelity of the builders and as examples of the finest in colonial architecture. Bogotanos take pride in and visitors always want to see such colonial masterpieces as the chapel of El Sagrario, the Museum of Colonial Art, San Carlos Palace, the mansion of the Marquises of San Jorge, and the church of San Francisco.

But not everything that came from Spain was good, in the opinion of the colonists. Particularly odious was the fact that, as in all Spanish colonies, there was discrimination against persons not born in Spain, even though their immediate forebears were Spanish. Furthermore, heavy taxation, a multitude of other grievances, and confused conditions in Spain gradually widened the gulf between the Old World and the New World. Then, too, there was abroad in the air a rising spirit of independence, which fanned the local flames. Clashes of personality, differences of opin

ion, heated debate and controversy, and armed conflict brought the inevitable break between Spain and its colonies. The independence of Colombia was won by Bolívar at the battle of Boyacá (August 7, 1819), and the Republic of Colombia. (then comprising Venezuela also and later Ecuador) came into existence December 17, 1819.

"From that time to this, in the fluctuations of republican life," wrote Dr. Fabio Lozano, "Bogotá has never ceased to be the center of the nation, its guiding brain.

and its generous heart. It has known days of exaltation and days of adversity; it has been gay, it has suffered, and it has progressed."

The first decade of the present century passed and Bogotá, high on the eastern range of the Andes, was still rated one of the world's most inaccessible capitals. From the Caribbean it was a tiring trip of a week or more up the Magdalena River to the head of navigation; then there still remained the ascent by train up the Andes to the capital. From the Pacific the jour