There is also a general opinion that while the action of the Bureau of American Republics, designed to carry on this work from conference to conference, has been excellent so far as it has gone, the scope of the Bureau's work ought to be enlarged and its activity and efficiency greatly increased. To accomplish this, a building adequate to the magnitude and dignity of the great work to be done is indispensable. With this view the nations constituting the Union have expressed their willingness to contribute, and some of them have contributed, and the Congress of the United States has, at its last session, appropriated, to the extent of $200,000, funds available for the purchase of a suitable site in the city of Washington. With this view also the Conference at Rio de Janeiro, on the 13th of August, 1906, adopted resolutions looking to the establishment of a 'permanent center of information and of interchange of ideas among the Republics of this Continent as well as a building suitable for the library in memory of Columbus,' and expressed the hope that 'before the meeting of the next International American Conference the International Bureau of American Republics shall be housed in such a way as to permit it to properly fulfill the important functions assigned to it by this conference.' Those functions are, in brief, to give effect to the work of the conference; to carry out its resolutions; to prepare the work of future conferences; to disseminate through each American country a knowledge of the affairs, the sentiments and the progress of every other American country; to promote better communication and more constant intercourse; to increase the interaction among all the Republics of each upon the others in commerce, in education, in the arts and sciences, and in political and social life, and to maintain in the city of Washington a headquarters, a meeting place, a center of influence for the same peaceful and enlightened thought and conscience of all America. I feel sure of your hearty sympathy in the furtherance of this undertaking, so full of possibilities for the peace and the prosperity of America and of mankind, and I appeal to you in the same spirit that has actuated your great benefactions to humanity in the past to provide for the erection, upon the site thus to be supplied by governmental action, of a suitable building for the work of the Union, the direction and control of which has been imposed by our respective Governments upon the Governing Board, of which I have the honor to be Chairman. With great respect and esteem, I am, my dear Mr. Carnegie, Very sincerely yours, ELIHU ROOT,