(c) To what extent is it desirable to teach the language and literature of given countries in the others?
By what means may the schools and other educational agencies assure the continuity and still further strengthen the cordial relations existing among the countries of this group?
The adult element is taken account of with regard to the extension of education through community activities and otherwise; also looking toward research from the standpoint of practical results in agriculture, home-making, industry, commerce, and so forth.
That the purely commercial consideration is not lacking in the schemes of the Pan-Pacific leaders, is borne out by plans which enlisted the interest of Franklin K. Lane, first honorary vice-president of the Union, in a Commercial Conference at Honolulu. “Good fortune to you, brave man of big visions,” he wrote, shortly before his death, to Alexander Hume Ford, whose official status is that of secretary-director. “What an interest there is now in the South Seas,” Mr. Lane goes on. “Never before have I seen anything like it. Get people to your islands—boat service—that’s all you need. Then they will become the focus of Pacific progress.” And in furtherance of publicity for the manifold ambitions of the Pan-Pacific Union, a mammoth Press Conference has been called, as a department of the Press Congress of the world. In fact, that World Congress, representing forty nations, convened at Honolulu in the autumn of 1921.
One tangible result of the Scientific Conference has been that every state bordering the vast bowl of the Pacific has been aroused to the conserving and furthering of the world supply of sea-food. This means the stimulation of the fishery scientists to resume a definite study of the migrations and habits of fish, that they may in turn counsel the various governments what laws should be enacted for the protection of young food fish, looking toward supplying the world. The establishment of fish universities has become a hope of the Pan-Pacific group; in fact, there is already an institution in Seattle along these lines. And a merchant prince of Osaka, Japan, Hirabayashi by name, has offered to found and finance an extensive educational plant in a peninsula park on the Inland Sea. It is to include an aquarium, a library on Pacific Research, a laboratory for the observing of fish culture, a building to house students, and all other departments consonant with the purpose of such an establishment, from which will be sent out scientists to garner knowledge of fish and their habits, as well as the methods of fishing, canning, and distribution pursued by different lands.
It sometimes happens that government appropriations to the Pan-Pacific Union are in blanket form, the Union to appropriate the funds to cover expenses of either educational or commercial conferences, the scientific coming under the latter head, though scientists may be invited to attend the commercial councils. And at the Legislative Pan-Pacific conference, those scientists who are familiar with the depredations in Pacific waters by unscientific commercial fishermen, may be sure of warm welcome; for the various conferences are fashioned to overlap and co-operate as much as possible one with another. It is prophesied that the sages of the Pan-Pacific Union will not rest until they have set in operation international fishery laws for the whole Pacific area.
The Union was for a time at home in that white caravansary dear to many a by-gone voyager to Honolulu and beyond, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, with its shaded spaciousness and its flying balconies. But it has now come to rest at the Alexander Young Hotel, while plans are in progress for the erection of a great Pan-Pacific Palace that will house the commercial and art exhibits that are now being collected from every Pacific land. Here will convene the Conference; and the scope of the building includes an open air Greek theatre to seat five thousand.
Professor Pitkin of Columbia University has urged the Union to summon a conference of heads of Pacific governments, to consider the formation of a Pan-Pacific League of Nations. President Warren G. Harding, in his letter of acceptance as an Honorary President of the Pan-Pacific Union, cautions a gentle approach to this subject. He writes:
“I feel the policy of the Union should be one of proceeding for the time being in an unofficial fashion.... as a wise one. I should hope that in due time such an organization might secure the co-operation and support of the governments which have interests in the Pacific; for I can realize that it has possibilities of very great usefulness.”
President Harding has been invited to attend one of the Conferences this summer of 1921. “Why not make Honolulu the summer capital of the United States?” the Pan-Pacific heads propose. Indeed, their boundless ambition points out that it is the logical National Capital. For Honolulu in truth lies halfway between Maine and Manila; half-way between Alaska and Samoa. It is literally the central city of the United States of America, as it is of the Pacific Ocean, tributary to which dwell two-thirds of the population of the globe!