THE BANTERLOG

Opening under every kind of auspicious omen, with the beneficent visits of the silent man of Washington and the Lone Eagle hardly a month away, the Sixth Pan-American Congress at Havana has so far discussed two points of importance in the western hemisphere, and has reached a deadlock on both points. The Pan-American method of settling such deadlocks amicably for both sides is a happy one. The matter is first threshed out around the conference table. After two, sometimes three days of eulogy, defamation and near duelling, the matter is put into the hands of a sub-committee. Sub-committees are selected for their impartiality, directly measurable in terms of their unfamiliarity with the subject--a bit of legislative plagiarism that may well incur the resentment of Congress.

On two matters of moment the United States delegation has already incurred the enmity of the other representatives. In the first matter, all the Pan-American delegates advocated the abolishment of United States policing of the Caribbean. The fear of the United States for an unprotected Panama Canal and Nicaraguan canal route essentially loomed, however, as a virtual demand that the controversy be disposed of in the traditional manner. The other dispute was over the intention of President Coolidge, at this session, to include under new immigration laws the countries of the New as well as of the Old World. Any such plan was hit a blow by implication of a resolution introduced at the Pan-American conference, that any American republic may restrict immigration "from a non-American continent." The Latin-American republics were unanimously in favor of the resolution, and it was all ready for passage when United States Ambassador Fletcher, whose duty it has been to puncture such ambitions, rose with a reservation to the terms of agreement, which would render it worthless from the South and Central American point of view. Both of these misunderstandings have now been laid aside, possibly as unbecoming a conference. Meanwhile, although the conference has not half accomplished its work, there is one thing upon which all the delegates, south and north, Nordic and Latin, are agreed: that the scheduled date of closing, February 20, should be rigidly observed.