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To these ends, the American nations are called upon to adopt appropriate measures of effective cooperation, to avoid artificial measures of exaggerated nationalism, to maximize technical collaboration, to reduce trade barriers, and to promote sound agricultural industries in order to increase employment and income for rural workers.

Resolutions XVIII and LX recommend the encouragement of technical organizations, and the provision of special instruction in primary and secondary schools as a means of promoting greater diversification of agriculture, husbanding of resources, and expansion of the minor farm enterprises, in order to produce greater real farm income through increasing the farm perquisites, or "income in kind."

INTERNATIONAL COMMODITY AGREEMENTS

OF SPECIAL significance was recognition by the conference, in resolution XVI, that temporary surpluses of some individual commodities might occur in the application of the economic policy looking to the expansion of agricultural production (as outlined in resolution XVII) and that international commodity agreements may constitute an appropriate means of solving such surplus problems.

Certain basic principles were recommended to serve as a basis for these agreements: (1) agreements should cover individual commodities; (2) they should include producer and consumer nations according to their respective interests; and (3) they should provide for efficiency in production and cooperation among nations in making necessary adjustments, affording equitable division of the world market, reasonable price protection, and measures to expand consumption. No agreements involving limitation of production or export should go into effect until the basic causes of the problem have been investigated and the conclusion has been established that a burdensome surplus of the commodity exists or is threatened which cannot be corrected through the operation of normal market forces. A necessary counterpart of such an agreement is a program of adjustment to assure substantial progress toward solution of the problem during the life of the agreement. The recommendation is further made that the duration of all such agreements be carefully limited and that they be coordinated in accordance with the recommendations of an international agency charged with the study of the operations of all such agreements.

MARKETING AND TRANSPORTATION

IN A GROUP of ten resolutions (LXIX to LXXVIII, inclusive), the conference took up a number of related problems in the fields of transportation and marketing, both national and international. Resolu

tion LXXI specifically recommends the establishment within each country of more adequate facilities for preservation, storage, packing, and handling of food and other agricultural products, the establishment of market news services in those republics where they do not exist, and the creation of warehouse systems, under public or private capital, to include the extension of credit to producers and shippers with stored merchandise serving as collateral. The principles are reaffirmed that international trade in essential agricultural products should be based upon efficiency in production, that the Americas should develop sound commercial policies including the reduction of trade barriers and avoidance of "dumping", and that trade expansion measures and development of agricultural industries should be oriented toward high levels of income and standards of living for rural populations.

Companion resolutions recommend closer regulation of the seed trade, requirement of labels stating the kind and quantity of substances used in the enrichment of exported wheat flour, labeling of textiles to indicate the nature and percentages of raw materials used, and the general adoption of uniform quality standards, grades, and packing specifications, together with the necessary official machinery of inspection and enforcement.

INTER-AMERICAN COLLABORATION

MANY OF THE resolutions affirm the importance of inter-American technical collaboration to facilitate expansion and scientific development in agriculture. Resolution XXXIII endorses the bilateral approach, which has been followed by the United States in its cooperative experiment station agreements with other countries, and recommends that such collaboration continue to be encouraged, "giving it as large an inter-American character as possible." Resolution LXII makes substantially the same recommendation for cooperation as applied to experimentation on a still larger scale.

NEW SOCIETIES AND FUTURE MEETINGS

THE CONFERENCE approved the creation of an Inter-American Society of Soil Science (resolution LII). Also proposed were an Inter-American Society of Agricultural Climatology (resolution LIII), to be created at the next Inter-American Conference on Agriculture; the holding of an Inter-American Conference on Conservation of Natural Resources (resolution LV); the founding of an Institute of Veterinary Investigation (resolution XLII); and the holding of an Inter-American Forestry Meeting (resolution XLVIII).

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IMMIGRATION AND AGRICULTURAL COLONIZATION TEN RESOLUTIONS of the conference deal with problems of immigration and land settlement. These are concerned, for the most part, with measures of a national character needed to assure success of any colonization programs undertaken. Resolution LXXIX recommends that the American governments agree upon general measures to guide post-war immigration along lines harmonious with our environment, our economic needs, our culture and democratic ideals "without racial, language, or religious prejudice".

ADDITIONAL DUTIES DELEGATED TO THE PAN AMERICAN
UNION AND THE INTER-AMERICAN
AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES

INSTITUTE OF

IN ADDITION to those duties already established, the Pan American Union is charged with a large number of added responsibilities. New sections in the Pan American Union, according to the resolutions, would include: migration and colonization; agricultural credit; production and consumption; forestry; and an Institute of Veterinary Investigation.

The Pan American Union is also requested to make studies of educational facilities for agricultural instruction in the various republics, prepare a roster of scientific personnel in agriculture and related sciences in the Americas to stimulate greater technical collaboration, contact all countries with respect to uniform grades and labels, and make studies with a view to the establishment of a Pan American Award for Merit in Agriculture.

In addition to the responsibilities delegated to the Pan American Union, the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences is requested to organize a research department in agricultural machinery and to investigate the possibilities of correlating curricula in agricultural and veterinary schools.

SPIRIT OF THE CONFERENCE

PERHAPS THE outstanding characteristic of the conference was the spirit of accord and the sincere desire for agreement of all delegations. This spirit was well expressed in Mr. Wheeler's remarks at the close of the conference.

"I have attended many international gatherings in many lands. But this one will always be outstanding in my mind because of: first, the strong spirit of friendship and the earnest desire of all delegates to find a basis of agreement; second, the evident appreciation of the seriousness of the problems we have been dealing with. This Conference will not solve these problems, but it points the way to their solution..."

Appendixes

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