THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

Chapter
VIII
THE UNION OF INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
THE CENTRAL OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS
The World Congress at Mons in 1905 had resolved that the
work it had begun should be continued by similar congresses in
the future and that a permanent office of some kind should be
set up to organise them. Leopold II, King of the Belgians, had
closed the Congress thus:
Without political ambition, tiny Belgium can more and more become
the capital of an important intellectual, artistic, civilising and economic
movement, can be a modest but useful member of the great family
of nations and can contribute its small part to the welfare of humanity.
1
Since the middle of the nineteenth century Brussels had been
chosen as the city of domicile for increasing numbers of international
organisations. Otlet and La Fontaine believed that further
encouragement of this trend was one way of helping
Belgium achieve the eminence and influence foreseen by the
King. The Commission appointed by the Minister for the Interior
and Public Instruction early in 1906 to examine the Mont
des Arts project had, in principle, recognised the needs of the
international associations located in Belgium for a permanent
center in its acceptance of a measure of government responsibility
for the Collective Library of Learned Societies and for
the provision of central location for their secretariats in the
future Mont des Arts. In July 1906 Otlet and La Fontaine
assembled representatives of a number of international associations
with permanent headquarters in Brussels to discuss
the kind of mutual aid they might give each other, for together,
it was observed, they contributed powerfully «towards the unification
and progressive organisation of the interests of the
whole world — as though it was comprised of a single nation
above individual nations*. 2 As a result of these discussions a
Central Office of International Institutions was created in the
following year by Otlet, La Fontaine and Cyrille Van Over-
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