THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

ospect, Sayers thought «quixotic enough as an enterprise*.
Andrew Carnegie, however, who came triumphantly into Brussels
in 1913, seemed to be troubled by no doubts. Otlet described
his visit to the International Museum and afterwards
thus:
He summarised his impressions in these terms in our Livre d'Or:
«Andre Carnegie — never has a visit given him so much pleasure and
so astonished him at what he found.» At the banquet of the same
evening Mr. Carnegie responded to the address presented to him by
expressing his great satisfaction at being able to come to Brussels,
how profoundly sensible he was of the marks of attention and good
will shown him by His Majesty, the King, and by his ministers, what
a revelation Brussels and Belgium had been to him, and finally,
what importance the work of the group of international associations
had in his eyes. 76
Moreover, Emile Tibbaut, whose 1907 attempt to have a law
brought down governing the legal status of international associations
domiciled in Brussels had been unsuccessful, decided
in 1913 to try once again. He was spurred on by the success
of the 1910 World Congress of International Associations and
the evidence following it of the enormous growth of the international
movement as it affected Belgium. It seemed that the
Chamber of Representatives was receptive to Tibbault's new
proposals. 77
In 1913 La Fontaine was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize. Not only did this prize give the two men an
enormous sense of recognised accomplishment (for the one
figured prominently in the citation of the other), it was also
good publicity. Moreover, it gave the continually flagging
finances of their institutes a boost, for La Fontaine sank the
money accompanying the prize into them. 78 Early in 1914
Otlet visited America where he attempted to interest the United
States Government in his work. His way had been paved by
letters from Theodore Marburg, then a United States representative
in Brussels. The Secretary of State had expressed
interest. It was a question of the United States Government
joining the UIA. It was soon made clear that the United
States Government could only belong to organisations formed
by official conventions. There was some confusion about the
status of the organisations belonging to the UIA and the nature
of the UIA itself. The United States Government would
gladly consider supporting «any international agreement which
the governments supporting these organisations may agree
on». 79 There was, of course, no time to pursue any of these
matters for the First World War swiftly enveloped Europe.
SOME EVALUATIONS
A number of scholars have been aware of the potential
value of the UIA and its Central Office in Brussels as it seemed
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