66

16. The right to a referendum where a valuable subsidy or franchise is to be carried.

"17. That all transportation companies be compelled to give transportation free to members of the Legislative Assembly and Supreme Court and county judges.

"18. Election day to be a public holiday. Provision made that every employee shall be free from service at least four consecutive hours during polling time."

The British Pacific Cable.-At three o'clock in the morning of Oct. 31, 1902, at Suva, in the Fiji Islands, was completed the last link in the Pacific cable, placing Vancouver, British Columbia, in direct communication with Australia and New Zealand. A message of congratulation was despatched immediately to the King, and another to Lady Vogel, expressing regret that her husband, the late Sir Julius Vogel, had not been spared to see the consummation of the plan which is a monument to his genius and foresight. The new cable, which was laid under the direction of F. R. Lucas, engineer-in-chief to the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, extends southwest from Vancouver by way of Fanning island, Fiji, and Norfolk island to Australia and New Zealand, with its Australian terminus at Southport, Queensland, and its New Zealand terminus at Doubtless Pay, Auckland, and is the first cable across the Pacific Ocean. The cable was laid by the Anglia and the Colonia, the former ship lying on the Southport, Norfolk island, New Zealand, and Fiji sections 2,438 knots of cable, weighing 5,421 tons. On the Fanning-Fiji section she laid 2,181 knots, and a small section of 113 knots, the gross weight of these being 4,223 tons. The Colonia, which laid the Vancouver-Fanning section, paid out in all 3,540 knots of cable, weighing 7,684 tons. The cost of the project was about £2,000,000, of which expense Great Britain bears five-eighteenths and the colonies the remainder, and the scheme was successfully carried through by Sir Sandford Fleming in the face of much opposition. The line is put down at depths never be fore attempted and will furnish the solution of many interesting problems in deep-sea cable-lay ing. It is unlikely that the methods at present in use for the recovery of broken cables would be at all practicable in such deep waters. The completion of the Pacific cable puts Great Britain in direct communication with all her colonies. Hitherto telegraphic communication between Canada and Australia has been possible only by way of the West Coast of Africa or the Red Sea, and en route the message had to pass through territory belonging to a dozen different nation

alities; but now the Dominion has been brought 10,000 telegraphic miles nearer the Australasian Commonwealth, while the mother country in times of international stress can rest confident that her messages to her children abroad will pass through none but friendly hands.

an

BULGARIA, a principality in eastern Europe under the suzerainty of Turkey, created autonomous tributary principality by the treaty of Berlin signed on July 13, 1878, by representatives of the great powers. The Prince of Bulgaria, according to the treaty, was to be elected by the population and confirmed by the Sublime Porte, but could not be chosen from any of the dynastic families of the great powers. Eastern Roumelia, which received administrative autonomy under a Christian Governor-General to be nominated by the Porte, proclaimed is union with Bulgaria in 1885, and in 1886, the powers having tacitly accepted the fait accompli, the Sultan appointed the Prince of Bulgaria to be Governor-General and has not since attempted to exercise the political or military authority reserved to him by treaty. Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg was elected Prince of Bulgaria by a Great Sobranje on July 7, 1887, after the ab dication of Prince Alexander of Battenberg, but his election was not confirmed by the Porte and the great powers till 1896. The heir to the throne is Prince Boris, born Jan. 30, 1894, who was received into the Orthodox Greek Church on Feb. 14, 1896. The legislative authority is vested in a single Chamber called the Sobranje, composed of 150 members, 1 to 20,000 of population, elected for five years, unless the Sobranje is dissolved before the term expires, by the votes of all adult male Bulgarians. A Great Sobranje of 300 members, specially elected, is convoked whenever the amendment of the Constitution, the succession to the throne, the appointment of a regency, or the cession or annexation of territory is in question.

The Cabinet of ministers, constituted on March 14, 1901, consisted at the beginning of 1902 of the following members: President of the Council and Minister of Finance, Petko Karaveloff; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Dr. S. Daneff; Minister of the Interior, Michael Sarafoff; Minister of Justice, Dr. Alexander Radeff; Minister of War, Major-Gen. S. Paprikoff; Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, Alexander Ludskanoff; Minister of Public Works, Ivan Belinoff.

Area and Population. The area of the principality proper is 24,380 square miles; of Eastern Roumelia, called South Bulgaria, 13,700 square miles. The population of the entire country by the census of December, 1900, was found to be 3,733,189, that of South Bulgaria being 1,091,854. Sofia, the capital, had 67,920 inhab itants: Philippopolis, the capital of Eastern Roumelia, 42,849: Varna, 33,443: Rustchuk, 32,661; Slivno, 24.548; Shumla, 22,928; Plevna, 18709. The number of marriages in 1899 was 32. 027; of births, 149,006; of deaths, 90,324; excess of births, 58,682.

Finances. The estimated revenue for 1901 was 95,286,900 lei, or francs, and the estimated expenditure 95,222,535 lei. Of the revenue 38.654,000 lei came from direct taxes and 27,920,500 lei from indirect taxes. The chief expenditures were 31,586,750 lei for the public debt. 20,200.000 lei for the army, 10,716,863 lei for public works, 7.800,188 lei for education, and 6,586,453 lei for the interior. The debt on Sept. 30, 1900, consisted of 39,188,000 lei of the 6-per-cent. loan of 1888 for the purchase of the Rustchuk and Varna Railroad, 24,840,000 lei of the 6-per-cent.

lean of 1889, 121,717,000 lei of the 6-per-cent. loan authorized in 1892, 21,875,000 lei of five-year 6-per-cent. treasury bonds issued Jan. 1, 1900, and secured on the tobacco tax, and 9,700,000 lei of the Russian occupation debt. The Eastern Roumelian tribute payable to Turkey is 2,951,000 lei per annum, besides 500,000 lei to clear up the arrears of 5,243,000 lei. The Government was authorized by a law passed in June, 1899, to convert the entire public debt into a new loan of 260,000,000 lei with interest at 5 per cent. The Bulgarian tribute and the Bulgarian share of the Turkish public debt were to be fixed according to a provision in the Berlin treaty. The claims of Russia for the expenses of the occupation, 26,500,000 lei payable in annual instalments of 2,100,000 lei, ought to have been extinguished at the end of 1902. The Eastern Roumelian tribute, eriginally fixed at 6,125,000 francs, was reduced in 1883 to 4,625,000 francs. After the union with Bulgaria, in 1885, the Government left it unpaid till 1888, when a further reduction to 3,250,000 franes was obtained on condition that the arrears should be paid up in annual instalments of 500,000 lei. In 1896 the Bulgarian Government withheld the tribute, owing to a dispute with Turkey, and in 1897 the Administration of the Turkish Debt, to which the tribute had been assigned, agreed to take 2,850,000 lei henceforth if promptly paid each year. Since 1900, however, it has not been paid. The amount of the foreign consolidated debt on Jan. 1, 1902, was 198,753,404 lei. Of the effective proceeds of the loans of 1889, 1892, and 1900, amounting to 156,285,300 lei, 111,694,868 lei were spent on railroads and harbors, while the remainder was used to meet deficits in the budget and pay interest for the sinking-fund. The floating debt on Jan. 1, 1902, amounted to 78,297,893 lei, exclusive of payments of 13,373,000 lei due on the last two budgets. To clear off the floating debt, the tobacco loan of 1900, and a part of the loan of 1892, the Government in 1901 arranged with a Paris bank to borrow on the guarantee of the tobacco revenue 125,000,000 francs at 824, to be repaid in fifty years with interest at 5 per cent. A tobacco monopoly was to be created and conceded until the extinction of the loan to the bank, which, through the agency of a company whose officers it would appoint, would have for that period the exclusive privilege of manufacturing and selling tobacco and supervision over its cultivation, importation, and exportation. Of the surplus profits, after paying interest and amortization on the loan and 8 per cent. dividends to the shareholders, the state would receive 65 per cent. and the company 35 per cent. The loan was negotiated by the Cabinet of Petko Karayeloff, leader of the Democratic party, who before he took office deprecated a foreign loan, denounced the creditors of Bulgaria, the Jewish houses of Vienna and Berlin, and protested against monopolies in general and against granting concessions of any kind to foreigners. All the economies he could effect when he became Premier and Minister of Finance were of slight value, and by remitting the unpopular tithe duty he had further crippled the resources of the Government. After obtaining, with difficulty, a loan of 4,000,000 lei from the Russian State Bank to avert insolvency, he had to make the very terms with the foreign money-lenders that he had denounced as ruinous and humiliating. The money for the proposed tobacco loan was to be provided, in fact, not by the contracting French bank, but by the financiers who already held Bulgarian securities, and who were therefore interested in averting

national bankruptcy. The budget passed by the Sobranje in 1902 was not much better than the others, notwithstanding the promises of the Kankoffist ministry to economize. The improvement in production and trade and in the general prosperity, however, was a favorable augury. The estimate of revenue for 1903 was 95,955,400 lei and that of expenditure was 98,898,337 lei, leaving a deficit of 2,942,937 lei, which was more than doubled by the uncollected arrears of taxes and the expenditure of 1,000,000 lei on the celebration of the battle of Shipka, on which occasion half the Bulgarian army maneuvered for the inspection of the Czar's generals. The Army.-Service in the army is obligatory. The term is two years in the infantry and three years in the other arms. There are 24 regiments of infantry and skeletons of 24 reserve regiments; 5 regiments of cavalry, each of 5 squadrons; 6 regiments of field-artillery, each divided into 3 sections of 3 batteries of 6 guns each; 3 battalions of fortress-artillery; and 3 battalions of engineers and 1 technical battalion composed of 1 railroad company, 1 company of pontonniers, 1 company of telegraphists, and 1 company of train. The infantry are armed with Mannlicher repeating rifles of the model of 1888, having a bore of 8 millimeters. The cavalry carry carbines of the same caliber. The artillery have Creusot field-pieces of 8.7 centimeters caliber and Krupp mountain guns of the caliber of 7 centimeters. The peace strength of the army in 1901 was 2,500 officers and civil employees and 40,555 men, with 7,400 horses. The war effective is 126,970 men, with 23,432 horses and oxen and 312 guns, besides a reserve of 81,996 men, with 15,356 horses and 120 guns.

Commerce and Production.-The land tax in Bulgaria is one-tenth of the produce, paid in money or in kind. Villages have common pastures and woodlands which are not taxed. Of the total area, 9,570,500 hectares, 2,435,900 hectares are covered with farm and garden crops, 113,512 hectares are vineyards, 4,587,838 hectares are pasture, 1,676,250 hectares are forest, 312,000 hectares are waste, and 445,000 hectares are building land, road, water, etc. The farmers, who contribute 70 per cent. of the population, generally own the land they till. The main crop is wheat, most of which is exported. The production of attar of roses in 1900 was 4,300 kilograms. The mercantile business is done mainly by foreigners-Greeks, Roumanians, Austrians, and Jews of various nationalities. Textiles, hardware, machinery, groceries, building materials, leather, petroleum, paper, and salt are the chief imports. The total value of imports in 1900 was 46,342,100 lei; of exports, 53,982,629 lei. The imports of textile goods were 13,296,869 lei in value; of groceries, 3,984,213 lei; of metals and metal manufactures, 5,197,706 lei; of machinery and implements, 2,786,114 lei; of lumber and wood manufactures, 1,355,215 lei; of leather and leather goods, 2,353,026 lei. The exports of cereals were 27,128,280 lei in value; of textile fibers and cocoons and woolen stuffs, 4,324,454 lei; of live animals, 5,609,462 lei; of animal food products, 4,632.535 lei; of attar of roses, 3,719,380 lei. The trade with the principal countries in 1900 is given in lei in the table on the next page.

The total value of imports in 1901 was 70,044,073 lei and that of exports 82,769,759 lei, showing an increase of 51 and 53 per cent. respectively. Imports from England were 6,380,000 lei more than in the preceding year; from Turkey, 5.400.000 lei more; from Austria-Hungary, 4,500,000 lei more; from Germany, 4,200,000 lei more;

Exports.

4,656,155 12.641,381

18,001,907

7,528,771

5,614,989

2,362,130

3,098,290

3,782,145

2,796,999

1,379,464

Roumania

1,839,616

1,301,467

247,689

2,023,800

402,751

18,380 443,593

190,765 320,594 53,982,629

to

exports to England, 9,880,000 lei more; Turkey, 6,400,000 lei more; to Belgium, 4,380,000 lei more; to Germany, 3,020,000 lei more.

Navigation.-The number of vessels entered at Bulgarian ports during 1900 was 10,833, of 2,357,527 tons; cleared, 10,827, of 2,360,914 tons. Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs.-The length of railroad in Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia in 1900 was 970 miles, of which 784 miles were the property of the Government.

The length of Government telegraph-lines in 1899 was 3,270 miles, with 6,740 miles of wire. The number of despatches sent was 1,356,041. There were 1,228 miles of Government telephonelines.

The postal traffic in 1899 was 21,176,000 pieces of mail-matter; receipts, including telegraph receipts, 3,906,637 lei; expenses, 3,105,168 lei.

Political Affairs.-The coupons of the foreign debt were paid in July, 1901, with 4,000,000 francs advanced by the Russian Government, which in January, 1902, had to give an extension of the time for repayment. Premier Karaveloff laid before the Sobranje in December, 1901, the contract for the loan, which after protracted negotiations had been obtained from the French bank on condition that a monopoly of tobacco be given to the lenders. He was deserted by many of his own followers, who were pledged to vote for the loan. The Stambuloffists, however, for patriotic reasons determined to support the unpopular measure, which seemed to offer the only escape from bankruptcy. Although promising excessive profits to the concessionaires, the tobacco monopoly in the hands of foreigners offered financial advantages to the Government, which loses about 2,500,000 lei of the tobacco revenue every year through contraband, and the country would benefit by the introduction of improved methods of cultivating and curing tobacco. But the country was exasperated against the grasping foreigners. This entering wedge of foreign financial control roused the national jealousy of the Bulgarians. When the question of sanctioning the arrangement was put to the Sobranje in the beginning of January Karaveloff was defeated, and the ministry resigned. Daneff, who had much to do with negotiating the loan for which M. Karaveloff as Minister of Finance had to accept the responsibility, formed a new Cabinet on Jan. 5, in which M. Sarafoff, the chief negotiator, was retained. It was a purely Zankoffist ministry, which was not what the opponents of the loan wanted. The first vote of supply asked for was therefore refused. The Sobranje was dissolved and new elections were ordered in order to ascertain the temper of the people and give time to seek some other method, if possible, to save the Government from bank

M.

The Sobranje elected on March 2 contained 93 Progressist Liberals, or Zankoffists, the ministerial party; 16 Liberals; 33 Populists, led by Gesheff; 12 National Liberals, or Stambuloflists, led by D. Petkoff; 18 Democrats, followers of Karaveloff; 7 Social Democrats; and 10 Agrarians. The peasants in many places made demonstrations against the concession of the tobacco monopoly to foreigners, and the result of the election was a popular condemnation of the proposed loan. Before the Sobranje assembled Dr. Daneff went to Paris and St. Petersburg to obtain, if he could, more favorable loan conditions. The financial embarrassment of the Government was the effect of the economic distress of the people, caused by a succession of bad harvests and an unfavorable state of foreign exchanges. and still more the result of financial errors and mismanagement on the part of the Government. of excessive military expenditure, extravagant outlay on public works, fiscal changes in 1895 which reduced revenue with a corresponding curtailment of expenses, and the return to tithes in kind in 1900 which could not be collected. When the principality was first established there were surpluses for three years, then for ten years surpluses and deficits alternated, and since 1892 the deficit has been chronic, averaging 9.500.000 lei a year. During the late period of agricultural depression taxes fell in arrears to the amount of 20,000,000 lei. The unbusiness-like remissness of the Bulgarians in meeting financial obligations, a national trait of this peasant nation exhibited not only by individuals but by the Government, which in some instances has met the coupons only by obtaining advances from abroad at the last moment and has shown culpable indifference in regard to the Eastern Roumelian tribute, the hostility shown toward foreign creditors, the frequent political disturb ances, and the recrudescence of the Macedonian agitation have combined to impair the public credit, although the debt is light and the productive resources of the soil and the people are abundant.

On March 23 the Cabinet was reconstructed as follows: Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Daneff: Minister of Finance, Sarafoff; Minister of the Interior, Ludskanoff; Minister of Justice, Radeff; Minister of War. Gen. Paprikoff; Minister of Public Instruction, Todoroff; Minister of Com merce and Agriculture, Abrasheff; Minister of Public Works, Constantinoff. All the members

belonged to the Zankoffist party.

Ministers Daneff and Sarafoff, through the influence of the Russian court, secured in Paris a contract for a loan of 100,000,000 francs at 5 per cent., to be taken at 83, on the security of the tobacco-tax revenue without the concession of a monopoly of tobacco. For the purpose of ratifying this agreement and of voting supplies the Sobranje was summoned in extraordinary session on May 5. The election of the aged Dragan Zankoff as president of the Sobranje indicated that the reconstituted ministry could rely on its narrow majority. Since the reconciliation with Russia the old party programs had lost their value. The Government policy was to seek the good-will of Austria-Hungary as well as of Russia and to cultivate friendly relations with Roumania and Servia and a loyal understanding with the Porte. A good harvest and returning prosperity offered the best chance for a reestablishment of the national finances and the attraction of foreign capital for the development of the resources of the country. This ministry was not easily to be dragged in the wake of the Macedonian agitators; yet it would not be harsh or hasty in its treatment of the popular heroes, whom the Prince himself privately abetted in order to prove himself a true Bulgarian. The Macedonian trouble assumed a more serious aspect in 1902. The organizers of revolution in the Turkish vilayets were Bulgarian officers who left active service for the reserve in order that they might teach Macedonian rebels to fight effectively under military leading. The situation in Macedonia for a year past had been one of demoralization and danger. Large bodies of troops from Asia Minor quartered there held in check the threatened revolt in 1901, but this military occupation of the country, where distress was felt from natural causes as well as from political agitation rendered the situation of the Christian inhabitants more intolerable. The quiet ones often suffered for the misdeeds of the rebels and brigands. All the Turkish troops on the frontier could not prevent such acts as the kidnaping of Ellen Stone. The lawless acts of Macedonian bands provoked reprisals from the Mussulman inhabitants, who formed themselves into guerrilla bands to take reprisals, and, when caught by the Turkish troops, they were more leniently dealt with than the Christian lawbreakers. A constant stream of Macedonian emigrants passed over the border into Eastern Roumelia." The Macedonian committees smuggled many thousands of rifles into Turkey. Weapons and ammunition were hidden in churches and other places in towns as well as in secret nooks in the moun

tains. The Bulgarian Government appealed to the powers to force Turkey to carry out the reforms promised in the treaty of Berlin and threatened to strengthen the frontier garrisons if Turkey continued to mass troops on the border. The Russian and Austrian embassies in Constantinople called the attention of the Porte to the situation in Macedonia, and in consequence of these representations the Sultan appointed the Grand Vizier, the Minister of Forign Affairs, and the Minister of Public Instruction a commission to consider measures of reform. Russia had advised the Porte to proceed with severity against disturbers, but carefully to avoid injustice. Russia and Austria jointly warned the Government at Sofia. The extreme wing of the revolutionary party, led by Boris Sarafoff, was enabled by the ransom paid for the release of Ellen Stone to resume active operations early in the spring. Bands of Bul

garians entered Macedonia, levied blackmail and committed outrages, attacked Turkish patrols, and intimidated the Christians by murdering those who condemned the proceedings of the Macedonian committees. The Bulgarian Government proved its loyal intentions by removing Macedonian refugees into the interior and taking possession of all firearms found in the frontier districts. At the same time it reminded Russia and Austria that the Berlin treaty assured to the Christians of the vilayets some such degree of self-government as the Cretans already enjoyed. On detecting the chief agents of the Central Macedonian committee in the business of forming bands, the Government threatened to dissolve the committee. The Macedonian committees and the Bulgarian clergy tried to prevent the consecration, which at last took place on June 30, at Uskub, of a Servian bishop, Monsigor Firmilian, whose acceptance by the Porte was due to the intercession of the Russian ambassador. The Turkish investigating commission recommended minor modifications of the civil administration, building of roads, the establishment of schools, and a reorganization of the gendarmerie so that the revolutionary bands might better be hunted down and the peaceful inhabitants protected. The local authorities in the disturbed vilayets disarmed the Christians, who by law are not allowed to keep weapons; nor are Mohammedans, but in their case the law is never enforced. The extortion of the Turkish officials often drove impoverished rayas into the revolutionary bands which combined brigandage with patriotism. For that reason the Austrian and Russian ambassadors advised the Porte to choose a better class of officials and to pay them their salaries regularly. When a congress of Macedonian committees was called to meet in Sofia the Austrian and Russian representatives advised the Bulgarian Government to interdict it and the Turkish representative called for the arrest of Boris Sarafoff, the former president of the central committee, who had been tried for the murder of the Roumanian professor Mikhaileano, and whose chief lieutenant, Deutcheff, was supposed to have planned and directed the abduction of Ellen Stone. Sarafoff was still the leading spirit in organizing the Macedonians for revolution, while Gen. Zontcheff, the president, and the other members of the committee who succeeded Sarafoff and his colleagues devoted the funds they collected to recruiting and fitting out the bands of Bulgarians who invaded Macedonia. These bands were much larger than the groups of 6 or 7 men which Sarafoff founded on the Nihilist plan, pledged to obey every order from the superior committees and to murder traitors. The Bulgarian bands were military bodies of 100 or more, led by professional officers. They traversed the Turkish provinces as far south as Salonika, aided by Macedonian peasants who kept them informed of the movements of the Turkish troops. Wherever they could engage the troops on equal terms they did so, in order to give their actions the appearance of regular warfare. darmerie and troops, on the other hand, sought to evade encounters, and often let the bands escape when it would have been easy to capture them, bribed perhaps to do so by the Bulgarians. The Zontcheff and Sarafoff factions were bitterly hos tile to each other. Sarafoff asserted that the new committee had no object but the aggrandizement of Bulgaria, and he put forth a program of Macedonian autonomy instead of annexation to Bulgaria. When the congress met on Aug. 10 he appeared with delegations from 45 societies,

The gen

mostly Macedonian. The Zontcheff wing, composed of delegates from 45 societies in Bulgaria and Macedonia, excluded the Sarafoff delegates, over the vote of 15 of the delegates admitted, who declared themselves also partizans of Sarafoff, who therefore in the rupture that followed commanded the allegiance of the larger and more vigorous section of the party. The police seized documents of the central committee which proved that Gen. Zontcheff was actively fitting out bands to operate in Macedonia. He was therefore arrested on Sept. 2 and interned in his native place. Other members of the committee and ex-officers were arrested or took to flight. The fighting in Macedonia, which in other years comes to an end early in June, continued through summer and autumn till the mountains were covered with snow. There were 80,000 troops in Macedonia, most of them quartered on the people, a serious burden in addition to the taxes, which took a fifth of their income. Neither the Bulgarian bands nor the Macedonian secret societies gave much trouble to the authorities who in Monastir restored a tolerable degree of order and made a show of governing in a civilized manner under a rali who was a capable and enlightened administrator, but unable to restrain the corrupt practises of his subordinates. In Uskub and wherever the Albanians predominated the semblance of an insurrection kept up by the Bulgarian bands inflamed the arrogance of the Albanians, which the Turks have never in the course of ages attempted to subdue, and provoked them to acts of cruelty and rapacity that made the condition of the Christians unbearable.

A consular convention between Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary was concluded and ratified by the Sobranje. The narrow and uncertain majority supporting the Government in the Sobranje was unsatisfactory to the ministers, who seized an opportunity to dissolve the Chamber again. The elections, which took place in September, were more easily influenced by the Government than the last ones. The heterogeneous Sobranje gave place to one in which the Government party had an overwhelming majority.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN REPUBLICS, INTERNATIONAL. This is the representative organization in Washington, D. C., of an agreement entered into by the independent republics of North and South America for the purpose of bringing about closer trade relations between them, to disseminate information by the publication of their tariff laws and all other laws and provisions that may be enacted by them relating to trade and navigation, and for the collection and publication of useful statistics and general information of interest to all. The organization was the one practical outcome of the first International Conference, commonly known as the Pan-American Congress, held in Washington in 1389-'90. Article II of the recommendations adopted by that conference on this subject says:

The international union shall be represented by a bureau to be established in the city of Washington under the supervision of the Secretary of State of the United States, and to be charged with the care of all the transactions and publications, and with all the correspondence pertaining to the international union."

It was also stipulated that this bureau should be called The Commercial Bureau of the American Republics, and that its organ should be a publication to be entitled the Bulletin of the Commercial Bureau of the American Republics.

The scope and field of this publication was explained, and an estimate was made of the probable expense of maintaining the bureau, which was not to exceed $36,000 a year. Each republic was required to pay its share of this expense in proportion to its population, and a schedule of the first year's proportionate payment of each country was embodied in the report of the committee presenting the project to the conference. This proposed assessment of each country forms the following table:

Argentine Republic $1,462 50 Honduras..
Bolivia.
Brazil..
Chile..
Colombia..
Costa Rica.
Ecuador
Guatemala..
Haiti....

450 00

Mexico.

5,250 00

Nicaragua

937 00

Paraguay

1,462 50

Peru

75 00

Salvador.

375 00

United States

525 00 187 00

Uruguay

Venezuela..

$131 25 3,900 00 187 50 93 75 975.00 243 75 18,806 00 225.00 825 00

In order that no delay should occur in organizing the bureau, the Government of the United States was asked to advance the expenses each year. The State Department at once took up the project, and the bureau was organized in Washington, practically under the directorship of the Secretary of State, with William E. Curtis as director. Regardless of the amount of work accomplished and the information disseminated through its publications, the bureau led a precarious existence, owing to the difficulty of obtaining information and the cooperation of the many countries that had entered into the agreement. The first year's report shows that 28 publications were issued besides the regular bulletin, these including handbooks of the republics, patent and trade-mark laws, import duties, and commercial directories. The commercial directories were intended for the use of manufacturers and merchants in forwarding catalogues and eirculars and opening correspondence, and the demand for them, especially in the United States, demonstrated the eagerness on the part of those for whom they were intended to introduce their wares into markets hitherto practically unknown or unsought. A perplexing question was at once pressed upon the attention of the executive officer of the bureau owing to the demand for its publications, the demand increasing so rapidly as to make compliance impossible because of the limited editions. This led to the issuing of a circular in October, 1893, giving a list of the publications that had not been exhausted, with a price affixed, for which the copies could be secured by application to the Government PrintingOffice. This list contained 39 publications obtainable, out of 69 that had been published by the bureau since its organization.

A resolution adopted by the International Conference recommended the adoption of a common nomenclature that should designate in alphabetical order, with equivalent terms in English. Spanish, and Portuguese, the commodities on which import duties are levied, to be used by all the American nations for the purpose of levying customs imports, and also to be used in shipping manifests, consular invoices, entries, clearance petitions, and other customs documents. This work was turned over to the bureau and conducted under its direction by authority of the acts of Congress of July 14, 1890, and July 16. 1892. The work was advanced as rapidly as possible, but it entailed a great amount of labor. and though the two appropriations of $10,000 each were exhausted and seven years elapsed before the work was completed, when the schedule was published it was found to contain many errors and inaccuracies, owing chiefly to