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When I paid my first visit to the latter, the Marquis di San Giuliano, on the 30th ultimo, I brought up the subject, and he asked me to send him a memorandum, which I did, and I inclose a copy of the same. Two days later he said to me that he had not had time to study the subject and would therefore not be able to give me the verbal answer which I had suggested in my note that he might give me on the occasion of my next visit to the foreign office.

I must now leave the matter in Mr. Hitt's hands and hope that he will be able to obtain the views of the Italian Government on the subject during my absence at Algeciras.

I have, etc.,

[Inclosure. Memorandum.]

HENRY WHITE.

On the 16th of March last a declaration was signed at Athens between the representatives of the Italian and Greek Governments amending the extradition treaty between this country and Greece in such a manner as to allow a period of three months from the date of arrest before the person whose extradition is requested can be discharged because of the failure to extradite him.

The American ambassador has been asked by his Government to inquire informally whether this amendment to the extradition treaty with Greece was made in pursuance of any general policy on the part of His Majesty's Government to extend in extradition treaties the period within which extradition shall take place, and if so, whether it is proposed to suggest a similar amendment of the treaty now in force between the United States of America and Italy.

The ambassador deems it proper to add that, while no case has so far arisen in which the limit of forty days, as now provided in the Italo-American treaty, has proved insufficient, yet in view of the distance of many of the States of the American Union from Washington, and of the time necessarily consumed in perfecting the requisitions of the governors of the different States, it is conceived that a longer period might be convenient to both parties and might avert the remote possibility of a miscarriage of justice.

Rome, January 4, 1906.

No. 119.]

Chargé Hitt to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN EMBASSY,

Rome, January 30, 1906. SIR: With reference to your instruction No. 45 of October 17, 1905, and the ambassador's dispatch No. 106 of the 11th instant, in regard to the desire of the department to ascertain whether the declaration amending the Italo-Greek extradition treaty was in pursuance of any general policy of this Government to extend the period within which extradition shall take place, and if so whether it is contemplated to invite amendment to the Italo-American treaty in the same sense, I have the honor to inform you that I did not fail to recall the matter to the attention of the minister for foreign affairs upon the occasion of my first interview with him, on the 17th instant, when he replied. to me that it was a question falling without his province and one which the judicial authorities must decide. He added that he expected a communication on the subject from the ministry of grace and justice, which he would communicate to me immediately, but although I have twice since referred to the matter when visiting the

foreign office I have only just received, under date of the 26th instant, the Italian reply to the ambassador's note of the 4th of this month.

Of this note from the foreign office I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy, with translation, and respectfully invite attention to the observation therein made as to separating the period within which the evidence offered must be produced after a provisional arrest has taken place and that within which the fugitive criminal must be surrendered.

I have, etc..

R. S. REYNOLDS HITT.

[Inclosure.-Translation.]

The ministry for foreign affairs to the American embassy.

ROME, January 26, 1906. In the memorandum of January 4, 1906, the embassy of the United States asked if it was the intention of the Royal Government to apply to all its extradition treaties, and in particular those existing between the United States and Italy, the extension of the period within which extradition shall take place, as is the case in the treaty recently amended with Greece. The Royal Government Is in no way opposed to a similar amendment as regards article 2 of the supplementary convention of June 11, 1884, now in force between the two countries; but it would be pleased, however, if the aim and scope of the proposed modifications were fully defined as they are in the Italian-Greek treaty of 1877, and as other countries have defined them in their agreements with Italy, viz, two separate periods, one concerning the presentation of the request in the usual way with the necessary documents, in the case of the provisional arrest of a person whose extradition is desired (art. 12); the other in regard to the making over of the person in question (art. 13). This latter period, however, remains as in the treaty-that is to say, it is of one month's duration.

The period of forty days, as it exists in the convention with the United States, is similar to the latter, and has nothing to do with the final surrender of the original.

The Royal Government, however, would be pleased to know precisely if the American Government wishes to prolong the period in question or else to extend it as article 13 of the Italian-Greek convention provides.

No. 77.]

The Acting Secretary of State to Chargé Hitt.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, March 3, 1906. SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 119, of the 30th [January], inclosing copy of the Italian Government's reply to the inquiry made by this department, as to whether it desired to extend the period for extradition in the treaty between the United States and Italy.

The memorandum of the foreign office explains that the purpose of the supplementary treaty between Italy and Greece was to lengthen from one month to three months the entire term (including both the period of provisional detention and the time occupied by the subsequent proceedings up to the surrender) during which the fugitive might be held in custody before he could be set at liberty.

In view of this explanation, this Government does not think it needful to propose any amendment to the extradition treaty with Italy.

I am, etc.,

ROBERT BACON.

No. 1130.]

HARSH TREATMENT OF ITALIAN LABORERS.

The Italian Chargé to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

ROYAL EMBASSY OF ITALY, Washington, D. C., June 20, 1906.

MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: In fulfillment of the promise made to your excellency last Thursday, the 14th instant, I have the honor to transmit to you herewith a memorandum concerning the facts which I already briefly stated to you in person regarding the relations between the "Spruce Pine Carolina Company" and the Italian laborers employed in its extensive railroad constructions.

In résumé I have hastened to make known to your excellency by this means the following:

For about three months the Royal embassy has been learning from the verbal accounts of numerous laborers coming from the South that they themselves have been and many others now in the employ of the said company are the victims of abuses and maltreatments of every kind. Being impressed by the concordance and by the details of the declarations made by these laborers, it caused investigations to be made on the spot by three different bureaus. The result of these investigations fully substantiates the complaints. There is a large construction company which, having procured, through recruiters who are mostly unscrupulous, hundreds of laborers in New York and elsewhere, assigns them to the various fields of labor; deprives them of their liberty either by unjust systems of payment of wages or by direct coercive measures; allows its agents to become, through methods and treatments which are certainly not commendable, the excessively rigorous enforcers of their rules; and permits the laborers to be subjected to abuses of every kind.

On the one hand, dissatisfaction calls forth protests from the oppressed laborers who wish to quit the place and demand payment for work performed, and, on the other, the company, through its agents, refuses this request in its determination to safeguard its own interests by every means, even though it be contrary to law. A condition is created which is likely to bring about occurrences of serious consequences. A misunderstanding, a mistake, or an error of any kind. may furnish the motive. This explains why there occurred on May 14 last at Marion, Va., a bloody row in which, according to the account of the Italian consular agent who investigated the matter, among a group of 60 peaceful Italian citizens 2 were killed and 5 seriously wounded, while 9 more who were unhurt were put in jail, but being afterwards found innocent, were discharged. Mr. Alfred T. Holton, United States district attorney, who proceeded thither at the same time as the Italian official, instituted a thorough investigation regarding the tragic event and the facts leading thereto on his own account and in the interests of justice. He gives assurance that he will report on the matter to the Attorney-General at Washington. Meanwhile the abnormal and dangerous situation continues. within the sphere of influence of the Spruce Pine Company.

Recognizing the gravity of the bad state of affairs thus ascertained, as well as the serious aspect of the consequences which have occurred

or may occur, and the necessity of applying a prompt remedy and averting the worst that threatens, I have deemed it proper to enter into details in my memorandum. I take the liberty of calling your excellency's special attention to the contents of the document in order that the Federal Government may be informed of the state of affairs at least at the beginning.

If, as it appears, an official of the American Department of Justice has proceeded to inform himself of the occurrences and taken the first steps toward a preparation of the case for trial, and if (provided he has not already done so) he intends to inform the superior authorities so that he may be given the proper orders, there is no doubt but that every point of the question will be made clear, and that the guilty ones or those responsible, wherever or whoever they may be, will be tried and punished in accordance with the law. If this should not prove to be the case, I trust that the Federal Government, with that spirit of righteousness and equanimity which dictates all its acts will cause measures to be taken commensurate with the case for the purpose above mentioned. In either case it is my earnest hope that the action of the magistrate may be of a general character, and that the apparently casual causes of the lamentable incident of May 14 be investigated to their real sources, and that the responsibility be determined and the violators of the law in regard to the relations between the company and the laborers be punished; and consequently that, with the assistance of the State authorities, the most effective remedies be devised of having the supremacy of right fully and surely reestablished there where it seems to be at present ignored and disregarded.

Meantime I express to your excellency my sincere thanks in advance for whatever may be done in the above-indicated sense, and I take pleasure in availing myself of the opportunity of renewing, etc. G. C. MONTAGNA.

[Inclosure.-Translation.]
MEMORANDUM.

From the middle of the month of March, and for several weeks, there appeared at the consulate attached to this embassy, in groups of three, five, eight, etc., Italian laborer refugees from North Carolina claiming the assistance and protection of the Italian authorities. As shown from the numerous affidavits which I took care to have made out in support of their statments, they agreed in declaring that they had been at different times enlisted in New York by wellknown employment agents on account of the Spruce Pine Carolina Company. Being then sent to their destination, they soon found that they had (in most cases) been deceived regarding the locality (which was much farther than indicated), regarding the kind of work (which was harder than announced), regarding the price for the journey, which was charged against them (being higher than had been declared to them), and being sent to the various regions to perform their work, they became discontented at these abuses and were subjected to ill treatment of every kind, being badly fed and at high prices, being lodged in unhealthy dwellings, being obliged to work constantly and by compulsion twelve hours a day, being bound down to the place owing to the system of payments at long intervals, and, if they decided to leave, sacrificing all that was due them, being threatened with retaliation, which actually occurred when, having fled, they were arrested by armed guards of the company and forced to return to work. In short, they were deprived of their liberty and reduced to a state of peonage. The condition in which they appeared was the most pitiful, their bodies being broken down by the hardships of the long journey made in

great part on foot and by lack of food, and they being stripped of their goods and demoralized.

At first caution was had in giving credence to such reports, but the details being carefully confirmed the embassy could not help being impressed by the gravity of the facts stated to it, and having taken due measures to afford the unfortunates adequate material assistance it deemed proper, through the offices under it, to institute inquiries and order them at the same time to take measures to prevent the repetition of the abuses on the part of the dishonest recruiters and to devise the most effective means of putting an end to the lamentable state of things at the place of occupation, for if about 200 laborers, sacrificing their goods, had succeeded in escaping by flight 1,500 more of them still remained in the service of the Spruce Pine Carolina Company.

It was thus that, at the instance of the proper Italian office, grave complaints were made to the commissioner of licenses of New York, who, in turn, did not fail to adopt the measures demanded by the case, which were of course restricted in their effectiveness by the limits of the means at his disposal, which are inadequate to furnish the remedy which the circumstances require. And in the same manner three different investigations were begun at the place where the railroad construction company carries on its operations through the Italian consulate general at New York, through the labor information office for Italiaus of the same city, which is an American protective institution, and finally through the Italian consular agent at Charleston, S. C.

The reports, drawn up by three different persons, and on investigations conducted without limitation as to place, throughout the sphere of influence of the Carolina company, agree in confirming with a wealth of details systematically set forth the serious denunciations made for the last three months to the royal embassy and the consular authorities subordinate thereto. If the length of these reports did not forbid, it would be well to reproduce them in full in order to show still better the enormity of the abuses which are committed in defiance of the laws of liberty of the great American nation and in violation of human rights. A few extracts will serve to give an idea of the result of the inquiries, it being left to the proper ones to judge their scope and consequences and to devise the most appropriate means of putting an end to such an abnormal state of affairs.

After stating that the Carolina Company is engaged in extending the tracks of the South and Western Railway Company S. S. to northwest within the radius of three sections known as the spruce pine section (camps 1-7) in North Carolina, the Marion section, (camps 8-9) near Marion, Va., and the Clinch Port section (camps 1-9) in Virginia, it is proper to note that ever since April 17 last the Italian consular agent at Charleston had been addressing letters to the governor of North Carolina, to the United States district attorney, and to the director of the company, denouncing to them the abuses of which the Italian laborers were the victims and demanding prompt action in order to put a stop to it. In the report addressed to the Royal Embassy the principal points of those communications were repeated, and they may be summed up in the following lines:

“The treatment all these Italians received was practically that of slaves. They were, as I have said, guarded day and night by armed guards, and not allowed to leave the premises. They were compelled to do underground work when they had contracted to work above ground, leveling ground. When they refused to do this work, which under the contract they could not be compelled to do, they were whipped and suffered other abuses."

"They were compelled to buy all their supplies at the companies' stores at rates higher than those they could obtain elsewhere in the neighborhood, and which were so high that they took all the earnings of the laborers. In this way the company got their work and then got back all the wages paid these people."

"The letters from their families were withheld at the pleasure of the employing company."

"They were unable, on account of the guards, to seek any vindication of their rights or to withdraw when the employing company broke its contracts. The four men making the complaint had to escape secretly and were compelled to leave all their belongings behind them."

On his part the agent of the labor information office for Italians, having proceeded to the spot during the first days of last May, carefully visited many labor camps in which Italian laborers are employed, and ascertained that there

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