nations, and that it is prepared to pay its quota of $4,800 for the support of the institute for the fiscal year 1907 as soon as it is informed by the Italian Government that the institute has been organized.

I am, etc.,

ROBERT BACON.

TEXT OF THE CONVENTION FOR THE CREATION OF AN INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE.

[Translation.]

In a series of meetings held at Rome, from May 29 to June 6, 1905, the delegates of the powers convened at the conference for the creation of an International Institute of Agriculture, having agreed upon the text of a convention to be dated June 7, 1905, and this text having been submitted for approval to the Governments which took part in the said conference, the undersigned, having been furnished with full powers found in good and due form, have agreed, in the names of their respective Governments, on what follows:

ARTICLE 1.

There is hereby created a permanent international institute of agriculture, having its seat at Rome.

ARTICLE 2.

The international institute of agriculture is to be a government institution, in which each adhering power shall be represented by delegates of its choice. The institute shall be composed of a general assembly and a permanent committee, the composition and duties of which are defined in the ensuing articles.

ARTICLE 3.

The general assembly of the institute shall be composed of the representatives of the adhering governments. Each nation, whatever be the number of its delegates, shall be entitled to a number of votes in the assembly which shall be determined according to the group to which it belongs, and to which reference will be made in article 10.

ARTICLE 4.

The general assembly shall elect for each session from among its members a president and two vice-presidents.

The sessions shall take place on dates fixed by the last general assembly and according to a programme proposed by the permanent committee and adopted by the adhering governments.

ARTICLE 5.

The general assembly shall exercise supreme control over the international institute of agriculture.

It shall approve the projects prepared by the permanent committee regarding the organization and internal workings of the institute. It shall fix the total amount of expenditures and audit and approve the accounts.

It shall submit to the approval of the adhering governments modifications of any nature involving an increase in expenditure or an enlargement of the functions of the institute. It shall set the date for holding the sessions. It shall prepare its regulations.

The presence at the general assemblies of delegates representing two-thirds of the adhering nations shall be required in order to render the deliberations valid.

ARTICLE 6.

The executive power of the institute is intrusted to the permanent committee, which, under the direction and control of the general assembly, shall carry out the decisions of the latter and prepare propositions to submit to it.

ARTICLE 7.

The permanent committee shall be composed of members designated by the respective governments. Each adhering nation shall be represented in the permanent committee by one member. However, the representation of one nation may be intrusted to a delegate of another adhering nation, provided that the actual number of members shall not be less than fifteen.

The conditions of voting in the permanent committee shall be the same as those indicated in article 3 for the general assemblies.

ARTICLE 8.

The permanent committee shall elect from among its members for a period of three years a president and a vice-president, who may be reelected. It shall prepare its internal regulations, vote the budget of the institute within the limits of the funds placed at its disposal by the general assembly, and appoint and remove the officials and employees of its office.

The general secretary of the permanent committee shall act as secretary of the assembly.

ARTICLE 9.

The institute, confining its operations within an international sphere, shall— (a) Collect, study, and publish as promptly as possible statistical, technical, or economic information concerning farming, both vegetable and animal products, the commerce in agricultural products, and the prices prevailing in the various markets;

(b) Communicate to parties interested, also as promptly as possible, all the information just referred to;

(c) Indicate the wages paid for farm work;

(d) Make known the new diseases of vegetables which may appear in any part of the world, showing the territories infected, the progress of the disease, and, if possible, the remedies which are effective in combating them;

(e) Study questions concerning agricultural cooperation, insurance, and credit in all their aspects; collect and publish information which might be useful in the various countries in the organization of works connected with agricultural cooperation, insurance, and credit;

(f) Submit to the approval of the governments, if there is occasion for it, measures for the protection of the common interests of farmers and for the improvement of their condition, after having utilized all the necessary sources of information, such as the wishes expressed by international or other agricultural congresses or congresses of sciences applied to agriculture, agricultural societies, academies, learned bodies, etc.

All questions concerning the economic interests, the legislation, and the administration of a particular nation shall be excluded from the consideration of the institute.

ARTICLE 10.

The nations adhering to the institute shall be classed in five groups, according to the place which each of them thinks it ought to occupy.

The number of votes which each nation shall have and the number of units of assessment shall be established according to the following gradations:

In any event the contribution due per unit of assessment shall never exceed a maximum of 2,500 francs.

As a temporary provision the assessment for the first two years shall not exceed 1,500 francs per unit.

Colonies may, at the request of the nations to which they belong, be admitted to form part of the institute on the same conditions as the independent nations.

ARTICLE 11.

The present convention shall be ratified and the ratifications exchanged as soon as possible by depositing them with the Italian Government.

In faith whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the present convention and have hereunto affixed their seals.

Done at Rome the 7th of June one thousand nine hundred and five, in a single original, deposited with the ministry of foreign affairs of Italy, of which certified copies shall be sent through the diplomatic channel to the contracting States.

DESTRUCTION OF TOBACCO OWNED BY THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT.

The Italian Ambassador to the Secretary of State.

No. 2405.]

[Translation.]

ROYAL EMBASSY OF ITALY,

Washington, December 6, 1906.

MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: Your excellency knows that the Italian Government buys every year in the United States, in Kentucky and

Tennessee, to be precise, large quantities of tobacco leaf, viz, about 34,000,000 pounds for the needs of the tobacco monopoly. The purchases are made by agents who operate in 20 sections of the country, and in some of which they have established, at convenient places, "factories" where the tobacco purchased in the vicinity is received and cured; this tobacco, acquired through lawful contracts and duly paid to the growers, becomes Italian property.

The dissentions and competition prevailing between the Dark District Tobacco Planters' Association and the growers who had remained independent have already been the cause, about this time last year, of serious breaches of the peace. The members of the association, or a number of them, first used abjurgation and intimidation with the independents; then organized bands of "night riders," armed and masked, who, threatening death and destruction of property, demanded their promise to withdraw from their contracts and to enter into no other. On the night of December 8 two factories of the agents of the Italian Government at Trenton, Ky., managed by Mr. Joseph P. Russell, were set on fire and completely destroyed, with all the tobacco they contained. Other acts of violence were committed, to the prejudice of the American Tobacco Company and others, at Elkton, Ky., Adairville, Ky., Cadiz, Ky., Olmstead, Ky., Russellville, Ky.

The situation this year appears from reports that have reached this embassy to be no less, if not more threatening. Since the middle of November the "night riders" have resumed their performances in Caldwell and Lyon counties and elsewhere. During the night of November 30-December 1 the town of Princeton, Ky., was held in sway for over an hour by a gang of 300 masked men, who destroyed "stemmeries" and the tobacco therein stored, worth from seventyfive to one hundred thousand dollars. A plantation at Hopkinsville, Ky., was threatened at about the same time.

These disturbances may not only lead, as they did last year, to the destruction of supplies of tobacco already purchased by the agents of the Italian Government, which made them Italian property, but also prevent the seriously threatened planters from fulfilling their obligations or entering into new contracts of sale. If such a condition of affairs were to repeat itself or endure, the Italian Government might be constrained to seek elsewhere the whole or a part of the tobacco it requires every year. This embassy is therefore confident that the local authorities will, for the common good, see that the above-mentioned rivalries will not lapse into criminal acts, and that commerce shall not be hampered in its freedom or stripped of its guaranties. The Royal embassy ventures, with this end in view, to appeal in behalf of the Italian agents and of all with whom they deal, as well as of the goods purchased by them, for that "most constant protection and security" that is guaranteed by the treaties. Trusting that an answer from your excellency will bring me this

assurance,

I have, etc.,

MAYOR.

No. 2513.]

The Italian Ambassador to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

ROYAL EMBASSY OF ITALY, Washington, December 18, 1906. MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: In continuation of my note, No. 2405, of the 6th instant, I have the honor to transmit herewith (inclosure No. 1) copies of extracts from the Western Tobacco Journal of the 10th instant, which show that the situation in the districts where tobacco is purchased for the Italian Government has not in the least improved.

In explanation of the interests in these occurrences evinced by this royal embassy, I take pleasure in also sending herewith (inclosure No. 2) a complete list of the tobacco-packing factories in the States of Kentucky and Tennessee working under the Italian monopoly during the present season.

Accept, etc.,

MAYOR.

[Inclosure 1.]

[From the Western Tobacco Journal, December 10, 1906.]

INCENDIARY OUTRAGES IN WESTERN KENTUCKY HAVE DEMORALIZING EFFECT-EFFORTS BEING MADE TO APPREHEND GUILTY PARTIES-OTHER BARNS BURNED.

The burning and dynamiting of the two tobacco factories at Princeton, Ky., Saturday morning, December 1, was closely followed on Monday night by the burning of a large and valuable barn belonging to James Wilson, near Owensboro, Ky. Wilson is not a member of the Society of Equity and has refused to pledge his tobacco to it. It has been pointed out in the press of Owensboro and other parts of Kentucky that a barn close by the one which was destroyed and containing 150,000 pounds of tobacco belonging to tenants who sympathized with the society was not molested. While the work was not done by an organized mob, as in the former instances in the dark-tobacco district of western Kentucky, there seems to be a strong evidence that all the deeds originated at the same source. J. A. Everitt, national president of the American Society of Equity, has deplored the use of the torch, and has stated that he does not think it the work of members, who would necessarily defeat their own purposes by resorting to such measures.

DENOUNCE OUTRAGES.

At the meeting of the Burley Tobacco Growers' Society, held in Winchester, Ky., December 4, strong resolutions of denunciation of the outrages were passed.

The Dark Tobacco Growers' Association met in Clarkesville, Tenn., the same day and adopted similar resolutions.

Residents of Princeton and throughout the entire dark-tobacco belt have been thrown into the most feverish excitement, and farmers are hastening to sell their tobacco, fearing future outbreaks. The civil authorities of Princeton are exerting every effort to apprehend the guilty parties, but witnesses summoned have almost invariably failed to give any tangible evidence that would prove of benefit to the authorities.

PLEDGE TO SHED BLOOD.

The most important testimony so far brought out was given by Price Morse, a lad of 18 years, who is a member of the association. He claims to have heard Dr. Dave Amoss say in a secret meeting of the planters: "I want all those who will pledge themselves to take up arms and shed blood for the association to stand up." Morse said that many of the men stood up and that all those who refused to do so were excluded from the meeting. He gave the names of the