BELGIUM. 



BOLIVIA. 



71 



tory in dispute was left to be divided when the 

 two governments could reach an agreement, and 

 in the mean time to be administered in common. 

 From that time the district has been treated as 

 neutral. It was supposed that its perpetual neu- 

 trality was guaranteed, till in 1890 the Prussian 

 Government and the Belgian Government, which 

 succeeded to the rights of the Netherlands, 

 agreed on a line dividing the commune. 



International Miners' Congress. Thomas 

 Burt and Thomas Fenwick, two of the working- 

 men members of the British Parliament, while 

 attending the Labor Congress at Paris in 1889, 

 suggested to the miners that they met there the 

 advisability of holding an international congress 

 of miners to discuss their special interests. The 

 wealthy miners' trade unions of Great Britain, 

 containing 395,000 members, undertook to con- 

 voke the Congress in England, but the corre- 

 spondence convinced them that a place on the 

 Continent would suit the miners of different 

 countries much better, and at the suggestion of 

 the Belgian Labor party Jolimont, in the mining 

 district of Belgium, was fixed upon. 



The Congress met on May 20, 1890, in the hall 

 built with the profits of the co-operative bakery 

 established by the Labor party in 1886. The 

 English delegation was thirty-six strong, five of 

 the delegates being members of Parliament. 

 The Belgian miners were represented by fifty 

 delegates. There were seven delegates from 

 France, one of whom, representing the Decaze- 

 ville miners, was ex-Deputy Basly. From Ger- 

 many five delegates were sent, notwithstanding 

 the heavy penalties against participation in in- 

 ternational meetings of workmen. They were 

 not chosen by trade unions, because that would 

 entail the suppression of the unions, but by pub- 

 lic meetings, and more would have come except 

 for the doubts regarding this mode of appoint- 

 ment. Austrian miners were represented by a 

 delegate from Prague. 



Mr. Burt was chosen president for the Eng- 

 lish and M. Cavrot for the French speaking sec- 

 tion. The appearance of gendarmes and the in- 

 quiries instituted by the Minister of the Interior 

 concerning the foreign delegates gave the im- 

 pression that the foreign members of the Con- 

 gress were to be expelled. A resolution that 

 miners should work only eight hours a day was 

 adopted unanimously. The proposition con- 

 tained in a further resolution that the limitation 

 should be enforced by legal enactment was op- 

 posed by several English trade-unionists. Still, 

 the majority voted with the Belgian, French, 

 and German delegates, all of whom were Social- 

 ists, in favor of an eight-hour law. An instruc- 

 tion, originally proceeding from the Marxist 

 party, announcing a general international strike 

 of miners for eight hours on May 1. 1891, was 

 strongly reprobated by most of the British mem- 

 bers, who said that they did not rule the unions 

 and had no authority to order a strike or to 

 pledge assistance. The others were therefore 

 compelled to accept a resolution in favor of a 

 new Congress in April, 1891, to deal with the 

 question after consultation with their constitu- 

 ents. The Congress voted approval of national 

 trades unions to be formed for national purposes 

 and of an international miners' federation for 

 international purposes,. and it appointed a com- 



mittee of two delegates from each nation to act 

 as the organizers and serve as the nucleus of the 

 International Federation. 



Customs Conference. The international 

 conference for the publication of customs tariffs 

 assembled at Brussels on July 1. 1890. To the 

 countries that took part in the conference of 

 1888 were added Austria - Hungary, France, 

 Japan, the Netherlands, and several of the South 

 American republics. One of the questions con- 

 sidered was the establishment of an international 

 office at Brussels to publish in the principal lan- 

 guages the customs laws and tariffs of all na- 

 tions, the costs of which are apportioned among 

 the countries entering into the arrangement in 

 proportion to the volume of their foreign trade. 

 The convention for the establishment of the 

 bureau was signed on July 5, with separate acts 

 relating to the method of carrying out its pro- 

 visions and the payment of expenses. 



BOLIVIA, a republic in South America. 

 The executive power is vested in a President, 

 who is elected for four years. Don Aniceto Arce 

 entered on his presidential term on Aug. 1, 1888. 

 The members of both the Senate and the Cham- 

 ber of Deputies are elected by universal suffrage. 

 The Cabinet in the beginning of 1890 was com- 

 posed of the following ministers : Foreign Af- 

 fairs, Juan C. Carillo ; Finance, Pedro Garcia ; 

 Interior, J. M. del Carpio ; Justice, J. Pol ; War, 

 Col. A. Rojas. 



Area and Population. The area of Bolivia 

 is estimated at 772,548 square miles, and the 

 , population at 1,192,162 persons, exclusive of the 

 aborigines, who are not admitted to citizenship. 

 La Paz, the capital, has 56,849 inhabitants. 

 There were 28,558 pupils attending the 443 pri- 

 mary schools in 1888, 2,347 in the 19 secondary 

 schools, and 743 students of law, medicine, and 

 theology in the 4 universities. 



Commerce and Production. The average 

 annual value of imports is $6,000,000 and of ex- 

 ports $10,000,000. Two thirds of the exports 

 consist of silver. Other articles of export are 

 gold, copper, tin, cinchona bark, coca leaves, 

 India-rubber, gum, coffee, and nitre. There 

 were exported in 1888 by way of Buenos Ayres 

 silver of the value of 5,487,835 dollars in Argen- 

 tine currency and gold of the value of 1,201,226 

 Argentine dollars. The imports of textiles 

 and other commodities through Buenos Ayres 

 amounted to 518,588 dollars. A large propor- 

 tion of the imports, consisting of iron manufact- 

 ures, machinery, cotton goods, carriages, coal, 

 etc., come from Great Britain, mainly through 

 the Peruvian port of Arica. There is also a 

 large and increasing trade with Germany and 

 France. The railroad connecting the Chilian 

 port of Antofagasta with Ascotan on the Boli- 

 vian frontier is being continued to Oruro. There 

 is a telegraph from Lake Titicaca to Sucre, and 

 one extending from the Pacific coast through 

 the capital and Potosi to the Argentine frontier. 

 The number of messages in 1886 was 16.127; 

 the number of letters carried by the post-office, 

 1,525,606. 



Finances. In the budget for 1887-88 the 

 revenue was estimated at 3,665,790 bolivianos or 

 dollars, and the expenditure at 4,599.225 bolivi- 

 anos. The amount of the foreign debt was 

 officially stated in December, 1888, at 6,027,292 



