ARTICLE VI.

The present Convention shall be ratified by both contracting parties in accordance with their constitutional procedure, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as possible.

In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the Convention both in the English and Spanish languages and have thereunto affixed their seals.

Done in duplicate at the City of Washington, this 21st day of May, one thousand nine hundred and six. ELIHU ROOT JOAQUIN D. CASASUS [SEAL.]

[SEAL.]

1908.

ARBITRATION CONVENTION.

Signed at Washington, March 24, 1908; ratification advised by the Senate, April 2, 1908; ratified by the President, May 29, 1908; ratifications exchanged at Washington, June 27, 1908; proclaimed June 29, 1908.

I. Differences to be submitted.

II. Special agreement.

III. Treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo.

ARTICLES..

IV. Ratification.
V. Duration.

The Government of the United States of America and the Government of Mexico, signatories of the Convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes, concluded at The Hague on the 29th of July, 1899;

Taking into consideration that by Article XIX of that Convention the High Contracting Parties have reserved to themselves the right of concluding Agreements, with a view to referring to arbitration all questions which they shall consider possible to submit to such treatment;

Have authorized the Undersigned to conclude the following arrangement:

ARTICLE I.

Differences which may arise whether of a legal nature or relative to the interpretation of the treaties existing between the two contracting parties and which it may not have been possible to settle by diplomacy, in case no other arbitration should have been agreed upon, shall be referred to the Permanent Court of Arbitration established at The Hague by the Convention of the 29th July 1899, provided that they do not affect the vital interests, the independence, or the honor of either of the contracting parties and do not prejudice the interests of a third party.

ARTICLE II.

In each individual case, the High Contracting Parties, before appealing to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, shall conclude a special agreement defining clearly the matter in dispute, the scope of the powers of the Arbitrators and the periods to be fixed for the formation of the Arbitral Tribunal and the several stages of the procedure. It is understood that such special agreements shall be made by the Presidents of both contracting countries by and with the advice and consent of their respective Senates.

ARTICLE III.

The foregoing stipulations in no wise annul, but on the contrary define, confirm and continue in effect the declarations and rules contained in Article XXI of the Treaty of peace, friendship and boundaries between the United States and Mexico signed at the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo on the second of February one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.

ARTICLE IV.

The present Convention shall be ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof; and by the Government of Mexico in accordance with its constitution and laws. The ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as possible, and the Convention shall take effect on the date of the exchange of its ratifications.

ARTICLE V.

The present Convention is concluded for a period of five years dating from the day of the exchange of its ratifications.

Done in duplicate at the City of Washington, in the English and Spanish languages, this twenty-fourth day of March in the year 1908.

APPENDIX VII

LIVE STOCK CENSUS, 1923

The following report and graph, prepared by Mr. E. E. Evans, U. S. Vice Consul, Mexico City, furnishes a valuable revision of the Mexican official figures for the stock census of 1923, published opposite p. 253 of this volume, and also shows in a vivid way how severe has been the loss in livestock suffered by Mexico during the last decade and a half.

A national inventory of livestock in Mexico was carried on in 1923 by the Mexican Department of Agriculture, and the corrected and final results have been made available to this Consulate-General in manuscript form.

In order to give greater significance to the data in question, they are placed upon the background of the last previous nation-wide enumeration of Mexican resources in farm animals in 1902, with which they are compared in the annexed tabulation of the several species of livestock existent within the various State areas at the time mentioned.

The fact that Mexican herds and flocks diminished 60 per cent during the twenty-one years intervening between the two censuses bears witness of the extent to which the country's livestock suffered during the period of political revolutions from 1911 to 1920, when banditry and continual civil strife worked havoc to the economic fabric of Mexico.

During the years in question, the most notable bandit chiefs operated in the north central States and the tier of northern States that lie in close proximity to the American border, and there the animal industry of Mexico found its widest extension. As a commodity easily driven from place to place, and readily converted into cash, either on the hoof or in the form of hides and skins, by sale across the Rio Grande, cattle and other livestock necessarily sustained rapid diminution in number. The total loss on account of such depredations is probably much larger than can be appreciated upon the basis of the 1902 census, as it seems reasonable to suppose that some augmentation in the size of herds occurred during the years of peace subsequent to 1902 and up to 1911.

The falling off of 3,392,149 head of cattle represents the largest numerical loss that occurred in any branch of the livestock of Mexico, and it also constituted a greater percentage of the 1902 figure than in the case of other animals, viz., 67 per cent, therefore exceeding the general decrease which may be fixed at 60 per cent.

Goats decreased by 2,635,026 head or 63 per cent, as compared to total of these animals in 1902; sheep by 2,042,716 head, or 60 per cent; and horses by 503,555 head, or 59 per cent.

The smallest numerical losses occurred in mules and hogs, the respective decline of which, by 85,571 and 64,344 head, represented a diminution of 26 and 11 per cent from the 1902 figures.

As stated above, the final and corrected figures concerning the livestock census of 1923 have been obtained directly from the Mexican Department of Agriculture, as a result of the close contact which the Consulate-General maintains with that branch of the Mexican Federal Government, the archives of which have also been placed under contribution for details of the last previous national livestock census which, as stated above, was taken in the year 1902.

The table, which was printed by the "Revista de Hacienda," of January 28, 1924, was subsequently found by the Mexican Department of Agriculture

to contain errors, the most notable of which was an indication of the existence of 1,609,046 hogs in the Republic. This would infer an increase of nearly 1,000,000 hogs during the past 21 years, or since the last previous livestock census of 1902.

APPENDIX VIII

INSURANCE COMPANIES IN MEXICO

Home of New York; St. Paul Fire Insurance; Maryland Casualty Company; North American; Agricultural; United States Fire Insurance Company; Niagara Insurance Company; National Insurance Company of Hartford; Hartford Insurance Company; National Surety Company; Associated Employers Reciprocal Insurance Co.; Sherman & Ellis, Chicago, Ill.