WHAT LIBERIA NEEDS.
(The Independent. April 3, 1913.)
In 1905 I sailed from Antwerp to the mouth of the Kongo River. When we reached Freetown, Sierra Leone, we spent several hours on shore. On returning to the steamer we found all greatly changed; the white crew was laid off and the steamer was swarming with black boys who had been taken on to perform the heavy work of the vessel so long as she should be in the hot country. In the morning I found that these black boys were Krumen from Liberia; they pointed out the shores of their country as we sailed by and told me of their people and their life. The captain of our steamer was an Englishman; he took great satisfaction in telling stories which showed his contempt for the little black republic and its rulers. It was his custom to laugh at their port regulations, to evade their customs laws, to insult their officers. Months later, in returning from the Kongo Free State, I sat at table next to a ship’s officer who was never tired of telling of Sir Harry Johnston’s great scheme of Liberian exploitation; matters were all arranged for Britain to gain the advantage which the wealth of Liberia offers. When we reached London, I found the windows of book stores filled with Sir Harry’s great work upon Liberia, and considerable public interest in the subject.
It was these three things which turned my interest toward Liberia and led me to think of making an expedition to that country. I wanted to see the Kru boys at home; I wanted to see just how much of a failure the black republic is; I wanted to see how the English plans of exploitation worked out. It was, however, several years before I was able to make that journey. I have just returned and found much more of interest than I anticipated.
It is now almost one hundred years since the American Colonization Society was established and sent its first freed negro settlers to the West Coast of Africa; it is almost seventy years since, in 1847, the society severed its relation with the colonists and urged them to establish an independent form of government. We have no right to take any great amount of credit to ourselves for the original establishment; it was less from philanthropy or altruism than from selfishness that we began the colony; it was because we did not want freed blacks living among white Americans that we sent them to Africa. There have been various times during the period of Liberia’s history when we might have helped her greatly; we have never quite forgotten our obligations, but we have never done all that we might for her benefit and profit.
It is not fair to establish a direct comparison between Liberia and any European colony upon the West Coast of Africa. It is not just, for instance, to take Dakar or Freetown and compare them with Monrovia. Senegal and Sierra Leone have had great advantages which have been lacking in Liberia. Those colonies have had the constant aid and sympathy of a mother country; they have been developed with the aid of vast home capital; they have had the protection of well organized armies against internal foes and external aggression; they have had chosen men sent out as governors who have given them advice, encouragement, instruction. Liberia has had to stand alone; her population was largely ignorant persons, despised, recently emerged from slavery; she has had no interest of a mother country; she has had no capital with which to push development; she has had no means of protection against native tribes or crowding neighbors; she has had to train governors from her own population, who have had to learn the business of government through personal experience. When this marked difference in opportunity and material is realized, the wonder is that Liberia has been able to make any real achievement. As a matter of fact, while the direct comparison is most unjust, it can be made without serious discredit to Liberia. The standard of living, the average comfort, the construction of houses and other buildings in Liberia, falls little short of those in Freetown, if at all; of course, when it comes to public enterprises—harbor improvements, governmental offices, etc.—the European colony has notable advantage. In reality, Liberian achievement is marvelous in the face of all the difficulties with which the country has had to contend. Far from being a dismal failure, Liberia has proved an astonishing success. For more than sixty years her officers have been pitted against the skilled politicians of European countries; they have had to fight in diplomatic warfare with Great Britain, France and Germany. The wonder is that she was not long since wiped off the map.
In 1908 a commission of Liberians was sent to beg assistance from the United States. Through a period of years she had lost land, first to Great Britain, then to France, both of which own adjacent territory; her commerce had been hampered by British schemers who desired to prevent her development until they themselves should control its results; she had been forced twice to borrow money from Great Britain—and both times had paid heavily for scant accommodation. Robbed of land, crippled in development, heavily in debt to a pressing creditor, a crisis had been reached in her affairs. The United States heard the appeal and answered: a commission of investigation visited Liberia and made a definite report, advising certain lines of aid. We have acted upon some of their recommendations. We have expressed to Great Britain, Germany and France our special interest in Liberian affairs; we have lent her colored officers to aid in training a native force; we have come to her financial relief, paying her past debts and taking over the administration of her customs houses.
The population of Liberia consists of three main elements: there are about 12,000 civilized and Christian blacks, descendants of American freed negroes, whom we may call Americo-Liberians, or Liberians proper; there are perhaps 30,000 coast natives, who speak English and have come into frequent contact with Liberians and the outside world; there are perhaps one million “natives,” living in the interior, “bush niggers,” most of whom speak only native tongues and are pagan in religion. The Liberians live in a few settlements near the coast, or along the rivers, a few miles inland. The natives consist of a score or more of different tribes, living in little villages, each tribe having its own language, its independent chiefs, its characteristic life and customs. Sir Harry Johnston says that the interior of Liberia is the least known part of Africa. Many of these native tribes still practice cannibalism, all of them are polygamist, and domestic slavery exists among them. The relation between them and the Liberians proper is almost nil. The area of Liberia even now is larger than the State of Ohio and not much less than that of Pennsylvania. If we were to take the town of Bellaire, Ohio, and divide its little population into about a dozen towns along the Ohio River, and were then to sprinkle the whole State of Ohio with villages of Indians, totaling one million, speaking a score of different dialects, and recognizing no control except that of their local chiefs, we should have something analogous to the Liberian situation. If, now, this population of Bellaire were to figure as an independent nation among the world’s governments, think what a burden this would entail upon it. Liberia elects a President, Vice-President, Senators and Representatives; its President has a Cabinet, each member with his own department of government; it maintains a Supreme Court, with a bench of judges; it has consuls, some with diplomatic powers, in many of the nations of the world. Would we be able in any town of 12,000 people in the United States to find such a corps of men of competence? As a nation, with privileges and obligations, Liberia must not only maintain this national government, but it must keep order over its whole area and prevent its million bush natives from troubling its neighbors. It is on the plea that Liberia is incapable of maintaining order that France and Great Britain are constantly crowding upon her frontiers; it is a fact that to prevent aggression from outside she must maintain order within.
We must not imagine that neighborly aggression has ceased because we spoke. New boundary questions have lately arisen, both with Great Britain and France, and it looks as if they were getting ready to demand a new slice of territory. One of the crying needs of Liberia is to have a native frontier force, well drilled, ready to protect and maintain order at her boundary. Such a force has been organized; it has been in existence for several years; just at present it is being drilled under three young colored officers whom we have sent within the past year to Monrovia—Major Ballard, Captain Brown and Captain Newton. These men now bear commissions from the Liberian Government and are paid by it. The force will be developed to 600 soldiers; it is rather easy to collect them; they come from many of the interior tribes and, when they are enlisted, know no English; they seem to enjoy the life of soldiers and rapidly improve until in their conduct and drilling they present a creditable appearance. When actually disciplined, so that they will not loot or cause distress when marching through a district of non-combatants, they should be a great advantage to the nation. Unfortunately, the Liberian Government is frequently in financial difficulties and the pay of these soldiers falls into arrears. There is always serious danger that, under such circumstances, the discontented force may arise against the Government and cause difficulties.
We did well to come to the financial relief of Liberia, but we did badly in the details of our method. The total debts were about $1,300,000: we arranged for a loan to her of $1,700,000; this would enable her to pay off all obligations, to have some ready funds left over, and to have a single, friendly creditor. Before securing this loan we insisted upon a receivership. It would have been a simple matter for us to have simply appointed a receiver of customs and leave the administration of affairs in his hands, as we did in Santo Domingo. Had we done so, it is unlikely that any other nation would have found fault; if any nation should have criticised the action, we could with consistency insist that we stand in a peculiar relation to Liberia and that the loan is too small to warrant great expense in the handling of the business connected with it. What we really did was to recognize fictitious interests of other nations in the matter; we arranged for an international receivership; instead of one American receiver we proposed four receivers—American, French, English, German. Inasmuch as the impoverished Government has to pay handsome salaries to all four, the plan was anything but economical; the dangers of difficulty and disagreement between the members of this international receivership are considerable. Surely instead of inflicting an expensive and complicated international receivership upon the country, we should have arranged for an economical, simple national receiver.
There is no question that Liberia has great natural wealth; her resources are yet almost untouched; she is the only part of the whole West Coast where large returns are certain for small investment. In order to secure her wealth of products, it is absolutely necessary that trails be opened up through the interior. Trails, of course, already exist, but under present conditions they are frequently intentionally neglected; little chiefs do not want too easy contact with the outside world. It is absolutely necessary, if Liberia is to advance, that the good will of the chiefs shall be secured and that all trails shall be kept open. In no other way can the produce of the forests find its way down to the coast. Foot trails, of course, are of limited utility, and as rapidly as they are improved they should become actual roads, presumably to be themselves developed in time into roadbeds for light railroads. It is only by the improvement of means of transportation that the Liberian Government can hope to increase its income, which comes almost entirely from trade.