Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-01-13
NUMBER 20.
AFFAIRS IN LIBERIA.
American Emigrants Are harin
Very Poorly.

!
Very Poorly
| The public is familiar with the dis
/ astrous consequences of American ne
yroes going TO Liberia unprepared.
Rev. c. Max Manning, secretary of the
United States legation at Monroyia,
ately here on leave of absence, is an
educated man and speaks intelligently
| though somewhat guardedly, of things
and conditions in Liberia. Naturally,
he was asked as to the condition of the
emigrants who left Savannah for Lii
beria during 1895 and 1896. He replied
that he haze seen and heard very little
of them, the last party, that which went
on the Laurada, having arrived some
time before he reached there. He un-
derstood that they had chiefly gone
into the interior. He met few from
Arkansas around Monrovia, but none
from Georgia. The reports which he
received of these immigrants were not
the most favorable, he said. He heard
that at Crosierville, colony estab-
ished by the immigrants in the in
terror, two-thirds of them had died.
The great mortality among these
people, said Rev. Manning, lis not due
SO much TO climatic influences as to the
fact that the greater number of them
were unprepared TO take care of them
selves, and should have never gone
there. l do not consider the climate
especially unhealthy. What Liberi3
needs is men with money and brains to
develop its resources. Cheap labor is
overplentiful. There are plenty of ma
tiyes to attend to that, and they will
do twice the work for half the money
that the people who go there from this
country can afford to work for. know
of no place in the world where a man
with little capital and who is good
trader can make money more rapidly
and there is none where a man without
money is liable to suffer more quickly
The government desires to encourage
immigration of the right sort. There
is plenty of fertile land. The govern
ment gives 25 acres of land to each head
of a family, and ten acres to a single
man. The class of emigrants who left
Savannah in 1895 and 1896 is not de
sired by the government. 1t is tired
of that class of emigrants."
In speaking of the country, Rev. Man
ming admitted that Liberia had not
progressed as rapidly as the friends OF
the black republic might wish. The
civilized negroes are only handful as
compared with the uncivilized natives
The civilized negroes run the country
however, and the natives cut no more
figure with them than a negro does
with the white man in this country
Rev. Manning said. No white man il
allowed to vote in Liberia. Only land
owners can vote, and no white man is
allowed to own land. This is strange
state of affairs in a country which was
presented to its occupants by white
people.
They argue" said Rev. Manning
that if the white people are allowed
to own land and vote in Liberia the
condition of affairs there will soon be
pretty much the same as it is in this
country, and that white men would OWL
and run the country. Because of this |
embargo upon white men, capital has |
been kept out of the country, and its |
is retarded. / tried te |
argue with the principal men that il |
NOulu DE D0lIEE 1OT tHtn 10 1IlU uCt 1
white people to come in and build VI |
their colony for their own advantage |
if for no other reason, but they coulc /
not see it that way. l cited them to the |
city of Freetown, in the British colony !
of Sierra Leone, where the queens gov
ernment controls, but everybody has /
an equal showing. Freetown is one oi /
the most progressive cities to be found
anywhere, and reminded me greatly OF |
Augusta, with the exception that the
element is lacking. Yet
negroes do business there successfully
IN competition with white men. The
Majority of the business houses are
owned and conducted by negroes
There are two banks. One has Negro
president and a white cashier, and the
other a white president and Negro
cashier. The tellers and other EN-
ployes are negroes. Savannah (Ga.)
News.