Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-11-26

But the work was very hard and the
climate very trying to all the natives
Of other parts of Africa and hundreds
of them died and other hundreds de-
serted. Out of $500 men who were en-
gagged on the Congo railroad from early
in 1890 to May. 1892. about 800 persisted.
Naturally this frightful mortality made
it very difficult to replenish the ranks
of the workmen. At last an unusual
experiment was made, and 1t resulted
disastrously.
1t was well known that Chinese
coolies had proved to be very useful
railroad hands during the construction
of our Central Pacific and of various
other roads in the Dutch East Indies
They We're sober and intelligent work.
! men, and the Congo state authorities
| decided to test their efficiency in trop-
ical Africa. Late in 1894, $40 Chinese
laborers were landed at Matadi and at
| once went to work grading the road
bed. The first reports of the experiment
were very favorable, for the coolies
| worked willingly and with intelligence.
but they had no reserve of strength
against the trying effects of pioneer
conditions of living and bad climate.
1t was not long before they began -
die, and those who kept on their feet
were hardly able to lift their shovels.
SO the AsiaticS Were sent back home.
Chinese labor was failure on the
Congo, though it has been successful in
| tropical East Africa among the coffee
plantations of Usambara, where the
Germans have employed about 500
coolies with excellent results.
The labor problem was solved at last
| in a happy manner. The Congo natives
for many months had watched the i'm
ported blacks at their labors, and
few of them were finally induced to ply
the pick and the shovel. They did fair
| work under white superintendent, and
they liked the bits of silver that were
given them once a month. for they could
exchange them at the stores for mer-
chandise. Their friends decided they
would like some silver too. and it was
| not long before the local labor market
supplied all the hands needed on the
railroad. From 1000 to 5000 Congoesa
have long been in the service of the
enterprise. and it is they who have
| built the larger part of the railroad.
| In other parts of barbarous Africa,
also. native labor is now used on an
enormous scale in the white enter
| prises. The brain of a white man and
| the Drawn of the African are working
| together to reclaim the Dark CONT
| nent.
| All of the steel bridges crossing the
| little rivers were built in Europe and
| put together in Africa. Some scores
| Of cto
| places along the route and houses for
the white personnel We're also con-
strueted in Europe and taken in parts
to the Congo. AS the work progressed
the health of the entire force, both
white and black. has been better safe
guarded. and the mortality for two
years past has been comparatively
small. The high death rate of the first
years. slow progress of the work in its
early stages, and it's large cost We're
effective weapons in the hands of the
enemies of the enterprise in Belgium,
who did all they could to wreck it finan-
cially.
Utterly false statements as to the
progress and condition of the road
were circulated in part of the press,
and it seemed likely for while that
work would have to be suspended.
Since February, 1896, however, calum-
NOUS voices have been hushed, for the
government commission that was sent
to the Congo made so favorable a re-
port that the government and people of
Belgium have done all that was neces-
sary to insure the completion of the
road.
There will now be fine opportunity
| for tourists of the adventuresome sort
to catch a glimpse of the lower Congo
Valley, shoot hippopotamus at Stan
ley Pool and return to the sea breezes
in few days. The railroad invited
this traffic long before it's completion.
For long time one train a day has
started from each of the termini. From
our point of view. it is slow going, for
the trains run only in the daylight, and
for a while, at least, they will take two
days to cover the 240 miles between
Matadi and Stanley Pool. But this
slow pace is lightning speed compared
with the past system of travel. Many
millions of pounds of freight including
| fifty steamboats, in small pieces, have
been carried on the heads of men be-
tween tide water and the pool, and
they have been three weeks on
the way. Today the inner part
of the Congo basin is within three
weeks of Europe by an all steam route.
Facts are stubborn things. and this
railroad must astonish the small army
of writers who affirmed a few years
ago that white men could accomplish
nothing in the trying climate of the
Congo Valley.
!. Forty thousand black men are out of
| job. They are the Congo natives who
have been engaged for some years in
| the porterage business, carrying
| freight to and from Stanley Pool. They
need no sympathy, however, for their
| service has trained them to habits of
| industry, and they have learned to de-
sire the silver coins that the state is
sues, and they will easily find other
! labor, for there is plenty of work for
every native who is willing to give
| helping hand to the many enterprises
on the Congo.
CYRUS C. ADAMS.
Paper made from seaweed is a grow
ing industry in France. 1t is so trans
parent that it has been used in place
Of glass