The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-04-17
LET LIBERIA ALONE
A Good Country to Sympathize With.
But Not to Take Charge OF.

News and Courier, Charleston. S c..
editorially urges that the editor-in-
chief of the News Leader be appoint
ed one of the commissioners to be
sent by our government TO investigate
and report upon conditions in Liberia.
full for the compliment, and would
| enjoy return to the scene Of one of
his early adventures as a newspaper
| reporter. A journey in the luxuries
Of United States ship, and with the
| authority of a United States commits
sioner to the country formerly visited
in q forlorn old sailing vessel, drift
ing drearily in equatorial heat, and
with her packed passengers dying
daily of fever and starvation, would
have its pleasures. The editor-in-
| chief of the News Leader would not.
however, apply for nor accept such
| an appointment. In the first place,
he doesn't care to be too close to this
administration until it shows what it
intends to do. In the second place,
in his view, a newspaper man should
not seek or hold public or political
office of any kind, especially from a
party which he opposes in politics.
He has no right to impair his own
value as guide or a mouthpiece for
public sentiment, and when his in
dependence of thought is surrendered
or hampered, his value disappears. In
the third place, he has affairs of his
own, which demand more time than
he can find and more work than he
can accomplish.
The United States government had
better leave Liberia alone. We have
on our hands now more problems Of
| new people, more tasks of civilizing
and regeneration than we can attend
| to, enough to keep us busy and strap
ped the next twenty years Great
Britain is in that line of business She
is hungry for more territory and
| spheres of influence, and we do not
need either. If we assumed charge
of Liberia, that squalid little force of
negro Republic would be demand
ing admission as State and sending
two black United States Senators to
| complicate conditions and aggravate
L thsa lfyrn inv 10
in all kinds of rows and squabbles.
and the first we knew We would be
sending troops, and having three or
four hundred of our good white SOL
diers killed or burned to death with
| fever and malaria, chasing savages
through putrid tropical swamps. We
have had enough Of that. Let Great
Britain take the job. She seems to
like that kind of thing. She is used
she could make Liberia decent and
decently prosperous and market fol-
English products, like the neighbor
colony of Sierra Leone.
The preliminaries are familiar from
| experience. An advance line of young
| Englishmen with pulls at home would
| be sent out by the government and
would promptly commit suicide by
| the time honored method of expert
menting with brand and Scotch whis-
key under the equator and trying to
| wrestle with coast fever by the help
| of those stimulants. Then presently
| a few traders, cool headed and with
| business training and purposes and
sense enough to respect the climate
| and conditions go in and establish
commerce and order and begin devel-
| opment, and by a judicious combina-
| ton of kindness and force, law and
lawlessness, bribery and blldozing, the
natives are brought into clothes and
schools and things are established.
Liebria never will amount to any
| thing without the white mans control
and guidance. Her laws forbid her
citizens from leaving without pass
| ports, showing they have paid all
| their debts and have the govern
ment's permission to gO-and, how
ever it may be now such passports
used meant a substantial bribe to the
| attorney general, who had charge of
such matters. That guards the coast
| but no passports are required for the
man tired of work and civilization
who wishes to slip off into the bush
that lines the interior boundary line
and join one of the savage tribes.
That is just what good many of the
| Liberian brethren have done and
probably yet do. The "call of the
wild" from the woods is trengthened
by the pushing of debts and families
and other responsibilities, and the citi-