The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1910-07-07
African
Republic
HAS sUEEsERED MANY RBBUFFs
AND DISHEAIsHE,NNTEN
IN THE PAST YEARS.
Pressing need Of the reorganization
OF Its finances apparent rs foreign
powers demand cancellation of
loans or slices Of land.

Liberia. the Negro State of Africa,
whose woes have been before the
world prominently for the last year,
and whose finances are to be bolster
ed up through a $1,000,O00 loan
from American, British French and
German bankers, through the good
Offices Of Secretary Of State Knox,
has been on the verge Of bankruptcy
for several years. It's expenditures
have exceeded it's revenues, and re-
! form from within the State, so as
to put it on a sound financial basis,
has seemed impossible of attain
ment. president Taft, soon after
his inauguration, sent commission
Of Investigation to the country, ON
the petition OF the Liberians for a
treaty, under which the United
States, through a protectorate, might
act the part Of the big brother to the
struggling republic. Neither the
President nor Secretary Knox, ac-
oording to advice from Washington,
Is in favor Of an open and declared
protectorate. But they hold that by
the very terms Of Liberals existence
the United States has a moral obli-
cation toward the country, and can
not afford to see the struggling
Negro republic gobbled up by Great
britain, France or some other Euro
pean power.
| That Liberia is in pressing need of
a reorganization Of it's finances, says
the Chicago Record-Hearld, is ap-
parent when it Is considered that the
British Government has been press
ing for some readjustment of the
situation regarding the loan, now
amounting to about $445, 900, in
cluding interest, which was incurred
first in 1871 from British financiers,
and has since been readjusted. There
is further customs loan Of $480,-
900, and. an internal debt amountin g
| to about 100000: For a population
Of about 100000 these would not
saemI To! make: gtahd
/ total Of indebtedness;S bit Liberia is
not a progressive country. Accord
| ing to reports of recent years, it has
| great natural resources, if only they
can be developed properly. How to
! bring about the development is a
problem that is more perplexing to
the statesmen who have to do with
Liberals affairs than how to care
for the existing Indebtedness.
Liberia owes its existence to the
National Colonization/ Society Of
| America, which was organized fn
1916 for the purpose of settling in
Africa the free Negroes of the
United States. The idea was an at
tractive one-that the Negroes, who
had been victims of injustice through
having been brought from Africa to
| the United States, should be given
chance to develop, free from the
white mans greed or oppression, in
their originally native land. After
an unsuccessful attempt to establish
|
in 1920, a tract Of land was acquired
about Cape Mesurado, and in April,
l1S22, an experiment at small farm
ing was begun, each man being
allotted a 30-acre tract and given
means Of cultivation.
| Rebuffs and disheartenments for
several years only spurred on those
workers for the success of the colony
who had faith in their original pur-
| pose. But the American Negro, it
developed, had no great longing to
return to his fatherland; he pre-
lferred to work out his destiny in the
country to which he had been brought
by force and which he had learned
practically all he and his kind ever
knew Of civilization. The colony
grew slowly. In 1847 Liberia was
declared an independent republic and
was left to it's own resources. The
powers of The world recognized it as
a state and the settlers proceeded to
try the experiment Of self-gover-
ming body with a constitution mode
led on that of the United States.
In order that the white man might
not obtain political influence in Ii
IBERIA the constitution provides that
all electors must be of Negro blood.
lThey also must be owners Of land.
IThe official language Of the state is
English. The President, elected for
four years, has a Cabinet composed
of the Secretary Of State, the Sec
retary Of the Treasury, the Secretary
Of the Interior, the Attorney General,
the Postmaster General and the Sec
retary for War and Navy. That the
war and navy portfolios can be COM
bined safely is shown by the fact that
the organized militia volunteers and
! nolice number On1y 700 while the