Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-09-26
AMERICAS Only. COLONY
OF 100000 ONLY $4,000 Are 10
be Considered Civilized.
FACTS ABOUT REPUBLIC OF SIBERIA

As Large as State of Kontueky But
Still one Of the Darkest Spots in
Africa-ExpIoration is Not Yet Com
pIete-Finanees Managed by United
States.
Liberia, whose president-elec now
Is touring the United States. Is the
subject of the following bulletin from
the National Geographic Society: e
The African republic. Americas
only colony. has an area equivalent to
that of Kentucky, and a total popu-
lation estimated to be greater than
that of>any one of thirty states Of the
union. But Of these two million or
more inhabitants only about $4,000 o.
whom one fourth are ofs American
origin, may be considered civilized,
and take part in the government.
Liberia is situated on the west
coast of Africa, at the point where the
coast line makes the great bend to
form the Gulf of Guinea. It's posi-
ton puts it directly on line Of ocean
communication between Europe and
South Africa and points reached by
way of Cape Good Hope.
Its southern boundary is its Atlantic
coast line of some, $50 miles. On the
west is the British colony Of Sierra
Leone, where futile attempts at colon
ization were made before Liberia was
reached, and on the east and north are
French possessions of the Ivory coast
and Niger basin regions.
For some forty or fifty miles back
of its coast Liberia has been cleared
and developed, but from that imagl-
nary line inland there are dense
forests, primitive people, and Sir
Harry Johnston encountered beasts.
birds and reptiles living today which,
he wrote are found. fossil in Miocene
formations of Franco and southern
Germany
"Thus there is the contrast of one
of the most unique experiments in poll
tical annals-Stevenson referred to IL
IBERIA as q footnote to history'-set
amid the least known region Of the
erstwhile dark continent
Planned as a reparation for the
seizure of its natives as slaves, and
an experiment in transpianting faI
flung race once more In their native
coil, the beginnings Of Liberia had
many contact points With early Amer
lean history.
"It will be recalled that the move
ment for emancipating slaves had its
beginnings year after the Declara-
ton of Independence was signed, with
the abolition of slavery in Vermont.
and that, as early as 1908, the impor-
tation of African slaves into this
country was prohibited. Meantime
George Washington having set the ex-
ample, many slave owners made pro-
vision in their wills for freeing their
human property.
THUS 1t came about that the freed
mems problem antedated the Civil
War by half century and Henry Clay
presided over a meeting in Washing
ton, D. c., in 1916, to form a COLOMBIA
tion society Bushrod Washington was
the first president of that society, for
mally organized on New Year day in
1917, and after several expeditions had
met with misadventurcs through cpl
denies and opposition Of natives, the
Rev. Jehudi Ashmun, in 1921, founded
Liberia.
1.-The countfys name, signifying
Land of the Free and that of the
principal city, Monrov!a, In honor of
the then president of the United
States, are variously attributed to
Rev. Ralph r. Gurley, Ashmun's friend
and biographcr, who drafted the first
Liberian constitution, and to Robert
G. Harper, of Baltimore, Nd, patron
Of the colonization movement.
within q decade Of Ashmun's arri-
val the American population has risen
to nearly $500, daily newspaper had
been started, and afcode Of laws was
in practical operation. Originally the
Portuguese and the Dutch had sought
gold, pepper, and slaves from Liberia.
Today, as then, it has vast, undevclop-
ed. resources, both mineral and agri-
cultural. But before the war it ex-
ported goodly quantities Of rubber,
palm oil, fibre, cocoa, coffee, ivory and
spices.
Liberia is asserted to have one Of
climates in the world, and
few areas have more rain. The year.
ly fall amounts to- nearly 10 feet of
water.
1.-The colonists declared Liberia an
independent republic in 1S47, and it
was recognized within q few years by
nearly all countries except the United
States. Previously there had been a
split, and Maryland, now the southern
country of the republic, was a rival
state to Liberia. 1t had its inception
from a second colonization society
from the state of Maryland, in the
United States.
Ten years ago President Roosevelt
sent q commission to Liberia to in
vcstigatc conditions. That commits
sion's report resulted in negotiations
IL J.. Ia