The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1922-03-24
Washington Man Was an
African Empire Builder

| Gordon Bennett had summoned Stan
| ley to Paris and told him, on behalf of
the New York Herald, which he
owned, to Find Livingstone" interior
Africa was unknown, except for short
trips after ivory and the unimportant
explorations of Baker and DuChalIieu.
DR.. Livingstone was then somewhere
near the equator dead or alive, no one
knew. The latter's explorations seem
to have been more for self-gratifica-
ton than from the standpoint Of sci
ence; he kept no scientific records,
and only formal diary. Stanley
opened Africa to the eyes of the world
on his first trip and attracted the COW
etous eyes of the colonizing nations of
the world towards it, and made him
self so valuable that he was obliged
to devote his after life to work along
the lines of exploration and empire
building. England gained much from
his work; Leopold of Belgium fostered
and acquired the vast Congo basin
with it's wealth of ivory and rubber,
and Germany, France and Portugal all
struggled for a hOothold in the rich
wilderness, that comprised almost a
continent
Notwithstanding her record for sue
cessful colonization the history of Eng
land in Egypt is a charter of horrors;
so far as the natives were concerned,
the occupation of England of the land
of the Pharoahs was one of subjuga-
ton and conquest; the harshest meas
ures were customary in Egypt, and
under the reign of Leopold in the
Congo. The obvious result was the
Gordon incident at Kartoum later, and
the uprising against Emin Pasha in
which caused English So
cieties to organize the last Stanley ex-
petition. King Leopold invited the
expedition to go in over the Congo
route.
Stanley was very great many in
many ways. He was naturally very
Porceful and went after results in q
way which gave very little thought to
by the way. He had
found that he could not govern both !
he Upper and the Lower Congo per- |
'onally and made contract with a
slave dealer and hunter, Tib- |
3o-Tu, to assume vice regal power. |
This step, which he explains by say
ng that he used the native slave hunt
IT, as he would any other weapon, was
Indirectly the cause of the disorgan-
cation and near failure of the Emin
'asha expedition, which cast shadow
,ver the later life of the explorer.
)ne can imagine how the different ma
ions, that were then in the great ef-
ort to obtain part of Africa, brought
very influence good and bad, to bear
pom the wicked and unlettered Tibbo-
III; how the plans of the explorer
vent wrong at every turn because of
ealousy of the several nations who
7anted the rich land However, as a
esult Of the explorations and discov-
ries of Stanley, and his hardy band,
be darkness Of Darkest Africa was
enetrated, and the world made vastly
icher and greater by the addition of
ne great natural resources of another
ointment
Shinzel speaks of Stanley with love
nd devotion, saying that he died of
broken heart. He claims that even
tanley's reports and those of his Off I
srs to him, were edited and censored /
efore publication. in order that GER
Tin powers might be favored in the t
vision Of the. vast spoils which the
ointment offered. In the intercourse I