he labor
problem will not be formidable. Our mills are simple affairs. One
man can manage them, and the question of the labor on the rubber
concession is reduced to the minimum." This answer of the learned
attorney shows an ignorance of "labor" conditions in the Congo which
is, unless assumed, absolutely abject.

If the American syndicates are not to police and govern the
territories ceded them, but if these territories are to continue to
be administered by Leopold, it is not possible for the Americans to
have "absolutely nothing to do" with that administration. Leopold's
sole idea of administration is that every black man is his slave, in
other words, the only men the Americans can depend upon for labor
are slaves. Of the profits of these American companies Leopold is to
receive one-half. He will work his rubber with slaves.

Are the Americans going to use slaves also, or do they intend "on
commercial lines" to pay those who work for them living wages? And
if they do, at the end of the fiscal year, having paid a fair price
for labor, are they prepared to accept a smaller profit than will
their partner Leopold, who obtains his labor with the aid of a chain
and a whip?

[Illustration: The Laboring Man Upon Whom the American
Concessionaires Must Depend.]

The attorney for the company airily says: "The labor problem will
not be formidable."

If the man knows what he is talking about, he can mean but one
thing.

The motives that led Leopold to grant these concessions are possibly
various. The motives that induced the Americans to take his offer
were probably less complicated. With them it was no question of
politics. They wanted the money; they did not need it, for they all
are rich--they merely wanted it. But Leopold wants more than the
half profits he will obtain from the Americans. If the Powers should
wake from their apathy and try to cast him out of the Congo, he
wants, through his American partners, the help of the United States.
Should he be "dethroned," by granting these concessions now on a
share and share alike basis with Belgians, French, and Americans, he
still, through them, hopes to draw from the Congo a fair income. And
in the meanwhile he looks to these Americans to kill any action
against him that may be taken in our Senate and House of
Representatives, even in the White House and Department of State.

For the last two years Chester A. Beatty has been visiting Leopold
at Belgium, and has obtain