his
royal household, his brokers, bankers. You have only to read the
names published in the lists of the Brussels Stock Exchange to see
that these "trading companies," under different aliases, are
Leopold. Having, then, "conceded" the greater part of the Congo to
himself, Leopold set aside the best part of it, so far as rubber is
concerned, as a _Domaine Prive_. Officially the receipts of this pay
for running the government, and for schools, roads and wharfs, for
which taxes were levied, but for which, after twenty years, one
looks in vain. Leopold claims that through the Congo he is out of
pocket; that this carrying the banner of civilization in Africa
does not pay. Through his press bureaus he tells that his sympathy
for his black brother, his desire to see the commerce of the world
busy along the Congo, alone prevents him giving up what is for him a
losing business. There are several answers to this. One is that in
the Kasai Company alone Leopold owns 2,010 shares of stock. Worth
originally $50 a share, the value of each share rose to $3,100,
making at one time his total shares worth $5,421,000. In the
A.B.I.R. Concession he owns 1,000 shares, originally worth $100
each, later worth $940. In the "vintage year" of 1900 each of these
shares was worth $5,050, and the 1,000 shares thus rose to the value
of $5,050,000.

These are only two companies. In most of the others half the shares
are owned by the King.

As published in the "State Bulletin," the money received in eight
years for rubber and ivory gathered in the _Domaine Prive_ differs
from the amount given for it in the market at Antwerp. The official
estimates show a loss to the government. The actual sales show that
the government, over and above its own estimate of its expenses,
instead of losing, made from the _Domaine Prive_ alone $10,000,000.
We are left wondering to whom went that unaccounted-for $10,000,000.
Certainly the King would not take it, for, to reimburse himself for
his efforts, he early in the game reserved for himself another tract
of territory known as the _Domaine de la Couronne_. For years he
denied that this existed. He knew nothing of Crown Lands. But, at
last, in the Belgian Chamber, it was publicly charged that for years
from this private source, which he had said did not exist, Leopold
had been drawing an income of $15,000,000. Since then the truth of
this statement has been denied, but at the time in the Chamber it
was not contradicte