ne who lives in
America and knows that Africa is a land of unbounded riches can hardly
understand the extent to which the West Coast has been exploited, or
the suffering that is there just now. The distress is most acute in the
English colonies, and as Liberia is so close to Sierra Leone and the
Gold Coast, much of the same situation prevails there. In Monrovia the
only bank is the branch of the Bank of British West Africa. In the
branches of this great institution all along the coast, as a result of
the war, gold disappeared, silver became very scarce, and the common
form of currency became paper notes, issued in denominations as low as
one and two shillings. These the natives have refused to accept. They go
even further: rather than bring their produce to the towns and receive
paper for it they will not come at all. In Monrovia an effort was made
to introduce the British West African paper currency, and while this
failed, more and more the merchants insisted on being paid in silver,
nor in an ordinary purchase would silver be given in change on an
English ten-shilling note. Prices accordingly became exorbitant;
children were not properly nourished and the infant mortality grew to
astonishing proportions. Nor were conditions made better by the lack of
sanitation and by the prevalence of disease. Happily relief for these
conditions--for some of them at least--seems to be in sight, and it is
expected that before very long a hospital will be erected in Monrovia.

One or two reflections suggest themselves. It has been said that the
circumstances under which Liberia was founded led to a despising of
industrial effort. The country is now quite awake, however, to the
advantages of industrial and agricultural enterprise. A matter of
supreme importance is that of the relation of the Americo-Liberian to
the native; this will work itself out, for the native is the country's
chief asset for the future. In general the Republic needs a few visible
evidences of twentieth century standards of progress; two or three high
schools and hospitals built on the American plan would work wonders.
Finally let it not be forgotten that upon the American Negro rests the
obligation to do whatever he can to help to develop the country. If he
will but firmly clasp hands with his brother across the sea, a new day
will dawn for American Negro and Liberian alike.

CHAPTER X

THE NEGRO A NATIONAL ISSUE

1. _Current Tendencies_

It is eviden