The Needs of Liberia. — (The Open Court. March, 1913.)
The situation of Liberia is critical. Her long-troubling boundary questions with Great Britain and France are not permanently settled; they have been re-opened and both countries are pressing.
We did well to come to her financial aid; but we did badly in needlessly inflicting upon her an expensive and complicated international receivership instead of an economical, simple and national one.
Liberia’s crying needs are:
a. Training of her native frontier force to protect her boundaries and maintain order there;
b. Development of existing trails, with their ultimate transformation into roads and railroad beds;
c. Restoration and development of agriculture—now neglected;
d. Education, especially along lines of manual and technical training.
Liberia’s greatest asset is her native population; only by imbuing it with the feeling of common interest and by securing its hearty co-operation can the government of Africa’s only republic hope to maintain itself and prosper.