The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 9

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER 9

Americo-Liberians, who came there as liberated
slaves from the United States or are the children
of such immigrants. The native people live in small
villages, in an almost impenetrable hinterland of
forest jungle. Two of the seven or eight tribes
have attained a tolerably high level of intelligence
and development. The Kru tribe is noted for the
physical strength of its members and their skill as
boatmen. The Vai tribe has a written language of
its own.

The native tribes grow rice, corn, potatoes, cot-
ton, tobacco. and other crops, and in most of the
villages there are found people proficient in some
handicraft. Working in iron, leather, silver, bas-
ketry and pottery, weaving and dyeing cloth, are
occupations to be found among them. A deplorable
thing seems to be the fact that the Negroes from
America and their children devote themselves almost
exclusively to politics in its narrowest sense instead
of applying themselves to business and the indus-
trial development of the country. Politics is said
to be corrupt, and 90 per cent. of the taxes are con-
sumed in salaries. What is still worse, legitimate
taxes seem to be only a fraction of the money taken
from the taxpayers.

In giving such complete attention to politics, the
Americo-Liberians have failed to bring the blessings
of agriculture, industry, and commerce to their
adopted country. The great economic movements
of the last seventy-five years seem to have left Libe-
ria almost untouched. Highways, railroads, tele-
graphs, and telephones are almost unknown. Public
health is given little or no attention. It will not
surprise our readers to hear that education has also
made very little headway. Excepting the pupils at-
tending the schools carried on by foreign missionary
societies, the 9,000 children along the coast are neg-
lected despite the fact that Liberia has a compul-
sory school law on paper. Were it not for the in-
fluence of the foreign missionaries, there would be
great danger of the Liberians’ rapidly falling back
into barbarism.

The commission of the League of Nations found
intertribal domestic slavery in Liberia. Also pawn-
ing was found there. Pawning is an arrangement
by which in return for some consideration in money
or goods a human being is held in slavery for an
indefinite time. Women held by a man in pawn are
used to entice young men into immorality, and the
men who succumb to such temptations are then
seized, fined, and made to work out the fine on some
farm. A traffic in human beings, practically the
same as slave-trading, has been found.

It is generally admitted that foreign assistance
will be needed to bring about a better state of affairs
in Liberia, especially among the oppressed natives.
One of the most prominent of our American Negro
citizens who cooperated with the League of Nations
in its inquiry, emphasizes the opportunity here
offered his race to uplift and develop native African
tribes. He feels that, if Liberia is to be saved from
disaster, it must change its economic and commer-
cial attitude, pay greater attention to the health and
education of its people, and abolish the cruel treat-
ment of the natives in the hinterland.

And there are many who share the views of this
distinguished member of the Negro race and are
willing to help bring about better days in Liberia
under Negro leadership. These men and women of
good will in America and other countries desire
nothing more earnestly than that Liberia, under
Negro leadership, may provide a magnificent ex-
ample of what the Negro race can do.

Statistics. — Area, 45,000 square miles; popu-
lation, 2,000,000 (100,000 civilized; American Ne-
groes, 20,000); nominal Christians, 19,929; com-
municants, 10,000; hospitals, 4, with 20 beds.
There are 108 foreign workers, including wives, in
Liberia, and of these 34 are ordained; the native
mission-workers number 429, of whom 99 are or-
dained. Various mission-societies support 150
schools, and of these 146 are elementary; -6,266
pupils are enrolled in the elementary schools, about
1,000 in secondary schools, and only 3 in a higher
institution, a so-called college. FE. J.L.

A Mission-Festival in India.

A mission-festival is so closely connected with
a Missouri Lutheran church and the mode of its
celebration so well known that it seems almost
a waste of energy to write up one in particular.
A mission-festival in India does not differ essen-
tially from one at home. However, there seems
to be enough of interest to be said about such a fes-
tival in India that we venture to tell you about it.

Festivals, even among Christian churches in
India, are not rare.
Tare. You will readily understand the reason why
they should be rare. A person must be a Christian
before he can be told with effect to do mission-work
and be expected to carry out the Great Commission
of Jesus. ‘Thank God, the number of such as are
willing and ready to rally around the Captain of
their salvation here in India is increasing. There

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Mission-festivals, however, are ~

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