Part 15

A notable influence upon the native problem may be expected from the Frontier Force. The soldiers for this force are regularly drawn from the tribes of the interior. It is easy to get Boozi Mpesse, and their neighbors in large numbers. They come to Monrovia as almost naked savages, with no knowledge of the outside world, but with strong, well-developed bodies; they are quite amenable to training and quickly make improvement; they have almost the minds of children, and are easily led in either direction; if well treated, they have a real affection for their officers; if they are badly treated, they are morose, dispirited, and dangerous. They love the companionship, the bustle, the music, and the uniforms, and rather quickly submit themselves with fair grace to discipline. They regularly bring their women and their boy slaves with them from their distant homes, and these live together in special houses constructed at the border of the barracks-grounds. As the government not infrequently is in arrears in paying them their wages, there are times when the camp is full of insubordination and bad feeling; at such times there is always danger, unless the officers are tactful, of their becoming mutinous, and demanding payment with a show and threat of force. It is not impossible that some time on such occasions serious results may occur. When the term of enlistment has ended, these soldiers may go back to their towns and villages, carrying with them the effect of the influences, good or bad, to which they have been subjected at the capital. Not a few of them, however, re-enlist for a second, or even a third, term of service. The effect of this training must be very great upon the tribes. It could be made a most important influence for raising the condition of the whole interior; there is no more certain way by which the people of the remoter tribes may come to know about the Government.

We have read dreadful accounts of the relapse of civilized natives to their old form of life. Bright boys taken from the interior towns and villages are trained in mission schools, or even sent to the United States, and given a fairly liberal education. They have become nominal Christians; they have learned English and can read and write; they wear white men’s dress and seem to have adopted white men’s ways; much is expected of them when they return to their native country in the way of mission effort with their people. After they return, all changes; their Christianity takes flight; having no one but their own people with whom to converse, they return to the native dialect; as the European dress wears out, they soon possess a nondescript wardrobe; instead of leading their people in the ways of industry, they sit down at ease; gradually they resume natural relations with their people and play the part of advisers to the chiefs, or even themselves become petty chiefs; of them it is frequently claimed that they have all the vices of Christian and pagan and none of the virtues of either. There is more or less of reality in such accounts. But it is not true, even in these cases, that nothing has been gained. One must not expect rare individuals to produce rapid results in a great mass of population. It is doubtful whether the result is harmful. The importance, however, of impressing upon all children, who are taken into mission schools, their relation to the government, their duty to it, and the advantage of co-operation with it, should be profoundly emphasized; in such schools loyalty is as important a subject for inculcation as religion, reading, and industry. If as much care were taken to instruct the mission child in his duties as a citizen, as is taken in other directions, every one of these persons on their return to the bush would be a genuinely helpful and elevating influence. It is also true that Americo-Liberians occasionally take to the bush. Sometimes they are persons who have had difficulties in the settlements and find it convenient to change location; sometimes they are men who have married native women and find it easier and more profitable to turn their attention toward the natives; sometimes they are traders who spend about one-half their time in settlements and the other half in going from town to town to secure products; sometimes they are shiftless vagabonds merely drifting from place to place in order to avoid labor. Such Liberians among the natives may be found everywhere. They are usually of little value to those among whom they live. But the fact that there are such should not be over-emphasized. It is by no means true that the Americo-Liberians as a whole tend to throw off civilization and to become degenerate.

From this native mass much that has been helpful to the nation has already been secured. Work among them has always been accompanied by encouraging results. Two-thirds of the communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church are natives; they show as true a character, as keen a mind, as high ideals, often more vigor, than the Americo-Liberians in the same churches. Wherever the native is given the same just chance as his Liberian brother, he gives an immediate response. At the Girls’ School in Bromley, and among the boys at Clay-Ashland, natives and Liberians do the same work and offer the same promise; so in the College of West Africa the Kru boys are every whit as good as the Liberians. The number of natives who are at present occupying positions of consequence in the Republic is encouraging. The Secretary of the Department of Education, Dr. Payne, is a Bassa; Mr. Massaquoi, a Vai, holds the chief clerkship in the Department of the Interior; Senator Harris is the son of a native, Bassa, mother; Mr. Karnga, member of the House of Representatives, is a son of a recaptured African--a Kongo; Dr. Anthony, a Bassa, is Professor of Mathematics in Liberia College; there are numbers of Grebo clergymen of prominence and success within the Protestant Episcopal Church--as McKrae, who is pastor of the flourishing Kru Chapel at Monrovia, and Russell, who is pastor of the Liberian Church at Grand Bassa.

The natives, after all, are the chief asset of the nation. Only by their co-operation can aggression and pressure from outside be resisted; carefully developed and wisely utilized, they must and will be the defense and strength of the Liberian nation. Even if immigration on an enormous scale, a thing not to be expected, should take place, the native population will never be submerged; it will continue to maintain supremacy in numbers.

For support given to education, Liberia holds the first place among West African administrations. Sierra Leone, with a revenue six times greater than Liberia, spends only one-fifth of the sum devoted by our State to the cause of public instruction.--A. BARCLAY.

EDUCATION.

The importance of education was recognized by the “fathers.” The quotation of President Roberts which we have given above voiced the feelings of the more thoughtful of the settlers. Yet it must be admitted that the educational situation is far from perfect. There is a recently established Department of Education, the Secretary of which holds a Cabinet position. In 1912 Dr. Payne had under his direction ninety-one public schools in different parts of the Republic. Most of these schools were housed in buildings totally unsuited to their purpose; they were small, badly built, and unsupplied with even the barest equipment. There are no book-stores in Liberia, and there is a notable lack of suitable text-books for the children’s use; there are few black-boards and those of poor quality; the desks, seats, and other furniture are conspicuous either for their absence or poor quality. Teachers are frequently badly prepared; they not infrequently neglect their duties; the number of days of teaching is uncertain--as often the teachers will be occupied with other work than that to which they are supposed to devote their time and attention. Salaries are very low and badly paid. Mr. Deputie, once Superintendent of Education, in his report of 1905, appealing to the legislature, said: “Lend a hand by your official acts that will tend to ameliorate the condition of the teachers in the public schools, that they may receive a just recompense of reward. Some of these teachers, after serving faithfully during the quarter, receive only ten shillings on their bills, while many others of them receive not a shilling.” In 1910 Mr. Edwin Barclay was General Superintendent of the Schools. He made a careful study of the situation and in his report presents interesting statistics and facts with reference to the condition. He made a series of thoughtful recommendations for the future, and drew up an entire scheme of proposed legislation. Much of that which he suggested has been approved and theoretically put in practice. In regard to the matter of teachers’ salaries, he makes an interesting statement in tabulated form, comparing the average salaries of teachers with those of clerks in the department of the Government and in mercantile establishments. He shows us that the average salary of public school teachers at that time was $143.95 per year; that this salary was stationary and without increment of any kind. At that same time, clerks in government departments received an average salary of $321.29 per year with definite chance of promotion and a career before them. Clerks in mercantile establishments did even better, receiving an average annual salary of $365.90 a year with contingent increment annually of from twenty to fifty per cent on net profits. It is hardly strange under the circumstances that good teachers are rare and that promising young men should look to other fields than that of teaching. Three grades of teachers are recognized in the public schools; all teachers are required to pass an examination and receive certificates; second grade teachers receive thirty dollars per year more than third grade teachers, and teachers of first grade, thirty dollars more than those of second grade. Public schools are subject to the inspection of a local school committee which “consists of three good, honest, substantial citizens of the locality, having an interest in education. Sex ought not to be a barrier. They need not be highly educated, but should be able to read and write intelligently and earnest friends of education.” Membership in the committee is purely honorary, no fee accompanying the appointment. The members of the committee are to take an annual census of children of school age and to see that they attend school; they are to keep tab on the teacher and report him if he be guilty of immoral conduct or fails to advance his school. Each county has a school Commissioner whose business it is to examine candidates for teaching, to employ and direct teachers, to approve bills of salary, to visit each school in his district without announcement at least once a quarter, to remove and replace teachers, to make reports to the General Superintendent, to supply text-books, and hold annual teachers’ meetings in order to develop greater ability on the part of the instructors. Compulsory education is recognized in the Republic; as, however, many young people are obliged to assist in the support of the families to which they belong, night schools are provided for those who may be working during the hours of the day. The public schools are practically confined to the Americo-Liberian settlements. The latest definite statistics in regard to the number of children in attendance on the public schools are those of 1910. At that time 1782 children were in the schools; of these 1225 were civilized, 557 uncivilized, i. e., native; the distribution according to counties was as follows: In Grand Bassa County, 407; in Maryland County, 148; in Montserrado County, 947; in Sinoe County, 280. The instillation of patriotism into the young mind is regarded as a matter of importance, and it is required that the flag of the Republic shall be daily displayed at every school-house or place where public school is held; and “the hoisting and striking of colors at the daily opening and close of school session shall be attended with such ceremonies as shall tend to instill into the minds of the pupils a respect and veneration for the flag and a knowledge of the principle for which it stands.”

The public schools, however, are probably less numerous, and certainly reach fewer scholars than the various mission schools conducted by the different denominations. At the time that Mr. Barclay made his report he claimed but sixty-five public schools to ninety mission schools. While the public schools reached 1782 children, the mission schools had an attendance of 3270 children.

DENOMINATION Schools Pupils Teachers Methodist Episcopal 35 1,300 55 Baptist 1 25 1 Lutheran 7 275 13 Protestant Episcopal 47 1,670 55 -- ----- -- Total 90 3,270 124

These mission schools very largely reach a native population; it is true that some Liberians attend them, but the larger number in the attendance is from native families; all the schools located in native towns are, probably, under mission guidance. In some respects these schools are distinctly superior to the public schools of the Republic. Their teachers, with higher salaries, devote themselves with more energy to their work; text-books are supplied and the equipment for school work is better; the buildings, too, both in construction, lighting, and adaptation to their work, are better. A glance at the table shows that the Protestant Episcopal Church is in the lead. The work reported by Bishop Ferguson in his last annual report is most encouraging. Two schools at Cape Mount, one for boys and one for girls, care for both boarding and day students; at Monrovia the parish school is attended by 157 Kru children; the Girls’ School at Bromley, with 78 boarding pupils, is flourishing; at Clay-Ashland the new Alexander Crummell Hall was nearing completion, and the young men and boys there were full of enthusiasm; in Grand Bassa County parish day schools were conducted at Edina, Upper Buchanan, and Lower Buchanan; at Tobakoni work for Kru boys was conducted at a boarding school which had recently extended its work to the neighboring village of Nito; in Sinoe County both a parish day school and a boarding school were maintained; in Maryland County, where the work of this mission culminates, there is Cuttington Collegiate and Divinity School with 121 pupils, the Orphan Asylum and Girls’ School, St. Mark’s Parish School, the boarding school at Mount Vaughn, and thirteen boarding and day schools at other places. We have no adequate information regarding the excellent work of the Methodist schools and those of other denominations. Their work is, however, actively conducted. The Lutherans, from their centre at Muhlenburg, make the central idea of their mission effort the educational work; they emphasize, too, the manual phase of education and encourage the development of arts, industries, and agriculture.

Two of the mission schools demand special mention, as they represent the highest development of educational work in the Republic. These are: _Epiphany Hall_, Cuttington, four and a half miles from Cape Palmas, and the _College of West Africa_, located at Monrovia.

The work at Cuttington began in 1889, when the Cuttington Collegiate and Divinity School was founded under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church. One of the basic principles in Maryland since its foundation has been the development of agriculture. The efforts of the founders of the colony were exerted against trade and in favor of production. This desirable ideal has never been lost. At _Epiphany Hall_ an important part of the school’s plan is that students should be taught to work: a coffee plantation and a farm are connected with the school, and four hours a day of practical agriculture and horticulture are required; connected with this school also is a printing establishment at Harper, the work of which is done by students of the school. So far as the literary work is concerned, the school is divided into three departments--preparatory, higher, and theological. The work in the preparatory school covers four years; it is primarily arranged with native needs in mind, but other students are admitted. The work of the higher school consists of a two years’ advanced course, two years of collegiate work, a year’s course for a certificate of proficiency in general education, and a normal course. The work of the theological school covers three years, and is arranged with reference to preparation for the ministry.

The _College of West Africa_ is located at Monrovia, and is under the direction of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The building is an ugly structure of brick which has served its purpose for a long time and which should soon be replaced by a new and better building. It is, however, a hive of industry; it is crowded with boys and girls who are earnestly desiring an education. A great number of the students live in the building as boarders; many also come from the town of Monrovia and from “Krutown.” The teachers are mostly American negroes who have been trained in our southern schools. The courses offered cover a considerable range.

The work in this institution began in 1839 under Jabez A. Burton, assisted by Mrs. Anne Wilkins and Mrs. Eunice Moore. The present building was erected in 1849 at an expense of $10,000. The work of the school is divided among seven departments. The primary school covers three years; the grammar school three years; the high school two years. There is a normal course for the preparation of teachers; in the college preparatory and the college departments the classics are taught. In the biblical department the design is to prepare religious workers. There is an industrial department in which instruction is given in carpentry, tin-smithing, shoe-making, black-smithing, and printing; in this department girls receive instruction in home-training. The printing establishment demands particular notice; almost all the unofficial printing of the Republic, outside of the county of Maryland, is done upon the press of the College of West Africa. Many creditable pieces of workmanship have been put out by this institution and the mission paper, _Liberia and West Africa_, is printed here. The college conducts night schools for those who can not attend during the daytime. Regular charges are made for tuition, text-books, and--to those students who board in the institution--for room, board, and washing. These charges are extremely modest and can be rather easily met; through the opportunities connected with the industrial department students who wish to earn their education can largely do so. With the exception of printing, the work of the industrial school is conducted outside of the city of Monrovia.

We have already, stated that the mission schools are better equipped and more attractive than the public schools. The work of such schools is desirable and should be encouraged and developed. At the same time it is true that in such schools exists an element of possible danger. This is brought out by Mr. Barclay in his report. He says: “As regards the mission schools, if we observe attentively the final efforts of their endeavors, we will discover that, when they have operated exclusively in civilized centers, they have been a great public service and in many cases have supplied the want of a public school system. But, on the other hand, where the scope of their operations has extended beyond these centers, to districts wholly or mainly uncivilized, their care has been to ‘save souls’ rather than to create citizens or to develop proper ideals of citizenship. Their tendency is toward denationalization. Here, then, is where they come in conflict, unconsciously perhaps, with the imperative policy of the government. Pupils coming to attend the mission schools, for however short a period, leave with a feeling of antagonism to constituted authority, or at best, with no sentiments of congeniality with the civilized element either in aspirations or ideals. On returning to their homes, they develop into pernicious and vehement demagogues. Fomenting the tribal spirit in opposition to the national ideal, they frequently lead their people to foolish and irrational measures, and stir up misunderstanding and discord between them and the Government. They pose as arbiters between these two parties to their own profit, and, finally, when discovered, are discredited by both. The net result of this missionary activity, unsupervised and unregulated, is to create an element of discord in the State, which it becomes imperative to stamp out by force and at great expense to the public. These facts of course do not apply universally; but they are sufficiently general to attract attention and to call for amelioration of the condition which they point out as existing. It should not be thought that these remarks are intended or designed to discredit absolutely all missionary enterprises. But what I do desire to point out is that some supervision should be exercised over these schools by the Government. Under the direction of unscrupulous and unsympathetic people, they may be made powerful agencies of disintegration in the State. It must not be overlooked that the foreign missionary does not feel himself called upon to help direct in the process of nation-building. His aspirations are after spreading his own form of superstition and toward the realization of his particular moral Utopia.”

Again he says: “. . . all private affairs, when they impinge on the domain of public affairs, or assume a quasi-public character, must become the subject of regulation by public authority. So far as _internal administration_ goes, the State has, and can claim, no concern so long as such administration squares with legality. But public authority must step in when these schools become potent factors in public economy. We have been led, therefore, to the suggestion that such schools as are established by foreign and domestic mission societies in the Republic, should conform, in their primary grades especially, to the requirements of law for the public schools, and that the Department of Public Instruction should have the right to inspect these schools in order to find out if the conditions are being kept. To secure this, every school, before beginning operations, should be registered at the Department of Public Instruction, and licensed to this end. Where the legal requirements have not been kept, the Board of Education, or other educational authority, should have the power of summarily closing said school. These regulations are necessary when we consider the peculiar conditions which confront us in the administration of the country.”