EDUCATION IN LIBERIA.

is the "Gordon Memorial Scholarship," in memory of the English lieutenant who in 1822 sacrificed his life for the colony. There is one to the memory of Hon. John Payne, who first formulated the idea resulting in the college; one named after the distinguished jurist Hon. Simon Greenleaf, who led in the consummation of the idea, and still another after Hon. George Briggs, who labored with him. Senator Alfred B. King proposed one to Rev. John B. Pinney, who gave for the settlement of the colony the best years of his long and eventful life. It is impossible to give all the great names associated with Liberia College or to recall all her eminent sons who have distinguished themselves in the highest services of the church and state. It has had among its presidents the Hon. J. J. Roberts, the first President of Liberia; the Rev. E. W. Blyden, the African scholar; the Rev. G. W. Gibson, ex-President of Liberia, and Dr. R. B. Richardson, its present President. Among its distinguished graduates are the Hon. J. E. Moore, ex-secretary of state; Senator A. B. King, the first orator of Liberia; the Hon. T. W. Haynes, ex-attorney-general; Dr. R. B. Richardson, president of Liberia College, and the Hon. Arthur Barclay, President of Liberia. The institution has rendered to the Republic the most valuable services and is destined to render still more in the future.

XVII. OTHER SCHOOLS IN LIBERIA.

Presbyterian schools.-The writer is reliably informed that at one time the Presbyterians maintained in Liberia a class of schools which exercised a very wholesome influence upon the educational life of the Republic. Among their chief schools was the Alexander High School located at Monrovia, and afterwards transferred to ClayAshland. At the present time they have no schools in Liberia.

Baptist schools.-At this writing the Baptists in Liberia have only three schools, and Hon. D. E. Howard, secretary of the treasury, states that one of them is now supported by the general public, although the Baptists are in the majority and control its management. They have a parish school at Edina, and Reeves Institute at Fortsville, Bassa County, the latter being partly supported by the public. The work done is similar to that done in the high schools of Liberia. In connection with the instituțe there is a military department. They also have another school, Rick's Institute, at Kia-Poo, Montserrado County. This institute has not been in operation for the past two or three years, but arrangements were made for reopening it at the last session of the Liberia Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention.

African Methodist schools.-The African Methodists have no schools at present in Liberia. Through the efforts of the Rev. Dr. L. C. Curtis, an industrial school has been built at Arthington, on the St. Paul River, and will be opened soon.

Lutheran schools.-The Lutheran Church has some schools in Liberia. They are confined to Montserrado County and are in the Muhlenburg Mission work. The writer has been unable to get such a report as he desired, but it is known that they have 6 schools, 11 teachers, and 144 pupils. The work is entirely among the native Africans. The mission is about 45 miles in the interior. The schools are exercising a wholesome influence, as parents still farther in the interior have children there.

XVIII. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN LIBERIA.

Liberia is joining other nations in the recognition of industrial training. Industrial education was no doubt first introduced in Liberia through the mission schools. In some of the Methodist schools an opportunity is given for industrial training, namely, in the White Plains Industrial School, the Sinoe River Industrial Mission, and the College of West Africa. In the White Plains School, during the time of Superintendent John Seys, there was a sawmill from which lumber was supplied to the colonists; and enough sugar was produced not only to meet the demands of home consumption, but much was exported to the United States during the civil war and later. Now the students are taught building, woodwork, masonry, brickmaking, farming, and the cultivation of cotton, ginger, and rubber.

At the Sinoe Industrial Mission training is given in carpentry, building, and farming, very much the same as at White Plains. In connection with the College of West Africa there is a printing department, under the management of Mr. F. M. Allen, in which printing is taught. The success of this department is attested by the excellent job work done, and the work on the "Liberia and West Africa" and other papers printed in the office. Most of the work is done by native Africans. In the college proper the girls are trained also in domestic economy, housekeeping, dressmaking, fancywork, and kindred arts, under the supervision of Mrs. M. A. Camphor. Under Prof. W. F. Hawkins, the acting president of the college, the general work of the school for 1904 has been most satisfactory.

In the Protestant Episcopal schools industrial training is given at the four chief centers of education. At Epiphany Hall education is given in farming, including the cultivation of coffee, cotton, and rubber. During the five years just closed under Prof. P. O. Gray, great progress was made in the industrial department. Students were given an opportunity to learn printing and the carpenter's trade, and by rice cultivation the consumption of foreign-bought rice was reduced from 40 to 45 bags per month to 22 bags, and the coffee farm was made to yield from 3,000 to 4,000 pounds per annum.a There is, at St John's School, Cape Mount, an agricultural department, in which rice is raised with success, and efforts are being made to secure facilities for teaching other industrial arts. In connection with the Girl's School at Mount Vaughan, and the one at Clay-Ashland, the students are given "an ordinary education together with those arts essential to good housekeeping." The Right Rev. Bishop S. D. Ferguson, speaking of the former, said: "In this manual labor work, as well as in the art of needlework, there was much to be proud of and which reflected much credit upon the teacher." b

As far as the writer has been able to ascertain there is not as yet much industrial training given in the purely Liberian schools. At Rick's Institute, at Kai-Poo, the work consists chiefly of the cultivation of coffee, which has not been permitted to decline, and the farm yielded 3,000 pounds in 1902, 1,600 in 1903, and 1,400 in 1904. A most excellent printing department has been fitted up at Liberia College, and other industrial work is to be introduced later.

resources.

XIX. LIBERIA A NEW COUNTRY.

In all new countries the paramount question is the development of their natural This can only be done by industrial education for the youth of the country, or by the immigration of those already skilled in the mechanical arts. The phenomenal growth of the United States owes much to the skilled workmen who, having served their apprenticeship in Europe, came to America and entered upon the conquest of a mighty continent. It is a matter of the first concern that the resources of a new country be explored or they can never be utilized for the comfort and happiness of its citizens. It is the industrially trained who discover the wealth of mine and wood, and who compel nature to yield to man the varied treasures of her riches.

Liberia is a new and undeveloped country. Its resources are not only untouched but unknown. It has about 1,475,000 native Africans, divided among the Kroo, Grebo, Bassa, Pessey, Bundie, Balie, Golah, Cossa, Vey, Mandingo, and other tribes. Some of these tribes have men possessed of great knowledge concerning the medicinal qualities of plants, herbs, and roots. The industrial products of the Mandingoes represent a varied use of natural resources and indicate a high order of industrial skill. A slight acquaintance with their capacities creates a strong temptation to enter upon a description of their industrial arts. I have been able to secure many products of them, to add to the collection at the National Museum in Washington, from the simplest article of decoration and dress to the most useful in industrial and domestic Report for 1904.

a Retiring address of Prof. P. O. Gray, 1904.

129

work. With industrial training all of these tribes, possessing different degrees of natural capacity, might be led in a successful conquest of Liberian territory, resulting in a financial independence of the Republic which can be secured in no other way.

XX. THE FUTURE OF LIBERIA.

That progress is most permanent which has the strongest economic root. It is because Dr. Booker Washington understands so well the philosophy of economic equipment and industrial life that he is performing a service to the American negro and the nation that ranks him among the great men of any age. The future of Liberia

is indissolubly bound up with the industrial differentiation and development of her native population. The story of the courage, suffering, sacrifice, and death displayed in the planting of Liberia in West Africa is one of the most interesting chapters in the birth and growth of States. The assimilation of native Africans numbering sixty times the population of Americo-Liberians is the greatest problem of Liberian civilization. Every effort is being put forth by the present administration to secure the cooperation of the tribes for the development of the interior and the achievement of a common destiny. The magnitude of the task is great. But with the lapse of years more and more each generation will appreciate the importance of these native peoples. Assimilation is slowly taking place, and if Liberia is left unimpaired by the ambitions of designing States her influence for the civilization of Africans in Africa can not be measured now.

CHAPTER VIII.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS FOR THE REPRODUCTION OF MANUSCRIPTS, LIEGE, AUGUST 21-23, 1905.

By CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY,

United States Delegate to the Congress.

I.

In the earlier part of the year 1905 the Belgian Government, through its minister of the interior and of public instruction, M. Jules de Trooz, invited the governments and libraries of the world to participate in a congress for the reproduction of manuscripts, coins, and seals, to meet in Liege August 21 to 23 of that year.

This initiative was taken as a consequence of a series of efforts long making for the preservation of historical, philological, scientific, and artistic monuments against the perils of decay, mutilation, theft, and fires, by reproducing them and manifolding them in facsimile. Not only, it was urged, would such provision avert the further destruction of the materials of scholarship, as by the recent conflagration at Turin, but it would facilitate the pursuit of original research for countries and students far removed from the few great depositaries of these sources of human knowledge. The following account of the congress will deal specially with the reproduction of manuscripts.

The United States of America appointed as its delegates to the congress President Angell, of Michigan; Dr. Herbert Putnam, the Librarian of Congress; Dr. J. S. Billings, director of the New York Public Library; Prof. Morris Hickey Morgan, of Harvard, and Prof. Charles Mills Gayley, of the University of California.

The congress was placed under the patronage of M. de Trooz and of M. Gustave Francotte, the Belgian minister of industry and labor. Its announced aims were two: First, to study all questions of theory and technic bearing upon the reproduction of manuscripts, coins, and seals; second, to effect an international understanding for the practical realization of the resolutions of the congress.

The congress was held in the deliberative chamber of the provincial council of Liege.

The proceedings were opened at 4.30 on August 21 by the report of the secretary of the Belgian committee of organization, the well-known Bollandist, Father van den Gheyn, keeper of manuscripts in the Royal Library of Brussels, on the course of the present movement and its importance for the scholarship of the future. The minister of instruction was represented by a letter, which outlined with no slight tact the courses and ideals open to the congress; and the reading of this was followed by an address of welcome from the genial and beloved president of the organizing committee, Professor Kurth, of the University of Liege.

The roll call disclosed the presence of some 80 delegates, some representing libraries and some governments.