He expressed himself as being in sympathy with my views as to the wisdom of
granting larger privileges to foreigners, and requested me to furnish him
with a memorandum of my views, which I have done.
Please find inclosed copy of memorandum marked No. 1.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Smyth to Mr.
Gibson.
Legation of the United States,
Monrovia, Liberia, August 12, 1881.
Mr. Secretary: According to request made at our
recent interview that I would furnish you memoranda of my views upon the
subject of enlarged privileges that should in my opinion, the opinion of
my government, be accorded American citizens as a reason for my
government giving full credence to the desire of your people for
increased commercial relations with the United States, I have the honor,
very respectfully, to submit the following:
The port of entry statute of 1865, on page 42 of the Liberian statutes,
contains the gist of the objectionable legislation to which I would
invite attention.
The first section makes it an offense punishable with a heavy fine for a
foreigner to re-establish, after establishing at a port of entry, a
factory without the immediate jurisdiction of a port of entry. The
second section of said act, on careful examination and by fair legal
construction and interpretation, prohibits Liberians as it does
foreigners, against whom it, by intendment, was made to operate,
chartering a foreign vessel to come within the Republic for purposes of
trade. This was evidently an oversight, mistake on the part of the law
makers; but, notwithstanding this, it is the law. Having set out the
principal object of complaint, I respectfully invite attention to the
facts that have transpired with reference to the objectionable matter
complained of. The American firm of Messrs. Yates and Porterfield was
established at Grand Bassa for several years, but since has abandoned
the keeping of a house in Liberia, on account of annoyances it was
subjected to by the law of 1865.
A former adviser of the government, Attorney-General Davis, was of
opinion that the right to trade away from ports of entry, east of the
coast and at interior settlements, on the part of foreigners, under the
law, should be conceded.
Further, the honored President of Liberia, A. W. Gardner, in his annual
message of 1879, favored, and in substance advised the abrogation of the
law of 1865, by recommending enlarged privileges to foreigners under
proper safeguards (vide message).
Since the passage of the law of 1865, the firm of Messrs Yates &
Porterfield has established a successful business at Sierra Leone and
Lagas, and contemplate opening business at Senegal within the present
year.
C. Woerman & Son., of Hamburg, desired to lease large estates here
for the culture of coffee, but from the illiberality of the laws,
abandoned the effort, and have since established successfully at Gaboon,
the French Government making the firm a gift of land for agricultural
purposes. The coffee that has been successfully cultivated at Gaboon, is
Liberian.
Dudes upon imports are such as are calculated to seriously injure the
progress of the masses, and are of questionable benefit to the
revenue.
[Page 741]
The foregoing facts represent the absence of so much capital from the
state that would otherwise have been here, and from which the people
would have received a share in compensation for labor, and the state a
portion in increased revenue.
Had this potential capital been introduced, commodities would have been
reduced in price by competition and the masses, the common people, would
have been made more comfortable by increased facilities of
employment.
The object of past legislation has been in the interest of the trading,
rather than the producing class, and for reasons that are obvious. It
requires but little sagacity to predict the result of such legislation,
if persisted in. Already the results are painfully apparent in the
agricultural condition of the country. While more coffee has been
produced within the last three years than in any other like period of
time in the nation’s history, yet the exorbitant prices of necessary
commodities have kept the people poor.
The two published annual reports made by me to my government for the
fiscal years 1878 and 1879, show the imports to Liberia to have been
largely in excess of the exports from Liberia to the United States,
making the balance of trade against the Republic.
I venture the assertion that the imports from England, Germany, and
Holland are vastly in excess of those of the United States. There are
not any consular reports from the German and Dutch consular officers
resident in the Republic.
Since Liberia cannot profitably consume what is
produced, not to speak of its possible productions, the state must
export its surplus productions; but to do this farming interests must be
specially fostered. The increase of Christian emigration from the United
States, is the increase of poverty as to money, but may be made an
increase of wealth in muscular industry, by liberal legislation. While
labor and capital should never be made antagonistic elements, it is the
duty of government to be so liberal in its legislation upon these
subjects as to avoid any such result.
Without further trespassing upon your time, I most respectfully submit
that so much of the port of entry law of 1865, as I have referred to,
should be repealed, that leases should be made to foreigners by the
Government and by citizens, for business purposes for varying periods of
time and for ninety-nine years, the rental being made payable annually
or otherwise, as the contracting parties may decide, and that duties on
imports be decreased.
With renewed assurances of the very sincere interest I have in the future
progress of the Republic. I am, &c.,
