Rubberman & Son

His Excellency, sleek black President Charles D. B. King of Liberia is referred to by President Coolidge as "my great and good friend" (TIME, Feb. 18, 1924). Last week the great and good President had reason to beam with Afric joy. His Congress--composed exclusively of property-owning negroid Africans--has just voted to extend a helping hand to an Akron rubberman.

Two years ago U. S. rubbermen were paying 22-c- a pound for rubber raised at a cost of 18-c- a pound on British rubber plantations. Then the Chancellor of the British Exchequer, Winston Churchill, succeeded in enforcing restrictions on British rubber production. Soon the price of rubber mounted to $1.20 a pound (TIME, Aug. 3, 1925), a rise of almost 500% in 13 months. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover protested, but the U.S. public continued apathetic. Big rubbermen took steps. Harvey Firestone told his son Harvey Jr. to take steps to Liberia.

Thus it happened that Firestone Plantations, Ltd. of Akron (Ohio), London and Singapore was confirmed by the Liberian Congress last week, in its 99-year lease on 1,000,000 acres of land suitable for rubber production and 200,000 acres planted 16 years ago and now in full production. To reclaim the 1,000,000 acres of present Firestone jungle, 350,000 Liberians will be needed at a cost of $100,000,000. The tracts if fully developed should produce 400,000,000 pounds of rubber annually-- about half the rubber consumed this year in the U. S.

Already the Firestones have been working their plantation for over a year under a tentative agreement (TIME, Oct. 26, 1925) with the Liberian Government. Young Harvey Firestone Jr. (Princeton '20) has largely engineered the groundwork of this vast project. Recently he surveyed the Philippines for further rubber possibilities, told President Coolidge at White Pine Camp (TIME, Aug. 16) that "in 15 years the United States could become independent of the British Rubber monopoly" if Philippine land laws are modified to encourage U. S. investments there.

Humanitarians have often rebuked the U. S. for its lack of encouragement to the Free and Independent Republic of Liberia, constituted in 1847 on the West coast of Africa, especially to make provision for freed U. S. slaves. The President of Liberia is of American descent. The Constitution, Legislation, Executive and Judicature of Liberia almost duplicate the U. S. pattern. Two million Negroes dwell there upon an area as large as Pennsylvania.