April 10, 1922 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



to both master and man. The laborer, if so inclined, might after 

 receiving his advance, fail to show at roll call, and the places 

 that knew him well know him no more. On the other hand, the 

 employer might, and often did, by smooth talk and fair promises, 

 get his output for the season safely on board a homeward bound 

 steamer, taking passage himself, leaving the unsuspecting laborer.s 

 with their unpaid balances. The native employer finds the evading 

 of payment more difficult. He cannot run away; he must stay and 

 face the music. He ships his logs on the same kind of promises, 

 but when, after long and weary waiting, the logs are sold and the 

 sales account is received, the balance due, if any, is absorbed by 

 the local merchants, who have furnished tools and supplies and 



logs are left to come or stay, most of them stay. The high waters 

 overflow the river banks, the floating timbers take to the woods 

 and when the waters recede are left in inaccessible places, bard 

 to find, and the cost of returning them to the bank is greater than 

 to cut and haul new wood. The crew may bring suit and attach 

 the logs where they are, but there is not any real value and both 

 wages and logs are lost. These and similar misadventures do not 

 serve to inspire confidence of natives in employers of labor. 



In beginning active logging, I declined to make advances or to 

 let contracts, insisting on the American plan of doing business, 

 hiring men for a twelve-month term on monthly wages, payable at 

 the end of every three months. The people very soon learned that 



By courtesy of the Ainerican Forestry Mafiazine, Washington, D. C. 



CALLING THE ROLL IN A MAHOGANY CAMP IN TROPICAL WEST AFRICA 

 Most of the native workmen are secured from Liberia, the government of which country requires the payment of a tax of five dollars each for every laborer Who 



is allowed to leave to work in another country 



perhaps a little money, holding a lien on the logs as security. Again 

 the laborer is found not worthy of his hire. 



The contract system also is in vogue in some parts of the coast. 

 The white man leases a tract of land said to carry mahogany 

 timber trees. He then gives out to a native jobber a contract to 

 bring to the mouth of the river a specified number of logs. The 

 jobber hires his men and gives them an advance on wages, the cash 

 being furnished by the white man. During the year, and as the 

 work progresses, payments are made to the jobber, who spends the 

 sum in .other ways than in payment of wages, and just before the 

 beginning of the rainy season, when the men are most needed and 

 there is no time to fill their places, they demand a settlement and 

 payment of wages due. As nothing is due to the jobber, the white 

 man refuses further advances; the jobber has spent the money; 

 the laborers leave the work; and when the driving water comes the 



we had come to stay and that the pay was sure and the system 

 gave entire satisfaction. The major part of labor on the Gold 

 Coast is imported from Liberia and mostly from that district 

 known as the Kru country. 



The Government of Liberia demands a fee of five dollars a head 

 for each man taken out of its country. To secure laborers from 

 that country an agent must be sent to engage the required number 

 and ship them on the first steamer calling at the port. Passage 

 money is paid and on landing at Axim the entire party is lined up 

 in front of the office, sorted into sizes and graded by apparent 

 capacity for hard labor, names taken and wages fixed for the year 

 on each grade and each individual, and the entire lot taken before 

 the District Commissioner, who asks each one as he touches the pen 

 to verify his signature by mark, "You 'gree?" If the man can say 

 yes he does so, if not he grins and retires down the line. The head 



