Trade and the Flag 43 



felt, the natives will not devote themselves to steady labor of 

 any kind. The importance of this generalization, if true, is real- 

 ized when it is considered that outside of India, Java, Barbados, 

 Cuba, Porto Rico and a few islands of small importance, the pres- 

 sure of population is not felt and the native can secure the means 

 to satisfy his few wants with very little effort. 148 



Sometimes it is the conditions of labor rather than aversion 

 to labor as such that discourages native efforts. One reason 

 why it has been so difficult to secure reliable and cheap black 

 labor in Delagoa in spite of the fact that the natives are anxious 

 to earn wages is because of the enforced conscription practice 

 peculiar to the Portuguese. The Portuguese indeed are feared 

 more than the Boers. 149 The following authoritative view is well 

 worth considering: "The core of most problems connected with 

 the opening up of Africa is cheap labor. The negro, as com- 

 pared to the European and Asiatic, is fitful in industry. He can 

 put fire, energy, strength, skill, intelligence, into his work if he 

 is in the mood, if he is attracted by an immediate, tangible re- 

 ward, or is spurred on (as he can be so easily, poor soul!) by 

 affection or admiration for the white man. But work for work's 

 sake in his — to him — delicious climate and well-provided country 

 is no ideal at present native to negro Africa. And then he has 

 been so often cheated. He has been the butt and the prey of the 

 shrewd Caucasian since the uprising of Semiticized Egypt eighty 

 centuries ago and down to the last rogueries of South African 

 mine managers. But he will work — and none better — if you take 

 him into partnership, convince him of your honesty and treat him 

 fairly." 150 



But it would take time to build up a native labor supply even 

 on the hypothesis that the natives would respond to an increase 

 in pay and more favorable conditions of work, and capitalists are 

 usually impatient to establish industries and greedy to secure re- 

 turns on their investments. The tendency is to seize upon forced 



148 Ibid., 133-134- 



14 *Bigelow, White Man's Africa, 52. 



160 Sir Harry Johnston, George Grenfell and the Congo, 1: 486. 



219 



