Britain and Holland and had an annual average value of about 450,000. By 1914 fully two-thirds of the trade was in the hands of Germans, by whom the wireless station at Monrovia was owned and worked, as well as a four-cable line to New York. Deprived of their own colonies and ejected from the French and British possessions on the Gulf of Guinea the Germans during the war found in Liberia their last foothold in W. Africa. The
sition created was as unsatisfactory to the Liberians as to the Allied Powers, but Liberia was itself helpless. However, soon after the entry of the United States into the war the Liberian Government (May 1917) broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, the president, Mr. Daniel E. Howard, announcing that Liberia would cooperate sympathetically with the United States, Great Britain and France. On Aug. 4 a state of war with Germany was declared, and the Germans in Liberia were deported. The only act of hostility reported in Liberia was the bombardment of Monrovia by a German submarine on April lo 1918, following a refusal to dismantle the wireless station. The Germans destroyed the station, killed four persons and sunk the armed steamer " President Howard," which con- stituted the whole of the Liberian " navy." Liberia was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles. In Jan. 1920 Mr. C. D. B. King took office as president for a period of four years. Mr. King had been the peace delegate to Paris in 1919 and in the autumn of that year had paid a lengthy visit to America. An announcement was made, with reference to financial con- trol, that Liberia would henceforth be placed under the exclu- sive supervision of the United States.
After the war renewed efforts were made by British and American interests to develop the trade and resources of the country, but up to 1921 little more than preliminary work had been done. Indig- enous coffee is the staple product 761,300 Ib. of coffee were exported in 1917. In the same year the export of cocoa was 65,000 Ib. ; of piassava fibre (prepared from the raphea palm), 5,912,000 Ib. ; of palm oil, 336,000 gallons. Since 1914 the trade had been almost wholly with Great Britain, which in 1920 imported from Liberia goods to the value of 513,000 and exported to Liberia goods valued at 271,000. (The corresponding figures for 1913 were 56,000 and 90,000.) Shipping was also mainly British. In 1919 of the 244 vessels visiting Monrovia 116 were British, and British tonnage was 483,000 out of a total of 622,000 tons.
Revenue, which had been $618,800 (124,000) in 1912-3 (accounts are kept in American currency though the money chiefly used is British), had fallen to $273,000 (54,600) in 1914-5, and remained at about that figure for the next three years. Expenditure was rigidly curtailed, and obviously the Government had no money to spend on reproductive works.
Liberia continued to be of special interest to the naturalist. A valuable fodder grass, the Pennisetum purpureum, was discovered and in 1912 the first living specimens of pigmy Liberian hippopotami were captured and exported (by Maj. Schomburgh, who sent speci- mens to American and German zoological gardens).
See The Republic of Liberia (1920) by R. C. F. Maughan, since 1913 British consul-general at Monrovia, and Sir A. Sharpe, " The Hinterland of Liberia," Geog. Jour. (vol. lv., 1920). (F. R. C.)
LIBERTY, SIR ARTHUR LASENBY (1843-1917), English merchant, was born at Chesham Aug. 13 1843, the son of a Nottingham lace manufacturer. He was educated at the uni- versity school of Nottingham and at 19 became manager of the shop in Regent St., London, which he developed into an important adjunct of the art world of the period. In 1875 he became independent and at once set to work to adapt Eastern art in weaving and design to Western requirements, becoming famous both for his textiles and for his colourings. He was a fellow of the Asiatic Society and chairman of the advisory committee of the Royal School of Art Needlework at Kensington. Knighted in 1913, he died at Gt. Missenden, Bucks., May n 1917.
LIBERTY LOAN PUBLICITY CAMPAIGNS. The success of the Liberty Loan campaigns in the United States, after its entrance into the World War, must be judged in the light of the fact that, before 1914, America had little experience of raising huge amounts of capital for lending abroad. At the outbreak of the war the United States was a debtor nation. It was indebted to foreign creditors on capital account to the estimated extent of $3,500,000,000. Since July 1913 there had been, moreover, a steady export of gold, which had occasioned grave apprehension among American bankers; and in June 1914 New York clearinghouse banks had fallen $50,000,000 below their legal gold reserve requirements. On July 31 1914 drafts payable in gold were coming due immediately on the arrival of shipments of American railway and industrial securities sold abroad, and later, but within a few months, obligations to the amount of $600,000,000 would have to be met with gold in London and on the European continent. Foreign exchange leaped to the unheard-of figure of $7 for the pound sterling early in August. By Jan. i 1915, how- ever, financial conditions in the United States assumed a different aspect in consequence of the action of the bankers, assisted by the U.S. Treasury, in devising and making available a gold fund of $100,000,000 to protect the country's foreign credit. The warring nations were placing in haste huge orders for munitions of war, foodstuffs and general supplies. Exchange rates thus not only became normal, but turned in favour of the United States. Exportation of gold ceased, and its flow towards the United States began. In Sept. 1915 England and France contracted in New York for the Anglo-French loan of $500,000,000. From Sept. i 1915 to April 15 1917, a period of 19 months, the belliger- ent nations negotiated loans in the United States amounting to $1,650,000,000, at a rate not exceeding 5^ %; and the net balance of imports of gold into the United States during the same period was $1,074,777,133. These conditions in April 1917 are signifi- cant in contrast with those of July 30 1914.
When the United States entered the war it was apparent that huge sums would have to be made available by the U.S. Govern- ment for the use of the Allies as well as for its own expenses. The stupendous cost of the war to England, France and Italy clearly indicated that the United States must secure a war-chest of thousands of millions of dollars. Taxation and bond issues were the only methods by which the needed money could be raised. Congress, April 24 1917, 18 days after the declaration of a state of war, authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to issue bonds of the United States to the extent of $5,000,000,000. These Liberty Loan Bonds carried interest at the rate of 35 % per annum, were tax-exempt, and convertible into bonds bearing higher interest if any subsequent series should be issued at a higher rate. The unprecedented issues of loans by foreign Governments, and the purchase of large blocks of American railway and industrial securities which foreign holders had unloaded on the New York market during 1915 and 1916, however, seemed to have absorbed all the fluid money in the country. It was most uncertain how 3! % bonds would fare in the open market while those of England and France were yielding 55%, and railway and industrial se- curities carrying 6 % were selling below par. Leading bankers in all parts of the country advised that the issue should not be in excess of $500,000,000, in the belief that the market could not absorb more. In the face of these discouraging advices the Secre- tary of the Treasury determined, nevertheless, to be influenced only by the essential requirements of the Government. He fixed upon the amount of $2,000,000,000, and offered the loan to the public May 17 1917, believing that an appeal to the patriotism of the people would bring a satisfactory response. This first offering closed June 15 1917, with subscriptions by 4,000,000 people aggregating $3,035,226,850. Then, within the next 23 months, at intervals of about 6 months, there followed the Sec- ond, Third, Fourth and Fifth Liberty and Victory loans, aggre- gating $19,000,000,000 more, and in each campaign the offerings were over-subscribed. But this was only as a result of an appeal to the public such as had never before been attempted.
Appeals to the people, however patriotic they may be, cannot be forcefully made without organization. 1 A selling agency had to be created, one that wo.uld be nation-wide in its operations, replete with energy, enthusiastic in its patriotism, and deter- mined to uphold American honour and credit.
Geographically the United States is divided into 12 financial sections, each of which is termed a Reserve Bank District, with its Reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve Board was located in Washington. The system was but newly created, and had begun to function early in 1915. After the United States entered the
1 Foran account of what was done in England, for the same purpose, see the article WAR LOAN PUBLICITY.
