The_Open_Door_deel1

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giving citizenship to the people of tribal origin, and a system
of "indirect rule" was introduced. (Despite these changes
he was not able to prevent several serious tribal uprisings
since the Ports of Entry Law of 1864 remained in force. In
1910 he added new reasons for the tribal people to rebel by
introducing unpopular taxes, notably the Hut Tax). In 1907,
the same year in which the word "Negro" replaced the word
"Colored" in the Constitution's clause which defined eligibility
for citizenship of the Republic, the Naturalization
Act of 1876 was repealed. This old Act required "alien" Africans
to spend at least four years in the Republic before they
could be granted citizenship. The (restrictive) Act had been
passed during the (second) Administration of President Payne
when the Republican Party dominated and controlled Liberian
politics. In 1907 the naturalisation period was reduced to
one year (92).
In the early 1900's when there were approximately 12,000
Americo-Liberians in Liberia, exclusively living along the
coast (93), the Liberian economy and public finance were
again in great difficulties. In the first year of the Administration
of President Arthur Barclay there was a Public Debt
of $800,000 (most of which resulted from the pernicious 1871
Loan) (94). This compares very unfavourably with the |8,000
debt of the Government in 1850 (95). For this reason President
Arthur Barclay in 1904 proposed a modest $107,000 Budget to
the Legislature (96).
In 1903 Arthur Barclay had been elected President on the slogan
"Internal Development". He had very outspoken ideas about
the country's economic history and future, the contribution
to it of the colonists as well as the - discarded - role of
the Liberian tribes. The country's labour problem always
played eu crucial role in the economic as well as the political
activities of the settlers. Arthur Barclay was not the
first Liberian President who acknowledged the responsibilities
of the settlers when he stated with respect to this
problem:
"The question of remuneration has also something to
do with the trouble. Clany farmers buying goods at
high prices desire to make a profit out of the la-
Lorer and so the goods paid in return for labor are
much higher than the ordinary market prices which
of course the native labor knows and feels he is
being ill treated. Some men it is charged will not
pay at all, or find some fault and dismiss laborers
when the work is practically done, without remuner-
. ation." (97).
In his first Inaugural Address to the Liberian Legislature he
vehemently attacked the closed door policy nf his predecessors
and notably the Ports of Entry Law of 1864:
"(..,) Liberia was purchased for us from its native
inhabitants by the Europeans" (Barclay included
white Americans in this group as well, see footnote
33 - the author.) "The colony was founded by the