Show DENIES STORIES STORIE OF ATROCITIES Professor Frederick Starr Crit Criticises Criticises Criticises Richard Harding Da Davis Davis I vis for Articles on Congo I Ii i HEARD OF NO CRUELTIES NATIVES APPEAR HAPPY UNDER BELGIAN RULE Professor Frederick Starr the head of the department of ot of the h University of o Chicago denounces the stories of the alleged atrocities and cm cru j cities Inflicted by the Belgian govern mert upon the natives of the Congo Free Hta Sta StaE t e as gross misrepresentations Pr Pro Prof v fw fes f lir ir r Starr arrived In Salt Lake last evening and Is s a guest at tle the Kenyon Kenon He will lecture tonight on The Truth About I the Congo at the First Congregational church Rev Elmer I 1 Goshen will in Introduce introduce i the speaker The lecture will le legin I gin at Professor ProCessor Starr criticised the tho articles of ot Richard Harding Davis which recent recently re ent ly Iy appeared In Colliers as libelous to the as 11 a well as the tho Belgian gov gOY government government Davis Miles Away Mr Davis said that personally he had seen no atrocities Inflicted on the ople though his hili articles would Indicate that he firmly believed that there was waa much cru eru cruelty city elty practiced upon them I can easily believe that he saw no cruel treatment because of ot the fact that hail had hn there een eenan any an he was not In a position to know of It Ito for he was a long way wa from the tho scene ot these alleged atrocities I noticed that 1 his letters were vere dated from Stanley Stanle Falls Fall Falland and yet et I know myself that he was never Dever within SO mile from Stanley Stank Falls 1 I also know that the pictures published publish by Mr Davis were old ones From the tone of or the articles one would be led 10 to 0 believe that they the had been taken by him himat himat himat at the time of his trip but I know that they were not I have been told the pic pie pictures pictures tures were some that originally had hall been Intended to be published in a suppressed suppress d dwork work on the Congo by Captain Burrows of England The government of the Congo Cono learned of the proposed publication ut cf the book and took the matter Into the Brit sh court where a Judgment was returned return d dIn In favor of the Conga Cong Free State Stat 1 and the work was suppressed Punishment of a Cannibal There was one picture 1 In Col Colliers Colliers liers hIers that I took pains to investigate It was the photograph of a prisoner about bot whose neck was bound the mortifying limb of a 1 human being The caption capton on the picture was to the effect that this was the punishment inflicted on a man who had committed some trifling offense I learned that the picture had been taken ten years ago that the man on whom the punishment was Inflicted was a cannibal that he was arrested while in the act of devouring the flesh of ot a human body and that In accord with the custom of ot the natives 1 the limb was vas bound about abo t his neck as evidence of his guilt It Is true that the Belgian government has imposed a compulsory rubber tax on the people Trey Tt ey force the people to col collect collect lect the rubber but they pay them for it when It Is gathered The dense fores forests s of h Congo are filled with rubber vines Government experts estimate the amount am of rubber to be found in a locality and 10 to each tribe the gathering of a portion of this rubber Is assigned According to the law Jaw of the country It is a punishable le of offense f tense If the rubber ru ber Is not gathered However I was there a year and In all that time I knew of or no case where any aty punishment was inflicted I do not believe that there was wag ever an instance wheT where any hands or feet were amputated or any other atrocious punishment Inflicted for or ortho orthe tho the failure to pay this tax Ant And An l yet ret I know personally personal of at whole tribes who have always refused to pay the tax and have nave never gathered an ounce of rubber and no attempt has over ever been made by the government to enforce this law Averse to Hard Work The reason the natives dislike to pay their allotment of rubber Is la due to the fact that In order to get at the they have to leave their trails and go o into the dense portion of the forests orests This Involves some considerable labor to which a male native natho of the Congo seems nat naturally naturally averse The women do what work there is to t be done In fishing and raising produce while the men devote themselves to religion and politics About 50 per cent of the stock of the thet t rubber companies operating in the Corgo Congo Is owned by the Belgian government Tho The companies are given concessions by bythe b bythe the government to operate In this country by the terms of which each company plants a certain number of vines for ev cv every v veo ery eo thousand pounds of rubber exported The most industrious of the native s of the Congo are the tho a tribe which for O years pars has been trading with the whites They willingly furnish their allot allotment allotment allott t ment of rubber I have havo seen them bring In their rubber and receive their pay lla for forIt forIt forit It The sale of the rubber was accompanied accompanied accompanied by b a great Jollification with sing singIng singIng singing Ing and dancing by the te natives I took the chief of the tribe to one side and asked him whether or not any an difference was mado made because I was there but ha told tod me mp that this was the usual scene at the th sale of the rubber that tn tho tae natives were vere ve e ewell well treated and had hall no i Complaint to tomake tomake tomake make Arc Are Happy On the whole the existence o the Con ese In their state seems a happy one I was wa In their coun country country country try practically all of 16 C I traveled over the country and visited tribes Often I was far in the interior imong the natives twenty to sixty miles from rhe fhe nearest white man I talked to the natives and learned learnd all about relations to the government and was told t ld n thing that was in any an way vav wa alarming alarm ino I became Interested in the at the worlds fair In St LouIs Lou and after reading of the alleged atrocities I went there to Investigate conditions for myself Things s were far different than I had ox ex expected to find them The year I spent with them was an Interesting one but I j did not learn of a single act on the part of the Belgians toward the natives that might be characterized as cruel The occupy an ar in n cen Ien central trai Africa as large as Europe without Russia Russin This Is inhabited by about 2500 OO 1 whites all told and from ten to twenty I million blacks Any An estimate as to the native population Is purely purel a guess gUiSS as there Is III no way of getting at anything ap approaching approaching approaching an accurate census The na live In villages in an Indolent par partially partially civilized state It is admitted by all of or the explorers that the condition of the natives is much better than before the Belgians took con control control on of the country Foreign slavery has 1 been abolished and cannibalism Is i t cani tal offense Th Tho sacrifice of women and the killing of ot slaves has also been abol hed by the Belgian government Domes Dones Domestic tic slavery fila ver still exists but It Is not a 1 great reat evil for the slaves are well treated and occupy a position almost equal with that of af the masters family The men practice polygamy by b purchasing wives from their or buying female slaves who oc occupy ocCUpy occUPY cupy the same Iame position In the household 1 as wives Each woman has her own Jy house In which she rears her children The houses of the wives are grouped group d around the abode of the tho husband The are a n particularly shrewd people They The are born traders Stinley St nl 3 says as that a black boy of 14 Is more than thana a match for any white man In an open trade And that calls call to mind the fact that these thele black children are ex precocious I r know native potentates s and chiefs who have as their chief advisers little black kids of 13 and 14 with whom they consult on all Important natters The people are bright and alert They learn rapidly but their natural Indolence gets the better etter of them and prevents their progress I |