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Show Africa and' J-imeritci Linked . ... By' World's Latest Radio Service Harvey S. Firestone, Jr., Sends First Message From Liberia To Rubber Company's Own Station In Akron ally Reports On Rubber Growth To Follow ..lr. and Mrs. Harvey S. i.iroj atone, Junior, now in the African jungles, today broadcasted the first message ?er.t from the special radio ra-dio station recently erected on the Firestone rubber plantation in the interior of Liberia, on the West Coast of Africa. The message was received at a similar station on the roof of the Firestone factories fac-tories at Akron, Ohio. This murks a new era of com-; munication with the interior of in- j accessible countries. Heretofore, the method used was to send foot messengers through ' jungle trails,: taking t3s to get in touch with: the outside- world, broadcasting by radio direct from one continent to another thus gives the Firestone Tire & Kubber Co. a great advantage advan-tage in developing its million acres ,f rubber lands that were secured from the Liberian government. Although these properties are located lo-cated over 5.00U mile; from the Firestone headquarters at Akron, Ohio, it will now be possible to send reports every day by radio from the Liberian plantations ro Akron lUU.OUO Acres Laid Out . .'ilr. Firestone, Jr., has been in Libei-iu since early January. In his first report by radio today, he said that the Liberian government officials were enthusiastically cooperating co-operating with Firestone in the company:" great undertaking to make Liberia one of the important 1 rubber-growing countries of the world. Mr. Firestone said that luring the first year two 50,000-acre 50,000-acre plantations had been laid out, one on the Du river and the other 150 miles south of the ru on the Cavalla rivev Firestone engineers in -ne same time had constructed over 75 miles of roads and had built and established estab-lished headquarters on the two plantations, with housin, facilities I fur '.he resident start's of 118 Americans. 1'ower plants for the development of electric power, i..-i;t anl refrigeration had been built, as well as hospitals and trade stores for the benefit of the Americans and also to supply the nueds of the 15,000 natives who are employed in clenring the jungles jun-gles and planting rubber trees. .500.0110 Trees Planted During the past year, according to Air. Firestone's first radio report, re-port, over 1,500,000 rubber trees have beeii planted on a total of over 15,000 acres of cleared jungle lands. This is a record in rubber plantation work. It is the largest number of trees set out and acres planted by any single company in the same length of time. And Mr. Firestone stated that the rate of progress in clearing land and planting rubber trees is being constantly con-stantly increased. Mr. Firestone reported that the steamship sent over for service had been placed in commission along the Liberian coast and is now "linking up the Firestone plantations plan-tations and the coast towns of Liberia. Li-beria. He expressed the hope that Firestone will soon have its own vessels operating directly between New York and Liberia, making the Atlantic passage in less than two weeks. When this is done, it will not onlv give Firestone an advantage advan-tage of from two to five weeks in time as compared with other rub-hor.ornwine- countries, but will iwi-(iuiiiis ----- also greatly reduce tb , cost of j transportation. I Teach Natives Trades Great progress in the development develop-ment of trie Fircstono trade schools was also reported. Mr. Firestone said that the natives were very anxious to learn under the instruction instruc-tion of thi- Firestone technical staff the dark-hued Liberians are being taught to be carpenters, blacksmiths, plumber, electricians, auteuiobila '' : , .r,ir ;rv aa-. gineers, soil experts and foresters. Now that the Liberians, for the first time in the history of the country, have a system of good roads, tbey are suddenly becoming enthusiastic about motor transportation, trans-portation, and they all want to ride - in automobiles, trucks or tractors. As a result, Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, has established estab-lished a traffic squad to police the traffic on its principal streets, i When the Firestone company went into Liberia, there were no roads ! in the country, and only one auto-; auto-; mobile. This was owned by the i President of Liberia, who had very tittle occasion to use it because of the absence of good roads, i When Mr. Firestone arrived at (the Du river plantation, he was 1 greeted as the "Great. White I Chief'' by many thousands of Fire-i Fire-i stone native i employees who had i erected a great arch of leaves and i ferns at the entrance of the .property .prop-erty and lined the road on both 1 aides as he drove through eleven i miles of the plantation to head-j head-j quarters. t $5,t)00,VeU Loan to Lioena ; . Mr. Harvey S. Firestone, Sr., ! has successfully arranged a ?o,000,000 loan m. America for the Liberian government. This places Liberia on a firm financial basis, and permits the development of roads, schools and public bmldinirs. The 118 Americans cornonsmy the Firestone technical staff are helping help-ing to organize the 2,0(10.000 or more native Liberians arid five them remunerative einolovment. which had not been hitherto available, avail-able, in their own country. Tee natives na-tives are proving very adaptable and willing to work in an organized organ-ized way. This has made possible the clearing and planting ot such a large acreage during the past year and has undoubtedly oad a very appreciable effect in tne recent re-cent reduction in the price of crude rubber. i European newspapers have car- ried many articles deriding Firestone Fire-stone for , going into Africa to plant rubber. They claimed the soil was poor for rulibev grovms-and grovms-and that the natives would Trot work. The British government now realizes that Firestone v. Liberian Li-berian enterprise is anythir." but ' fl f' iit Hirvev S. r Ut'-, Iirestone,Jr. I r tiZrX. ft2Ki jfH r VM- 1' K''t Iirestone,Jr. " " ic" "Mj I : itlS' j "wjJ y Cy Siiiii I v " ' " J iii u 1 V( i ' i, i1 V 7 - ? r 1 I ft t,vJ-fe-YJ f -t - i .7 "-r V'lff' Vtl i' 1 ...tft.. JitiA j Rauio Operator Receiving First Message fFSfi -- E ' i -. , v , 'i t i X f i ' - v tl 9 j i. 1 ...tft.. JitiA j Rauio Operator Receiving First Message "f' r i, v- , v ' ' - a 4 ? f j '-t i. ? i a a folly. It is conceded bv werv- ! body that P'irestor.e has ma.le ti'ie ! gi-i-atest rubber develonment ever ! accomplished b any sine,'.- com- ! pany m the same length of time. Liberia confronts the British and Dutch rubber growers as an increasingly in-creasingly important competitor. And now the British Parliament is seriously considering the question of abandoning or at least modify-ipy modify-ipy Xitt riikh'?r rnatrirtinn n.itiry J Aerial Atop rirestone Factory AK.ron The Erilisii c!onie in the Middle Mid-dle Last have vigorui;iy expressed themscivc-s e.'oi.g tl.is 'line. Ceylon Cey-lon has vo'.ed to abandon rubb.T rustrictien entirely. In Sinap;re, Straits Settlements, 47 out of 72 rubber grow ers hav? voted to abandon rubber restriction or to modify it so it would not be effective. ef-fective. When Pre'iiier EoUIvin brought It.r restriction in the British Par-I Par-I liam..-nt, rubber was selling around j ::l cents a pound. Within a few I weeks it dropped about 18 cents I a pound. Since a variation of 1 I cent a pound means a difference of ! ov.-r r .'.'00,000 a year to Anei-i- can rubber buyers, the ie-i'ne j f rem 42 to 24 c :nts a r. k! will Imcsn 0 f-.-.-ing of Mv' -00 - ye: ' i! m -f . x i. ' " |