Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/179

 THE NEGRO RACE AND EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION 163

result of the changed economic conditions, will throw a larger population into the towns, and will lead to a parceling-out of the estates among peasant holders. Among the negroes in central and west Africa the increased opportunity of the slaves for gain- ing wealth is also tending to break down the system.

With the gradual disappearance of slavery, the question arises what system of labor organization is to take its place. The importation of contract labor from China and India is far too costly in most parts of Africa to become a general system. In western Africa it is made well-nigh impossible on account of the unfavorable climatic conditions. When it was attempted to use coolie labor in the French Congo, the mortality among the laborers ran as high as 70 per cent. In east Africa alone has Hindu contract labor been used successfully. Another method of gaining an adequate labor supply is to sanction labor contracts with the natives, or force them to work by imposing heavy taxes upon them. The high hut-taxes of southern Africa are levied for this purpose, as the only way in which the native can get the cur- rency for paying his taxes is by working for white men in the mines or on the farms. In more direct fashion, the Glen Grey Act levies a tax of ten shillings upon every native who has not worked outside of his district for three months in the year. The extension of this peculiar use of fiscal methods to central and west Africa is often advocated, and a moderate hut-tax has already been intro- duced in many colonies on the west coast; but, as the conditions in these regions are so utterly different from those which prevail in white man's Africa, the initiation of methods which do not pass without challenge even in the Rhodesian sphere would certainty be unwise, and would probably invite disastrous consequences.

While it is true that the natives of the tropical regions of Africa are at present not much inclined to labor, there are still certain tribes, like the Krumen and the Hausas, and the agricul- tural populations under Mohammedan rule, that prove the capa- city of the African for toil under proper economic conditions. Before all, there is one prominent fact which must not be over- looked in this matter : with the establishment of peace throughout Africa, with the stoppage of the murderous slave-raids and of