The Ohio Daily Express

INSIDE LIBERIA:
Important Developments Planned
By Claude A. Barnett
MONROVIA, Liberia--- A quick glance will show certain opportunities. Liberia is facing important development. It needs engineers and builders, skilled contractors, and brick or stone masons who really know construction.
Right now a Liberian delegation is in Washington seeking a loan for the nation's five year plan. Liberia wants to build a hydro-electric plant to provide and light for large areas of the nation and the new industries it expects to materialize.
This nation wants to build roads instead of trails to tap the rich interior. Bridges are needed to cross the rivers and replace the ingenious hanging vine contraptions or canoe ferries now used in many places.
For these improvements Liberia needs electricians, plumbers, and other craftsmen.
The previously mentioned Booker Washington institute will supply a number of these men in future years, but there are plenty of opportunities for American Negroes before then.
Monrovia needs a dry cleaning plant. This is a hot country. People must change clothes often. A modern installation with the latest machinery should be profitable.
There are many autos but few garages or really competent mechanics.
Some Americans already are active in Liberia. Col. John West of Washington, D. C., a physician who formerly headed the U.S. Public Health Service mission here, did not practice medicine when he left his post, but started a variety of businesses.
He runs a drug store, manufactures ice cream takes contracts to build houses, owns a radio as- sembling enterprise, and operates a standard radio broadcasting station that can be heard all over
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Important Developments Planned
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Liberia.

Housewives Enterprising

Even housewives can use initiative in Liberia. The enterprising matron in whose home, Mag Nan House, I stay, operates a refreshment stand. The wife of a Cabinet minister, she arises 6 a.m. to bake cakes and make ice cream to sell to her customers. She does a thriving business in selling snacks, and at the same time keeps up one of the most imposing homes in Monrovia.

There must be plenty of fish in the sea, yet Liberia lacks meat, fish, and other proteins. Some day somebody is going to discover how to run a fishing enterprise here. Are you a farmer? Liberia is embarking on cocoa growing in a big way. This requires capital and six years waiting before it pays off, but there is room on the ground floor agricultural experts say. There are opportunities in Liberia. What can you do expertly is the question you should ask. Then come on over, investigate, and "drop your buckets down."