Richard Pearson Strong Diary: July 15, 1926

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

7/15/26

Transcription

Thursday, July 15th.

All our supplies, arms and ammunition are now stored down stairs. We are only short two boxes, one of some medical supplies and another of some powdered milk George ordered in London. These were not marked with the shipping agents name. We are certainly fortunate to have lost practically nothing. The day has been spent largely in unpacking and repacking boxes for the interior. We shall only take about half of some supplies with us, the remainder being for Central Africa. I went to the legation to arrange further with Mr. Clarke and the Secretary of the Interior about going into the interior and about gun licenses and residence papers. I also called on “President” Cassell of “Monrovia College”. I have arranged with him to make a medical survey of all the children in the “College” on our return to Monrovia, to examine them for malaria and other parasites. He says there are 120 pupils. The schools are now closed for vacation and reopen in August. He asked if I thought there would be any opportunity to affiliate with Harvard University so that their students could receive here a Harvard Degree!! He thought we might send the examination questions out here for the students to take the examinations. One of his graduates is employed here in the dispensary and while he can read and write, he knows very little arithmetic. I naturally could not encourage “President” Cassell in this respect. I told him I knew of no American University which gave a regular degree outside its walls. I told him of the Rockefeller fellowships for foreign students to come to our universities and said if he had a properly trained student it was possible that one of these might be secured. This man (Mr. Cassell) had visited the United States and been in Boston and heard the famous Lowell-Lodge debate (in 1921 was it not?) It was therefore difficult to follow his line of thought. He was evidently quite serious about the Harvard degree being granted to the students of “Monrovia College,” where courses however are not up to the standard of an American high school. I visited the one hospital here a few days ago. It is under the government. It is a large airy building with a number of rooms containing two beds each. There were only some half dozen patients in the hospital, a Dr. (?) Dinguald in charge. The rooms were clean, apparently patients are not encouraged to enter it. Perhaps the superintendent takes his salary from the amount appropriated for the maintenance of the hospital and patients. If there are few patients their food of course costs very little.

Type

Diary

Citation

Richard Pearson Strong, “Richard Pearson Strong Diary: July 15, 1926,” A Liberian Journey: History, Memory, and the Making of a Nation, accessed March 28, 2024, https://liberianhistory.org/items/show/1111.