The Congo Free State, like all other States, acquired possession of ownerless lands, not by bloody wars which have characterised the acquisitive and “civilising” methods of its principal mentor in morals, but only after treaty with the natives who happened to occupy those lands in their savagery. All lands which the natives occupy with at least the rudiments of peaceful industry are guaranteed to them. What for ages had been unused and undeveloped for the good of mankind, native or foreign, is now being successfully exploited by the State. Before this industrial, civil, and moral era, the vast Congo forests were not even traversed by the indolent native, so long as he could acquire his food in the sluggard idleness which to this day prevails throughout neighbouring African colonies. The Congo Free State is pursuing a policy for the preservation, of its forests, far in advance of other colonies, by enforcing the replanting of rubber trees and vines as fast as the old growth has been sapped, thus ensuring to future generations the results of Belgian foresight and wisdom. The Congo Free State does not trade as a State. Like other governments it is interested in the development of the Government domain by its inhabitants. The United States first occupied the wild lands of North America by conquest of, and treaty with, the Indians. It then threw the land open to the pre-emption of its citizens under certain restrictions and impositions; for instance, to improve the land within a certain time, to maintain its yield, to pay taxes, build roads, and in other ways contribute to the cost of administering and improving the State. [Sidenote: The State Develops the Land.] [Sidenote: The _Concessionaire_ Companies.]