122 JOURNEY WITHOUT MAPS

authority was much the same as the American
President's. He said it was more complete. "Once
elected/' he said, "and in charge of the machine"—
words ran away with him; something candid and
childlike and excited continually peeped through
the politician's dignified phrases—"why then, I'm
boss of the whole show."

Liberian politics were like a crap game played with
loaded dice. But in the past it had been the custom
to give the other fellow a chance with the dice. There
was a kind of unwritten law that the President could
take two terms of office and then he had to let
another man in to pick the spoils. It was a question
of letting, for, as Mr. Barclay said, the President was
boss of the whole show; the newspapers were his;
most important of all, he printed and distributed the
ballot papers. When Mr. King was returned in 1928
he had a majority over his opponent, Mr. Faulkner,
of 600,000, although the whole electoral roll
amounted to less than 15,000. But Barclay was alter-
ing that; he wasn't playing fair in his opponent's
eyes; he was treating politics seriously and he has
some claim to be known as the Republic's first
dictator. The term of office had hitherto been four
years, but Mr. Barclay was to hold a plebiscite at the
same time as the presidential election and increase
the term to eight years. He could use the same means
to put that through as he could put through a
fabulous majority: he had the printing press. He
had, too, the Civil Service. He explained to me, beam-
ing with gold-rimmed benevolence, how he had
cleaned it up and removed it from political influence,
Jiad instituted examinations in place of nominations.