text: The United States government under President Harding proposed anew (after an attempt made during World War I from Liberian President Howard to get a loan from the previous Woodrow Wilson Administration) to Congress a $5million loan to Liberia. The House of Representatives approval the loan in a vote of 148–139, but the Senate voted 42–32 against giving the loan. This created great disappointment and a sense of desperation among Liberian officials, who worried that British and French designs on their country might now prove unstoppable.  Liberia had become a charter member of the League of Nations in 1919, and the Liberian government was determined to safeguard its sovereignty.
  Firestone Rubber Company
  In 1925, Firestone Rubber Company agreed to a 99-year lease of  of land in Liberia in order to grow rubber on it. Firestone began exporting rubber from Liberia in 1934. The Liberian economy soon came to depend on it. Firestone's subsidiary Finance Corporation of America gave a $5million loan to the Liberian government, which Liberia intended to use to consolidate and bond debts and fund public improvements. Under the terms of the loan, the President of the United States appointed a financial advisor to Liberia who had the power to approve and disapprove all expenditures by the Liberian government. The Liberian government was also required to use $2.5million of the loan to purchase bonds at a tenpercent markup. Of the remainder, over $1.1million went toward loan repayments on a 1912 loan from the U.S. As a result, very little of the proceeds of the 1934 loan were available to help the country. Meanwhile, the loan repayments constituted 40percent of the Liberian government's annual income.