E.D. Morel  discovered that most if the items shipped to Congo had nothing to do with trade:

“On the face of the import statistics, the natives were getting nothing or next to nothing. How, then, was this rubber and ivory being acquired? Certainly not by commercial dealing. Nothing was going in to pay for what was coming out.” 

Morel felt he had “stumbled upon a secret society of murderers.”

Appalled at the discovery that his own employer seemed to be promoting an abusive system and benefitting from unfree trade, Morel set up the task of launching an effective movement for change. Morel slowly moved from the role of an organizer of others to a spokesman for the cause. 

In 1902 he made his first public speech on the topic charging that, disguise it as they might, the Congo Free State had “established official slavery.”

Morel discovered that his employers were involved and benefiting from trade. He believed that the problem in the structure of Congo Free State is that the Congolese had no rights to do anything. Leopold II and his Force Publique  took over their land and prohibited the Congolese from selling fruits. Additionally, Leopold II determined all the prices and wages in Congo. Morel  was determined to expose the inhuman acts that happened in the Congo by making public speeches, photographs of Congolese, wrote reports etc.w

Colonialism in the Congo: Conquest, Conflict, and Commerce. Brown University, 2005.,