Show PASSING OF THE BOERS War is on in the Transvaal in earnest earn-est Krugers ultimatum was disregarded disre-garded and the Beers saw no alternative alterna-tive but to fight The British crowded and the Dutchmen struck Blood has been spilled and the scent of It will arouse the savage passions of both sides No one questions the outcome of the struggle The only thing that can save the Boers from defeat and perhaps extermination is foreign in tervention There is talk of this but it will Jikely end in talk It was a hard choice the British gave the Bo rs national suicide or death at the hands of another Every measure adopted by the BooTs for selfpreser vation was necessarily offensive and designedly oppressive There was no way for them to placate the Outlanders Outland-ers and survive the advantage it woul < give to the enemies of their government govern-ment It was suicide to conciliate and it is death to war Yield or fight the Boers were doomed Whit a Choice between such alternatives alterna-tives the Boers had but one course open They may acSiieve new distinction distinc-tion upon the field of battle they may make friends by heroic resistance they may leave a record at least which will Shine when they are gone The world admires pluck and daring and applauds it whether it be found among the fuzzy wuzzys the Igorrotes the Ta gals or the Boers Submission to the terms of Great Britain however justified jus-tified by the spirit of the times would have Insured peace perhaps and many a power of more advanced but effete civilization would have yielded and perished per-IShed by slow stages in consequence There is something in the pious courage cour-age and dogged determination of these peasnntsVto adm1ret and something their tragic history that insures them f fi6 J fi JiijMliL a generous share of human sympathy The rich and the powerful have plenty of defenders The worldis full of sycophants sy-cophants groveling at the feet of might It is only fair and justo th at the cause of the poor and the weak should be presented pre-sented nail that mankind should see the other side I For several years a systematic camp cam-p lgn has been carried on against the Boers if Sir Vil1iam Vernon Harcourt may be relied upon as an authority The civilized world has been flooded with literature designed to discredit the Boers and injure their cause Ignorant Ig-norant and isolated they were clearly outmatched In suCh a conflict < S > < S > < 3 > It appears from a perusal of the leading lead-ing newspapers of the United States and from the utterances of public men that those who lean to expansion by conquest in this country are those who sympathize most with England in the pending conflict and that those who are opposed to forcible expansion are able to see the other side In order to be fair and just One should Jay aside personal preferences race sympathies and political considerations to judge the case upon its meritsand each party to the controversy upon his record What is the excuse for war Stripped of all diplomatic verbiage the issue may be boiled down to this Have the Boers the right to govern themselves and the tend theysettled and appropriated with as much right as England ever took afoot a-foot of African scril in their own way and after their own ideals or Should England change the Bber government to suit herself andher subjects 0 < 5 > f Great Britain assumes the right to in tertere with the chosen lot of the Dutch peasants because their government is crude and unsatisfactory to the English Eng-lish und Americans who have settled in the Transvaal because the Boers are ignorant and nonprogressive because be-cause the Boers nave burdened the Outlanders with taxation because the I right of franchise has been denied the I Outlanders except under conditions prescribed by the raad because the Boer government opposed to development develop-ment and levies prohibitory taxes on commerce Let us review these complaints of the English and other Outlandevs differences differ-ences which the Boers were willing to submit t arbitration tribunal but which Great Britain insists upon settling set-tling in the cruel court of might What if the Boer government isnt up to the British standard It wasnt established for the British race It suits its founders and their descendants descend-ants It has been the practice for civilized civil-ized powers to seize and occupy territories terri-tories belonging to savage raves but in such cases the people were nomads ferocious fe-rocious immoral and lawless if the spoliation was sanctioned by the common com-mon consent of humanity This cannot be said of the Boers They may be ignorant ig-norant and nonprogressive but they are generally honest devout industrious industri-ous and grimly religious as Sydney Brooks says inhis i defense of the English Eng-lish Gre Britain has seized islands and continents for the sake of civilization civiliza-tion and Christianity and has substituted substi-tuted garrison rule for savage supremacy suprem-acy with beneficial results to mankind and to the inhabitants themselves but it cant be said ihi the Transvaal The people are5rim1y religious they are ftugboVniy honest they haVe f a strong sense of juiti e they have demonstrated demonstrat-ed their knowledge of international l deportment de-portment and have never gone beyond their border lireeti to make or seek trouble they have confined their oppression op-pression of outsiders to legislation > and police regulations they are strong in domestic ties and Jove of country This too is admitted by Mr Brooks whose presentationof tba English sideis cbmmendedby the New York Tribune an English sympathizer as one of the ablest yet published < s > > < SIn > > S-In this rugged race are found the essenfial notions of morality as well as the gcrnr of civilization They are primitive and nonprogressive because they are imbued with a pious distrust of rapidtransit progress and the trimmings trim-mings of modern civilization They sought a home in the wilderness as monks seek the cloister to shut themselves them-selves in from the world andto keep aloof from the temptations and follies which more sophisticated people cannot resist Their oddities aversion to book learning and old fashioned ways please them and may be adhered to as a religious re-ligious principle something that should not be inexplicable to these who know the tragic story of this doomedrace of pioneers We are told that heavy burdens have been placed upon the mining industryt that prohibitory taxes have been levied oni commerce and development This is undoubtedly a correct representation representa-tion of conditions in the Transvaal But there is a Boer side to this contention con-tention and it happens to be the human hu-man side It was in obedience to the law of self preservation that the Boers took measures to discourage immigration immigra-tion They scented danger to their independence in-dependence in the influx of foreigners Nor was it altogether a matter of intuition in-tuition Bitter experience had left its memories They had been driven into unknown regions twice befQre In the interest of their independence they repelled re-pelled the invasion as best they could but with the weapons of civilization with tyranny with injustice with extortion ex-tortion but always backed by legislation legisla-tion and always with a wide open exit for all foreigners who didnt like their methods Few states so threatened have shown such forbearance and such an unwillingness to resort to harsher means < S > < i > < 0 It is alleged that prohibitory taxes commerce retardsthe development of the country and thereby injure British Brit-ish interests in the Transvaal If this is a proper cause tot war foreign comic tri S arc entitled to make war upon the United States becausetof Its tariff restrictions and prohibitions uifim commerce com-merce It is as much the right of the Transvaal government to place burdens bur-dens upon certain industries for the benefit of others or to levy taxes in restraint of trade as ittWaEI fie right of this republic to enact and enforce the Dingle law The chief argument Qf nearly all American champions of British invasion inva-sion is that the Outlanders in the Transvaal outnumber the Boers almost al-most two to one that they are taxed and refused representation Under certain cer-tain conditions prescribed by the Boer government the Outlanders would be given the right of suffrage This concession con-cession has already been made But what do the English base this claim of majority rule upon It appeals I to Americans naturally for they believe in itTaml praclice ItT No government 1 t I frWI 11 J is under obligations however to put I the ballot in the hands of aliens when thosa aliens hold the natives in contempt con-tempt and can have no other object In attaining the voting privilege than tb overthrovthe existing government and set up one of their own which in this instance would mean the end of the Boers and the formation of another British dependency There something i ridiculous1 anyhow in Great Britains going to war to assert the right of a majority to rule when in India less than 100000 Englishmen govern 300000 000 native inhabitants She is just as ready to defend the right of a foreign majority in the Transvaal as she Is to defend a foreign minority in Hindoo stan and the Aery apparent inconsistency inconsist-ency of this attitude leaves no foundation founda-tion Englands claim 000 That England has a perfect right to protect the lives the liberty and the property of her subjects in foreign lands none will dispute That she has just grievances against the Transvaal governmentis generally admitted But all their differences could have been settled by arbitration and would nave been settled in this way were the TransAaal as powerful as is the United States War decides nothing except the superiority of strength and strategy and arbitration is a mockery if its purpose pur-pose be not to preserve the weak from the rapacity of the strong The fact I that President Kruger agreed to leave the whole affair to an international tribunal and that Secretary Chamberlain Chamber-lain refused on account of a false claim and a false pride prompts this tribute to the character and cause of a poor and passing republicthat of the doomed doom-ed yet defiant Boers |