Show CECIL RHODES The race of Cecil Rhodes who seemed to be the man of destiny in South Africa has about been run The raid into the Transvaal which was no doubt intended to be a coup d etat by Rhodes will be his coup de grace It seems The English people and the English press are said to be heartily ashamed of the raid Had it succee edit ed-It is very doubtful If they would have been ashamed for after all nothing succeeds like success But is was a most miserable failure and behind it all was a deep laid plot that shows Cecil Rhodes and his lieutenants in anything but an enviable light The whole thing was after the manner of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cen-turies when about the only rule recognized recog-nized among nations was that might was right But in this age of steamships steam-ships telegraphs and telephones such things cannot be Say what we may still nations today are governed in their Intercourse with one another by a code of ethics that was unknown two centuries ago This code was wantonly wanton-ly violated by Jameson and his fol I lowers but back of them was Cecil Rhodes He appears to have been the arch plotter while the men who went forward on the raid were but his tools There was a dash about Jameson and his raiders that challenged admiration although they were condemned by all But there was nothing of the dash about Rhodes His was the cool calculating cal-culating head that planned the whole proceeding Back of all was the grasping all powerful British South African comnany What these British commercial companies are the world knows too well It was such a company com-pany that won India for England and to know wihat Its methods were one has but to read Burkes speech on Warren Hastings and Macaulays essay on him The history of the British in India is brilliant and romantic ro-mantic but none the less a history of oppression On the American continent conti-nent one of these British companies of adventurers dominated an area of country greater than that of the United States today The day has gone by when such things can be though no doubt Rhodes has kept constantly con-stantly before him the ideals of the men Who conquered India and con trolled the Hudson Bay company They are fine ideals of a heroism that is gone forever and that is wholly impracticable im-practicable today What the result of all this Transvaal Trans-vaal trouble will be no one can say It may or may not lead to interna jtional complications Rhodes will undoubtedly un-doubtedly be removed and will cease ito i-to be a factor in British South African politics but that the charter of the British South African company will be forfeited Is not at all probable In the meantime President Kruger remains master of the situation and hIs star shows no signs of waning |